How to Squat With Proper Technique
If you are working out in the gym and could only do one exercise it would be the squat. Why? Because no other exercise challenges the human body to operate as singe unit like the squat. The squat has long been heralded as the “King of Exercises” – and quite rightly so. Whether you’re doing it with weight on your back or all bodyweight, proper form is key. I found this article on squat form, and I thought it was written well, even if it is more towards squatting with a bar.
Benefits of Squatting
One of the biggest misconceptions about the squat is that it is a leg exercise. The squat is in fact a full body exercise. Every muscle in your body is challenged when you squat. The legs and hips push the weight up, the abs and lower back back tense to stabilise your back, and the arms are used to pin the bar onto the back (or help with balance in the case of bodyweight squats).
- Squats Build Muscle – Squats build muscle throughout your entire body faster than any other exercise. Squatting is a compound exercises that stresses your entire body as a complete unit. The stress put on your body by squats triggers a hormonal release of testosterone in your body. This elevated testosterone aids in producing muscle at a faster rate.
- Squats improve your athleticism – If you want become a better athlete no other exercise will improve your overall athleticism like the squat. Squatting helps you build explosive strength that carries over to most competitive sports.
- Squats reduces injuries – Contrary to popular belief, squats do not cause injury (when performed correctly). Performing squats with proper form actually reduces the chance of injuring oneself. Why? Because squatting improves and maintains hip flexibility. Additionally, squats improve the stability of your knees, when using proper squat form (below parallel).
Why you need proper Squat Form
Quite frankly, most people have no idea how use squat with correct form. In fact, I would estimate that 9/10 people I see squatting in commercial gyms today are doing so with extremely poor from.
This is a problem for 3 reasons.
- It is dangerous – While squatting with proper form is completely safe, squatting with poor form is extremely dangerous. Incorrect squat technique put a lot of stain on the lower back and knees and can quickly lead to serious injury.
- You are seriously compromising the benefits of squatting - When you don’t squat with proper form it completely defeats the purpose of squatting in the first place. Increased muscle, elevated testosterone, improved vertical leap – forget about it.
- You look like a complete idiot - To someone who knows how to squat properly there is nothing more pathetic than someone loading the bar up with a ton of weight than not squatting with proper form. Learn how to control your ego and do it right.
How to Squat
The Squat Setup
- Approach the rack with the bar at approximately mid-chest height.
- Move under the bar and place it on your back. Hold the bar in place with your hands.
- Stand with and even stance. Your feet should be shoulder width apart with your feet facing out at a 30 degree angle.
- Lift the bar out of the rack and take ONLY one step back. Take a big breath. Tense your entire body. Squat.
Squatting Down
- Start from the hips – Bend at your hips and sit back into the squat. Imagine you are sitting down on a seat. The hips joint should always bend before your knees.
- Check your knees – Keep your knees out. Your knee joints should be pointing in the same direction as your feet all the way down. If your knee buckle in it normally means that the weight is too heavy.
- Keep your weight back – Keep your weight distributed towards your heel.
- Go all the way down – You should always aim to squat to at least parallel. Meaning, your hip joint needs to be at least parallel with your knee joint. This is incredibly difficult to judge yourself, even with the aid of a mirror. Ask someone else to assess your depth either in the gym or by video taping.
- Think about squatting up - On the way down think about squatting up. This will help to prepare your brain and make the upward movement easier.
Squatting Up
- Bounce off the bottom – At the bottom position of the squat your hip muscles should be tight – storing energy. Use this energy to help you bounce out of the bottom of the squat. Ensure that you are bouncing off the hips – not the knees.
- Focus on your glutes – When powering up out of the squat concentrate on squeezing your glutes together.
- Drive your hips up – Most of the power for the squat comes from the hips. Drive the hips in an upward motion.
Racking the bar
- Step forward. Ensure that your bar is over the pins before lowering the weight.




![Source: japanese-revision japanese-revision:
Textbooks:
An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar
A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar
Read Real Japanese Fiction
Dictionaries:
ALC (I use this everyday)→Expression encyclopaedia
Goo dictionary
Weblio
WWWJDIC (with audio clips)
JWPce (downloadable dictionary for Windows)
JEDict (downloadable for Mac users)
Idiomatic Expressions
Idioms dictionary [Japanese only]
Counters dictionary
Hovering dictionaries: →Rikaikun for Chrome→Rikaichan for Firefox→Floating Dictionary for Mac
Current Affairs dictionary
For kanji.
Jisho (I use this for spelling kanji for if I can’t read it)
Yamasa (I use this for learning to write)
A Guide to Remembering Japanese Characters
Associative Kanji Learning (stroke orders)
Online reading:
Hukumusume Fairytales
竹取(Bamboo-Cutting) (vertical writing)
吉田秀幸の日記(Hideyuki Yoshida’s Diary) (recipes)
Chokochoko’s reading texts to help with JLPT
TED Talks (with Japanese subtitles and transcripts)
Learning through Films [Japanese subtitles/scripts]
Manga.
Free online manga
Vomic (free online manga with voice actors)
Sound Effects (in manga, etc)
Improving your speaking:
Japanese pronunciation guide
Interactive Hiragana Pronounciation table
Topics for Language Exchanges.
Bubbly (a Twitter-like app where you can record yourself)
Audioboo (similar to Bubbly, but also a website)
Listening:
“Real World” Japanese
泣きたいときのクスリ 2007 - ‘08 (radio drama)
Writing practice:
Lang-8
www.Japan-Guide.com
原稿用紙の使い方 (How to write an essay with Japanese writing paper)
Shiritori (Japanese word-chain game)
News:
NewsWeb Easy
NHK News (audio news with speed controls)
Mainichi Primary School student Newspaper
Podcasts:
JOQR (Cultural Broadcasting)
TBS Radio’s Junk
TOKYO FM
YouTube:
Afternoon Hirusagari
Jet Daisuke
バイリンガール英会話
Analog TV Forever (collections of adverts)
Japanese sign language.
Heartful Power Hideo
Shuwa Island
TV:
Japanese subtitles for anime
KeyHole TV (to stream Japanese TV and radio)
風雲LIVE日本語(Feng Yun LIVE Japanese) (to stream TV)
映画で学ぶ実践英会話
Tumblr:
Kanji-a-Day
Holy crap Japanese
Nihongo ga Suki
Jumpstart Japanese
Nihongolog
Nadine Nihongo
That Japan Addict
ChilliMuffin
Japanese through Fandom
F-Yeah Native Japanese
J-Vocab of the Day
ぶらりめし [Japanese only]
Peaceful Chef [Japanese only]
Those studying in Japan.
Japanicking in Yamanashi (at Yamanashi University)
Samxuel (at Kyushu Sangyo)
Katy in Japan Town (at NUFS)
Chocotastie (at Seinan Gakuin)
Kim in Sapporo (at Hokkaido University)
Blogging:
Yaplog
Learning websites:
JapaneseClass.jp
The Japanese Page
Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese
Erin’s Challenge (with listening and reading practice)
Maggie Sensei
Other resources:
Lots of threads with a variety of resources for Japanese learning
JLPT Resources
I’ve added more to the list since first creating it. As always, if anyone has anything they would like to add, let me know!](http://25.media.tumblr.com/b2f88f22965ab9571268281098e7187b/tumblr_mma136rrWj1rlz5m3o1_r1_1280.jpg)