Learn How to Squat
If you’ve ever struggled to get out of a chair or off the toilet, you likely need to strengthen your legs and work on your squat technique.
The squat is an exercise that mimics the movement of sitting down and standing up.
Developing a strong squat can improve your balance & coordination and reduce your risk of falling and getting injured. You’ll also be more likely to be able to get off the toilet by yourself when you’re 80.
What is the Squat?
Squats are a functional, full-body exercise that involve lowering your body down into a seated position and then standing back up. They primarily engage the lower body muscles, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, while also activating the core, lower back, and upper body to a certain extent.
It’s important to include a variation of the squats in your resistance training for a number of reasons:
Full-body Strength: Squats engage multiple muscle groups simultaneously, making them an efficient exercise for building strength and muscle mass throughout your body. The compound nature of squats stimulates the release of growth hormones, leading to overall muscle growth and improved body composition.
Functional Fitness: Since squats mimic everyday movements like sitting down and standing up, practicing them can enhance your overall functional fitness and make daily activities easier. Strong leg and core muscles developed through squats can also improve your stability, balance, and mobility, reducing the risk of falls and injuries.
Improved Athletic Performance: Squats help build explosive power and increase vertical jump height, allowing for greater performance in sports that require speed, agility, and lower body strength. Athletes from various sports (including runners, jumpers, and team sport players) can benefit from incorporating squats into their training routine.
Basic Squat Technique
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider, toes pointed slightly outward.
Engage your core, keep your chest lifted, and maintain good posture.
Initiate the movement by pushing your hips back and bending your knees to lower yourself down, aiming to reach a parallel or slightly below parallel position. Focus on keeping a neutral spine and your weight balanced evenly between your heels and the balls of your feet.
Pause briefly at the bottom of the squat while maintaining control and balance.
Keeping your spine neutral, drive the floor away to stand up, engaging your glutes and quadriceps to return to the starting position with your hips under your shoulders and your knees under your hips.
Perform for several repetitions, focusing on maintaining proper form and gradually increasing the depth.
Mastering the Squat
If you're new to squats or have difficulty with the movement, you can start to learn the squat from a seated position with an exercise called the Box Squat.
1 Box Sit-Squat
Here's how to practice this variation:
Find a sturdy box, bench, or chair that allows you to comfortably sit and stand up.
Start seated with a tall posture on your box, bench, or chair with your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Your feet should be under your knees, with your knees bent at a slightly smaller angle than 90º. Keep your toes pointed slightly outward. Engage your core muscles, keep your chest lifted, and your eyes forward.
Shift your weight forward into your feet, pressing the heels and balls of the feet into the floor as you engage your quads & glutes. Allow your hips to come off the box, bench, or chair and stand all the way up.
Pause for a brief moment, then slowly lower yourself down by bending your knees and pushing your hips back until you come back down to a fully seated position.
Repeat this seated squat movement for several repetitions, focusing on maintaining proper form and control.
If you can’t stand all the way up yet, practice a modified variation called the Hover Sit Squat, where you allow your hips to hover above the box, bench, or chair for a moment before sitting back down. If that is too difficult, you can also practice the Seated Heel Presses variation by keeping your hips as you practice shifting your weight forward into your feet while seated.
2 Box Squat
Once you feel comfortable with the Box Sit Squat, you can progress in your box squat by starting from a standing position and not sitting down fully on your box, bench, or chair. This variation helps develop proper squat mechanics and control through the movement. Here's how to practice the box squat:
Set up a box, bench, or chair at a height that allows you to reach a parallel or slightly below parallel position when you squat down. This height can be adjusted based on your comfort and mobility.
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider, toes pointed slightly outward.
Initiate the movement by pushing your hips back and bending your knees to lower yourself down until your glutes lightly touch the box. Keep your weight balanced through your whole foot.
Maintain control and balance as you pause for a moment on the box.
Push through your heels, engage your glutes, and extend your hips and knees to stand back up without fully resting your weight on the box. Focus on keeping your knees aligned with your toes and maintaining a neutral spine throughout the movement by engaging your abdominals and erector spinae.
Repeat the box squat for several repetitions, gradually increasing the depth and speed as you gain confidence and control.
Adding Resistance
As you become proficient in the squat movement, you can increase the challenge and further stimulate muscle growth by adding resistance. This can be done by incorporating weights (such as dumbbells, barbells, or kettlebells) or resistance bands to your squat.
When adding resistance, it's important to start with a weight or band that challenges you while also allowing you to maintain proper technique. Gradually increase the resistance as your strength and technique improve.
Some of the most common variations of the squats include goblet squats, dumbbell front squats, and barbell back squats.
Coaching Cues To Remember
As you perform your squats, keep in mind the following cues:
Bend your hips, knees, & ankles at the same time.
Keep your core braced by engaging your abdominals and back muscles, like you’re holding a plank.
Keep your weight evenly distributed between the balls of your feet and your heels.
Breathe Properly: Inhale deeply before descending into the squat and exhale at the top as you stand back up.
Remember to always prioritize good form, gradually progress, and listen to your body.
Technique Reviews on Twitch
Join me live on my Twitch channel on Tuesdays for Technique Reviews! I go into further detail on different exercise techniques and review examples from members of the community. If you’d like some feedback on your exercise form, make sure to:
Join my Coaching Corner Discord server and follow me on Twitch
Subscribe to the Coaching Corner Discord as a Supporter or Supporter+
In the Coaching Corner Discord server, choose the “Workouts &. Fitness” role in the #choose-roles channel
Post your exercise videos to the #technique-reviews channel each week to get reviewed while I’m live on Twitch
Ready to get strong and build a body you love?
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About the Author
Jayd Harrison (aka Jaydigains) is a health coach, personal trainer, and host of the Coaching Corner Podcast. She helps people build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and other online content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media:
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