How To Properly Do a Squat: The 3 Step System To Master The Squat Instantly

In this video/ article I’ll show you how to squat properly.

We’re going to cover the foundation of the movement including where to put your feet, how to hold the bar and how to properly brace so you can lift the most weight possible.

The squat is a foundational movement and everyone should know how to properly do a squat safely.

The first thing you need to master is where to put your hands on the bar.

Placing your hands in the wrong place will stop you from getting your  upper back tight.

Without a tight upper back you’re not going to have a stable platform to rest the bar on.

Without that you won’t be able to put the force you’re generating with your legs into moving the bar.

Which could cost you 5-10kgs on your lift!

Where you place your hands depends on which type of squat you’re going to do.

With the high bar squat then your hands will be narrower (just outside your shoulders). 

A high bar squat places the bar just above the top of your shoulder blades and is more useful for lifters who are going to be olympic weightlifting or want to in the future.

A high bar squat is also more useful if you want to target your quads more with squat.

Placing your hands just outside your shoulders and resting the bar on top of the shoulder blades is perfect for this variation.

For the low bar squat, you’ll need to move your hands slightly wider than shoulder width (about 5-10cm wider). 

There will be some variation here from person to person so you will have to experiment with the width that’s most comfortable for you.

The bar will actually rest on top of your shoulder blade on the shelf of the top of the rotator cuff muscles.

The low bar squat is more useful if you’re going to be powerlifting, if you want to target the glutes in addition to the quads or if you want to lift the most weight possible*.

*For some people they will find that they can lift more weight with the high bar squat but in general a low bar squat will be the most effective for lifting the most weight for most people.

Once you have the width of your hands correct, you should open the chest as much as possible (puff it out like a parrot) to keep the upper back tight and imagine trying to bend the bar by rotating your hands to generate tension in your upper back.

Once you’ve got your hands wrapped around the bar and secured on your back it’s time to get your feet sorted.

Your feet should be just outside shoulder width.

And your feet can be turned out anywhere from 10-30 degrees of rotation.

How wide and how much rotation will be completely unique to you and it will be best to experiment with a few different positions especially if you’re just starting out.

A great way to try this is to do a goblet squat and sit in the bottom of the hole adjusting the width and turnout of your feet to see what’s most comfortable for you.

You’ll find that there’s a position that allows you to get good depth and still feels comfortable.

The exact position of your feet may change over time as you get stronger, your technique improves and you get more mobile.

The best way to choose the position is to do what feels most comfortable for you.

The depth that you get and the width you’re able to achieve that will depend on the shape of your hip socket and the angle of your femur.

So don’t copy someone else’s position because it works for them, experiment with your own positions to find what works best for you.

Now we’ve got your hands and feet sorted let’s talk about bracing.

A strong brace is essential to doing a heavy squat.

The purpose of bracing is to create tension in the stomach and chest so that all of the force you generate in the legs is transferred into the bar.

The more force you can put into the bar, the more weight you will be able to lift.

Breathing in deeply and holding your breath (the valsalva maneuver ) is the best way to generate the most tension.

The idea is to breathe deeply into your stomach (like someone is about to punch you there).

Then hold that breath as you lower down into the hole of the squat and come back up.

You should breathe out after you get past the sticking point on the way back up.

If you’re not sure where this is yet, it’s around ¾ of the way up.

To be safe when you’re first learning to brace you can breathe out once you get all the way to the top of the rep and then breathe back in before the next rep.

You shouldn’t be breathing in on the way down or breathing out before the sticking point as you will lose tension and this will lower how much weight you can lift.

Now you know how to properly do a squat!

If you’re struggling to learn how to squat, click the link below to schedule a free 30 minute strategy call with me now.

We’ll dig into the exact issue that’s stopping you from progressing and come up with a plan for you to address it so you can safely squat more weight and hit PBs!