How To Do The Squat Exercise The Right Way

The squat is a great strength-builder and should be a regular in any good resistance training program.

Squats work the major muscle groups in your thighs: your glutes, quads, and hamstrings, as well as your core muscles.

Training squats can give you good-looking legs, but they’re important for so much more than that. If you ever need to move furniture, pick up your kids, or lift a heavy box from the floor, training squats will give you the strength.

Squats are also a tough exercise, and unfortunately, a lot of people do their squats wrong. Even worse, I’ve seen too many people doing bad form squats while holding dumbbells or with a barbell on their back. That’s ineffective at best, and even potentially dangerous.

It’s very important to learn how to do a proper bodyweight squat to prevent injury and to build a solid foundation of strength. Once you master the bodyweight squat, you can start adding weight and doing more advanced variations.

How to do a Bodyweight Squat: 

• Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width apart and your toes pointed slightly outward. Look straight ahead, focusing on a spot in front of you. Extend your arms out in front of you to help with balance.

• Brace your core.

• Start the movement by pushing your hips back, then bend your knees to lower your body towards the floor. Imagine you’re sitting back and down into a chair.

• Keep your chest and shoulders up, don’t let them round or hunch forward.

• Keep your knees in line with your feet, don’t let them move inwards towards each other.

• Lower yourself, slowly and under control, until the crease of your hips is at the same level or lower than your knees.

• Pause for a moment at the bottom.

• Drive through your heels to return your body to the top position.

This is a deceptively difficult movement. The most common mistakes I see are not squatting to the full depth (hips below the knees), heels coming off the floor, knees caving inwards, lower back rounding, too much lean forward at the waist, and dropping down to the bottom position instead of lowering the body under control.

Keep in mind that everyone’s squat will look a little different, depending on their limb length and mobility.

That’s the case with all exercises, but for some reason, the squat tends to bring out more internet form critics than many other exercises.

Don’t worry about your squat looking perfect, focus on moving your body under control and squatting as deep as you can.

Many people are unable to perform a bodyweight squat properly, but try to do weighted squats anyway.

That’s trying to build strength on a weak foundation, and it’s not a good idea. Take the time to learn how to do perfect bodyweight squats before moving to weighted squats, and you’ll make safe and consistent strength gains once you start adding weight.

If you can’t do a good bodyweight squat yet, train with these exercises:

Counterbalanced Squat

Many people struggle to balance and keep their weight on their heels when doing squats, so they’re unable to do a full-depth squat, or they compensate by leaning forward too much.

To help correct this problem, use a solid object to help you balance. Hold onto a sturdy doorframe, pole, table leg, suspension trainer, etc. in front of you and lower yourself into the bottom squat position using the standard bodyweight squat technique.

Focus on shifting your weight back over your midfoot and heels, using your grip on the doorframe to help hold yourself in a stable position.

Try to minimize the amount of assistance you need to use and focus on keeping your body tight as you hold the bottom position for 5-10 seconds, then push through your heels to return to the top position.

For many people, lowering themselves down to the bottom position is the hardest part in terms of balancing their weight.

If that’s the case for you, use your grip on the doorframe to keep yourself stable while lowering down, then try to use as little assistance as possible when returning yourself to the top position. Over time, gradually decrease the amount of help you need from the doorframe until you can perform the full movement on your own.

How will this help?

The counterbalanced squat introduces the entire squat movement pattern, while using your hands to provide added stability. Practicing this movement and gradually decreasing the amount of extra support you need will help ingrain the movement pattern and build the core and lower body strength you need to squat properly.

Box Squat

Find a sturdy box, bench, or chair. Stand in front of the box with your back to it and perform a slow and controlled squat until you reach the box. At first, you can sit all the way down. As you get stronger, try to just touch the box with your glutes before standing up.

Focus on shifting your weight back into your heels. Pause for a moment before pushing through your heels to return to the top position.

Gradually lower the height as you become more comfortable and proficient, until you’re performing full squats.

How will this help?

Similar to the counterbalanced squat, this variation helps you focus on keeping your weight back and gradually building the motor control and strength you need for the full squat.

Squatting down to a sturdy box, bench, or chair provides a mental and physical safety net: if you do lose your balance and fall backwards you can just sit down.

Squat Progressions:

Once you’ve perfected your bodyweight squat form, there are many ways to progress. Start by adding resistance with goblet squats (holding a dumbbell close to your chest), then move to barbell squats. You can also work on a more advanced bodyweight squat variation, like the pistol squat.

Stretches and Mobility Exercises

Issues with flexibility in the hips and ankles can make it tough for many people to do a full squat. If you have those issues, regular stretching and mobility exercises to help improve your flexibility are important.

Even if you don’t have trouble with flexibility or mobility, it’s always a good idea to stretch and perform mobility drills to keep your muscles and joints healthy and prevent pain or injury.

Foam rolling can also be helpful for increasing mobility. Try rolling (or using a lacrosse ball) over your glutes, calves, and feet to help loosen up problem areas.

You can also elevate your heels during your squats if you have ankle mobility issues. Place a small weight plate (like a 5lb plate) under each heel. Stand with your toes on the floor and your heels on the plate. You should find it easier to get a deeper squat that way.

If You Need Help

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