Things To Remember When Squatting

Squats have a reputation with the unenlightened (people who don't squat!!) as being bad for your body. Usual complaints are "they're bad for your knees" "they hurt your shoulders" blah blah blah...
If you squat properly and regularly, your fitness and strength with jump forward in leaps and bounds. The movement of squatting is something your body is designed to do, even looking from just a mechanical perspective. All the joints bend in the right direction! Keep in mind these few pointers and you will come to no harm while squatting.

• Warm Up- exercising any of your muscles without warming up is a recipe for disaster. Do a short stint on the treadmill first, then STRETCH! Most people miss out this vital part of warming up, its considered boring and pointless. When you have 200 kilos on your back, you want your muscle to working in perfect order.


• Bend your knees, not your back- many new squatters have a habit of bending at their hips to try to get the weight lower. Ideally, you want to keep your back as static as possible. The power needs to come from your legs.


• Page 3- a good example of how to hold yourself when squatting can be taken from page 3 of the Sun newspaper. Chest out, bum out, head up. Try to look about 15-20 degrees above parallel. This will bring your head and shoulders up and help keep your chest forward and your back straight. Bum out means think about pushing your butt backwards, not bending your knees. If you think about this you are more likely to keep your back strong.


• Bar placement- find a place to rest the bar on your back that is comfortable. To begin with you may find that on top of your shoulders/traps is best, but after a while I would recommend resting the bar a bit lower, just below the tops of your traps and on the very tops of your triceps. This improves your back position and really helps out when the weight starts to go up


• Feet- its easy to forget about your feet. Most people jus use them for standing on. When squatting, they are the power transfer point from your legs to the floor. Place your feet about shoulders width apart, facing forwards or slightly out. When pushing at the bottom of the movement, try to push your feet through the floor.


• Get angry- you legs are strong, they can take a lot, get pushing!

Hopefully these few tips will help improve your squatting and help you become even more of a beast than you already are!!

Posted in: Exercise