The squat is one of the foundational exercises recommended by Champion of Aging due to its carryover benefits to a wide range of activities, including living a high quality of life.
The squat uses big muscles around your hips and legs, teaches and improves balance, and trains one of the most fundamental movements for athletics and mobility.
Few exercises you can do in the gym require as much practice and coordination or give you as much practical benefit as a well-executed squat.
There are several variations of the squat, the biggest differences being driven by the placement of the barbell and implementation of the squat in a training program.
Many similar muscles are also trained in the act of standing from a lying position or rising from a chair, and this is a common way to train and test the squat in frail people.
At Champion of Aging, when we refer to the squat, we are referring to the low bar version of the exercise, where the barbell is placed lower on the back.
By placing the bar lower on the back, the trainee can handle more weight, it’s easier to train at full depth, and it requires less ankle mobility than other versions of the squat.
Low bar squat
Some trainees, including myself, will find it difficult to place the bar in this position on the back, usually due to shoulder mobility issues.
As a result, they can either train a different version of the squat, or employ the use of a safety squat bar.
Proper Balance in the Squat
The lifter is best able to press through the floor when they are in balance.
This means that the trainee’s weight should be centered over the middle of the foot throughout the movement.
Just a small deviation away from the center of the foot can create significant difficulty in performing the lift.
As a result of this, in addition to being a strength exercise, the squat is a balance and coordination exercise.
Additionally, the lifter has to consider the balance of the bar on the back.
The bar’s weight directly affects the balance of the whole system.
If the bar moves while the lifter is moving, the brain is suddenly faced with a much more complicated problem—tracking two moving centers of mass and trying to keep them over the midfoot.
A good squat keeps the bar at the same spot on the back throughout the set with as rigid a back as possible.
Setup for the squat
Over-flexed wrist
While the shoulders and arms are not actively being trained in the squat, they are critical for maintaining the bar in the proper position on the back.
To set up, take as narrow a grip as you can that doesn’t hurt your wrist, elbows, or shoulders or force you to place upward pressure on the bar.
Narrowing the grip helps to contract the traps and retract the scapulae. This forms a muscular “shelf” so to speak, upon which the bar will rest.
For most new lifters, we want the wrists straight, with the body of the wrist behind the downwards force of the bar.
It is possible to be incorrect in both directions… the wrist may be over-extended or the wrist is over-flexed.
The over-flexed position is the worst of those two positions as the bar will then put significant pressure on the wrist when the weight gets heavy.
In regard to the thumb, it is best to place the thumb on top of the bar, rather than wrapped around the bar. Wrapping the thumb around the bar will have a tendency to put too much pressure on the wrist, similar to the over-flexed wrist position.
The rest of the squat setup is as follows:
- Heels shoulder-width apart
- Toes pointed outwards, about 30 degrees from straight forward
- Feet approximately symmetrical
- Hips and knees fully extended
- Eye gaze on the floor 4-6 feet in front of the lifter
Stance width
There is a range of workable stance widths for each lifter, and some lifters will perform better with wider or narrower stances.
With that said, a stance that is too wide may result in difficulty reaching full depth at the bottom of the squat and a stance that is too narrow may also result in depth issues as the hips may get “bunched up.”
Toe Angle
This is the most variable of all the stance variables.
A correct toe angle enables the lifter to keep balance and helps keep the knees over the toes. Narrower stances usually benefit from more-forward toe angles and vice versa.
Experiment with what’s comfortable for you.
Also, the toe angle for each foot should be similar, or symmetrical.
Eye Gaze
As mentioned, we want to focus our eyes on a spot on the floor that is 4 to 6 feet in front of us. The reason for this is that the upper and middle part of the spine will go where the eyes go.
If you are looking too close in front of you, you may bend your upper back too much downward. This could cause the bar to roll up the neck.
Conversely, if you are looking upward, your neck may bend too much backward.
This has a tendency to cause the lifter to lift the chest too soon out of the bottom of the squat, which puts more pressure on the quads and knees.
Executing the squat
From the starting position, you will take a big breath and brace hard (tighten your core as if holding a plank position), then bend the hips and knees at the same time.
While holding the spine in rigid extension, you will descend, bending forward until (somewhere within the first ⅓–⅔ of the lift) you reach the back angle you will achieve at the bottom of the squat.
From that point, the back angle should remain relatively constant through the final descent and rebound out of the bottom.
You will press the knees out, holding them over the toes throughout the lift, and maintain that pressure through the squat.
On the ascent, you will keep your back angle constant for as long as possible, staying as bent over as you went into the bottom until the last ½-⅓ of the squat, where you will stand up to the finish.
Below is a video where Mark Rippetoe of Starting Strength demonstrates how to perform the squat.
Final Thoughts
I consider the squat to be the best exercise for building strength and overall fitness and health.
This is even the case if you have physical issues that may prevent you from loading it with significant weight.
It’s still a great movement pattern to train, even with light weight, due to its carryover into everyday life.
I’ve had my own personal struggles with this exercise due to shoulder and back issues.
As a result, I’ve shifted my goals away from trying to lift as much weight as possible with this movement to training it with lighter weight and higher reps to keep the muscles stimulated.
With that said, there are alternative exercises that we discuss in our Champion of Aging program.
The key to becoming a Champion of Aging is to get started with your training, and focus significant attention on training your legs, hips and back, as they are key to maintaining a high quality of life into an advanced age.
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