Squats, the king of exercises. The superior movement. The nectar of life. If there was one exercise that I could do for the rest of my life it would be squats hands down. Here's why:
Contradictory to what you may believe, the squat is a full body movement. If you are performing a back squat, with a loaded bar on your back, there isn't one muscle group that isn't firing. Sure, the main movers are your quads, glutes, hamstrings. Everything else is stabilizing like a rock from a Chevy commercial.
The amount of physical work that gets put into squatting is tremendous. To go from point A, standing, to point B, hips at or below your knees, back up to point A is WORK! Literally:
When you look at any lift or exercise you can think of it as a chain. Many different muscle are working together in harmony to make magic happen, so that you can squat the house. Each muscle group is a link in this squat chain.
If you can get a friend to watch, or even take a quick video of your squat at various angles, you can find the weakest link in the chain and attack it with a katana.
Given the weight on the bar must be fairly heavy for you, and you must go to or near failure.
Listed below are some of the most common points of failure I see on a regular basis. I've included how to fix these weak links, so that we can start building some steel cables!
Starting to fall forward at the waist:
The number one weakest link is the low back, your core.
How to fix it:
Back extension, goodmornining, RDLs, reverse hypers, planks, walk 2 miles with a weighted vest.
Shoulders rounded forward, upper back not tight, chest falling forward:
Upper back weakness, improper mechanics.
How to fit it:
When you squat grip the bar as hard as you can and try to pull it apart and break it in half at the same time. This will activate all your spinal erector muscles so you can stay TIGHT!
Band pull apart, face pulls, horizontal rows, rear delt rows.
One shoulder below the other, leaning to one side more then the other:
Weak core - one side more then the other, possible knee buckling in - weak glute mead, eyes / head not straight forward - distracted.
How to fix it:
Spread the floor with your feet - knees out - especially the one possible knee that is buckling more then the other, keep your eyes forward on the horizon - head in line with your spine - focus.
Side planks, side bends, band X walks, clam shells, lateral sled walks.
Stuck at the bottom, can't get back up:
Weak quads, and glutes
How to fit it:
Pause box squats - sit on the box stay tight - come up quick, seated box jumps, seated broad jumps, build up the volume of squats at a lighter weight after you go heavy.
Improper muscle groups firing
How to fix it:
Squat with a band around your waist pulling you TOWARD the side your hips shift to. This will force you to fire the muscle group you want to get you centered up.
Knees excessively over toes, causing frontal knee pain
Improper squatting mechanics.
How to fix it:
Wall squats - toes up against a wall - sit back with your hips first. This will force you to push your hips back, if your knees go first they will hit the wall and you wont go anywhere.
The list goes on...
That's it for now! Happy squatting. If you'd like to send me your squatting videos I would be happy to help your find your weakest link.
Great Article!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. Increasing the size of large muscle groups also has the added benefit of increasing testosterone. Helping you to build other muscles more quickly!