Exercise of the day [Squat]

Necro

VIP Room Moderator

Frequently called the "King of all exercises". The grand daddy. The titan. One of the most exhausting, vomit inducing exercises of your life, when performed properly with enough intensity.

If you're not doing it, you should be, sissy.

I know a lot of people who don't squat. Simply because it's fucking hard. It takes a lot of effort, it burns you out. The rewards are well worth it. I strongly encourage you to do it if you already aren't.

So the main muscles hit when squatting are...


Mainly quadriceps. But also the glutes, hamstrings, lower back, core, some other stablizers, etc. See: a shit ton

So, basically(very basic), to perform a back barbell squat...
1. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart. Toes slightly pointed out.
2. Place the barbell just above the shoulders on the trapezius muscles (i.e., the 'meaty' part of the shoulders). You can use a bar pad for your back, if you have a vagina.
3. Bend the knees and lower into a squat. Pretend as if you're sitting BACK onto a chair. Not directly down, but sitting back. Go at least parallel, going below is up to you and depends on how flexible you are and how crappy your knees are.
4. Contract the glutes and legs while stabilizing your body
5. Slowly stand back up
6. Always keep the knees in line with the toes!

Traditional squat-


Power lifting squat (wide stance, lower only to parallel)-


Some tips...
- Keep head forward. Tilting the head down can throw your balance off
- Keep feet FLAT on the floor
- Wear old school Chuck Taylors. Personally, I squat barefoot. Squatting with any kind of tennis or cross trainer is trouble waiting to happen.
- Contract your abs, and especially your ass at the bottom of the squat. I've heard of some horror stories...
- Don't let knees buckle in
- Practice squatting on a box with low weight to learn good form

Of course, there are a ton of variations. Quick-like...

Front squat-
The front squat is much more of an isolation exercise as it hits the quads much more directly. It also takes some pressure off the spine and lumbar.

Just like a squat excepting your placing the bar across your shoulders, then placing the hands on the shoulder in an X fashion. As so..



- Don't tilt head down
- With a front squat, it's hard to squat with bad technique
- Keep your elbows UP, never down.
- Chest out

There are numerous other variations, back squats, overheard squats, hindu squats, dumbbell squats, kettlebell squats, etc.

Squat-
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Front Squat(variation on hand placement, I recommend X style)-
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I also HIGHLY recommend the Squat Rx videos on Youtube about perfecting technique and correcting problems. They are excellent. here's the first one, I think there's something like 20 or more on Youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq8CWv8UPAI

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Took this from another board pretty cool idea.

Saliva Mark

I used to love squats.... until that day I read an article in a issue of Flex where a guy had over 600 lbs on a a bar and when he squated down both his legs broke. According to the article one guy said it sounded like to 2x4s snapping....