Tips For Squatting Heavy

Tips For Squatting Heavy

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Everyone who trains with weights on a regular basis knows very well that squats are the king of all exercises. It was Dr.Fred Hatfield who first proved the effectiveness of doing squats to gain core strength and improve your ability to add muscle generally.

The following tips are something that should be added for anyone that squats on a regular basis however the most important tip when doing squats is correct form or technique. Knowing how to do a squat correctly is vitally important and it is best to get advice if you are unsure.

1. You should ALWAYS put the barbell a little bit lower on your back so that you will be able to lift more weight because the lower the bar goes, to a point, the more leverage you will have in the squat. Instead of putting the bar high on your traps you should place the bar on your upper back muscles near your rhomboids.

2. You need to make sure that you lock the position of the bar when you move the weight so that the barbell never moves on your back from start to finish. Arching your upper-back muscles will help you achieve this by squeezing your shoulder blades together as you go down.

3. Start your squat by bending your hips and not your knees. This means that you need to sit backwards and stick your backside out, like sitting on a toilet. Your hip muscles are stronger that your leg muscles so you need to use them correctly if you want to squat with a heavy weight.

4. You should always try and squat a little bit wider if you want to increase the weight that you squat, the taller you are the wider your stance should be. The wider your stance is when you squat the more you will be using your strong groin muscles as well as avoiding lower back injury. Squatting parallel often leads to your lower back being rounded as you lift upwards, especially if you are over 5'10".

The last tip on how to improve your squat is something that you could get help with by using training bands and that is to ALWAYS try to push your knees outwards and keep your knees pointing in the same direction as your feet. Doing this will use more of your glutes to lift the weight as well as your adductors which is something that will help you improve the weight that you squat with, and safer for your knees.

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