T R O U B L E S H O O T I N G T H E S Q U AT
Mention the squat and someone will either reel off a list of benefits of the exercise, or a ton of reasons why they can’t do it. The universal requirements in a squat are: Back neutral –letting your back round over in the squat is not good, so people do the opposite and extend their spine, by arching their lower back hard and lifting their chest up. This is no better, neutral really is the happy medium you want, no more and no less.
Keep upright– leaning too far forward is a throw back from the old ‘hips back and load the posterior chain’ days. If this means you have to squat high bar and make your legs stronger then bite the bullet and do just that. Generally the best squatters have the bar low on their shoulders and stay upright for a winning formula. If you can’t achieve both and have to choose between low bar or a vertical torso, pick the latter every time. Knees out – This (like most cues) is misunderstood. I prefer to say ‘squat between your legs, not on them’ in other words you are moving your legs out the way of the rest of your body. This does a couple of t hings, it can stop buttwink. This can happen when the hip runs in to the leg, there’s no more room for you to squat lower, so the next joints that can accommodate it is the lower back.
The other great thing keeping your knees out does, is reduce the moment arm of the femur. This means there will be significantly less torque at the hips with only a slight increase at the knee to move the same weight (this illustration shows the net benefit of reduced torque from keeping your knees out. But note this is complicated by the fact that there is a slight increase of knee torque and a big reduction in hip torque). The key point is to keep as much of you under the bar as possible. Generally this helps keep you more upright too. Initially if you have been guilty of leaning forward a lot on your squats your legs will have to get stronger before you start lifting bigger weight but the patience will pay off in the end. I feel these are the most important points, and anything else depends on the artistic interpretation someone uses when squatting, to what else needs addressing, people can be pretty creative so I won’t be able to cover everything. Squats gone wild‌. When the squat is not going well despite your best efforts, see if any of these points cover your problem.
Heels coming off the floor When peoples heels come up towards the bottom of a squat, the two most likely causes are you are trying to push your knees too far over your toes,or your calves are too tight (or both). I find this stretch leaves the ankle joint unrestricted, and you can get much better range of movement out of it. This can, and should, be done with straight and bent leg variations.
Some people try to get around this issue by putting weight plates under their heels before squatting; this is a response, but not a solution. A better choice would be putting the plates under your toes on some of the warm up sets instead (I prefer under one foot at a time but under both feet is fine) this will address the issue head on in a very specific way.
SHOULDER AND BICEP PAIN IN LOW BAR SQUATS This is a common problem, and one I have suffered with on numerous and lengthy occasions. Initially it was a mystery why I would get distal bicep pain (the bottom end of the bicep) and why my bench presses would lose power on the negative, but eventually came to the conclusion low bar squats were the culprit. To begin with I was stubborn and continued low bar squatting but as it affected more and more of my workout, I decided to see what advice was out there and put some of it in to practice IMMEDIATE FIXES In some cases this can be cured straight away if you try the following:
Stop low bar squatting.
Change your hand width (narrower or wider can make the difference so check both)
Switch to a thumb-less grip (take your little finger off the bar too if that doesn’t help)
MEDIUM TERM SOLUTIONS Already tried the above and no luck? No problem let’s continue with these things:
Shoulder mobilising; there are tons of exercises to choose from, shoulder dislocations, chest stretches and foam rolling the upper back are all good choices.
Ensure correct shoulder positions on pressing and pulling movements, and avoid the shoulder pitching forward, they may be opposite directions, but both cause the same internal shoulder rotation at the extremes of the movements.
Strengthen your shoulders external rotation –band pull apart, face pulls, no monies are all good choices.
CLICKING KNEES This may not stop you squatting, but can be distracting at best and cause irritation to the knee at worst. The first thing I normally do is give the glutes a stretch, don’t foam roll it or use a lacrosse ball actually give it a good old fashioned stretching. The reason for this is the IT band runs from the glute and tensor fasciae latae (it is a muscle and not a coffee) down to the outside of the knee. When the muscles up top get tight, the knee end can get taut. The IT band doesn’t stretch so there’s no point attacking it with a roller. The glute and TFL however are fair game when it comes to stretching, so go to town on them. TIGHT HAMSTRINGS? Probably not… I hear this all the time and see people stretching relentlessly with no improvement. If that is you check out this article for more on stretching. However you will probably find if you can stand up straight your hamstrings are flexible enough to squat. You see, the hammie is biarticular (they pass over and move two joints) so when bending both the knee and the hip the length of the hamstring doesn’t change much during a squat. I don’t consider this a static contraction, because when you descend the hip end of the hamstring is lengthening, and the knee end is shortening at around the same rate so I consider this ‘flossing’ a type of movement both ends are moving but the length stays the same.
Not flexible enough People often complain about not having the flexibility to stay upright… hang on, you bend and fold over more because you are not flexible enough?? No, unfortunately you are (in most cases) just squatting badly. I like squats with toes against a wall to show the intention of a good squat. I’m not too worried if people can get all the way down or not but it is a great drill to see where things are meant o move when squatting. SQUAT DEPTH How low should you go? This can be quite individual depending on your hip socket, flexibility, injuries and goals but if you want to brag about how much you squat, I feel the crease of your hip should be lower than the top of your knee. Some people can’t go that deep and others will feel that’s only half way down. To me it seems a happy medium that is easy to judge. SQUAT VARIATIONS Up to now I have been talking about regular squats (bar on your back aka back squats). There are plenty of variations you can pick from and good reasons to choose different versions. Front squats these can be done with a clean grip or crossed hands, they take a bit of the load from the back and seem to work the quads a little more. They generally keep you more upright than a normal squat. Box squats I’m not such a fan of these but they should get a mention. They can create a ‘safety net’ when learning how to squat and for the advanced folk offer a variation on the classic. Make sure you are not resting on the box, keep the tension throughout this move and consider pause squats as a good alternative. Reverse lunges the reverse lunge is the more repeatable of the single leg variations and can allow you to squat with a little less weight on your back, but still give the legs a great workout. I would always put a pad behind your lifting foot for the opposite legs knee to land on. There are a variety of different bars you can use; safety squat bars, cambered bars, buffalo bars, dumbbells, kettle bells and countless variations beyond these so see which fits your needs best. Check this article at http://rpfitness.co.uk/trouble-shooting-the-squat/