The Low-Down on Squatting

The barbell squat should be your desert island exercise. If you had to choose one exercise to do for the rest of your life it should be the squat. The barbell squat will build a fantastic platform for overall body strength. While focussing on your leg power, the barbell squat will also engage many muscles head to toe. Done properly, it will build a massive leg power, stronger back, and a powerful core. However, if done improperly, it can cause injury, irritating pain, and muscular imbalance. The squat is not by any means hard to learn, or unsafe to learn on your own, but it is imperative that you take a smart and well-informed approach to learning this exercise. Some important aspects to pay close attention to are bar position, depth, and platform.

Bar Position is something determined by your personal comfort, preference, and goals. If you look at the training regimen of many athletes, be it Olympic weightlifters, rugby pros, and bobsled powerhouses, you will often find that they use a higher bar position in the squat. A high bar position is placed on the traps, on or above the shoulder line. This bar position allows for a deeper squat, and thus a longer range of motion. It will build power and strength more effectively than other squats but is a harder movement and therefore you won’t be able to move your maximal weight. If your goal is athletic performance, the higher bar and the deeper squat is going to pay off the most. If competitive powerlifting is your goal, and maximum weight movement is your goal, you’re going to want a lower bar position.

The low bar squat is also a very effective strength building position. The bar is positioned below the shoulder line and requires a wider grip and an engaged upper back. Shoulder flexibility is a consideration in this movement as the arms are expected to grip wider and sustain a slightly more demanding shoulder position than higher bar squats. The lower bar allows for a slight mechanical advantage and a lower range of motion that allows for more weight to be moved, which is why it is the primary method of squatting in a powerlifting competition. The feet are often pushed out a bit wider and the depth is not as exaggerated, powerlifters often only hit the immediate parallel to abide by the rules of competition. This method is not just for competition, it is also a good way of building overall strength and loading heavy weights on your back.

The front squat is another method, seen less often and is likely going to be the hardest method for loading heavy weights on. It is the most upright squat and is a very taxing motion. Depth and flexibility are maximized in this movement and it requires a flexible upper and lower body. The front squat is also utilized by elite athletes as it carries over well to sport. It develops power and overall strength while maintaining flexibility and without crushing your back. It is a primary workout for Olympic weightlifters as the position is immediately related to the snatch and the clean and jerk.

All of these are fantastic movements that will make your legs powerful and large. While learning these movements, it is imperative to first focus on form rather than numbers. You will thank yourself later in life if you do it right the first time. Many lifters start off with bad habits and find later on that they must relearn the technique to move past plateaus, often wasting time resetting to lower weights in order to figure out how to unlearn bad habits and move forward. Others are punished by injury and time out of training. Leave the ego out of the gym and do it right the first time. There has never been and never will be shame in putting an empty barbell on your back and learning something properly from the ground up.