Hey, what's up guys and welcome back to the channel
So in today's video we're gonna be talking about squats and more specifically
I'm gonna share with you my five best tips to not only help improve your squat depth but work on your mobility and
flexibility as well. Guys
if you're not squatting at least below parallel, maybe not ass to grass like me
But at least below parallel, you're leaving a lot of gains on the table
And we want to go back to the table and leave zero scraps. Ricky likes scraps
I don't know why he's like Scott can I'd her scraps? I'm like, no I can't
He's like we're talking about right now. It's just first that came to my head as I got a pic on Ricky
Ricky likes scraps, no scraps for Ricky comment down below no squats for you
So we're gonna be going over all that guys are gonna have some fun today
And also I'm gonna be doing anyone a hundred dollar gift card giveaway for my friends over at Jed North
So if you're looking to get some new workout gear, all you have to do is go to their Instagram page
You have to like their page follow their page and then comment on this photo
Barbells or Bibles are awesome or no scraps for Ricky and we'll pick a winner at random and give you $100 gift card
Alright, so now that that's out of the way. Let's get the tip number one
So tip number one has to do with barbell placement and believe it or not
A lot of you guys have a hard time squatting to depth because your squat is flawed right from the beginning
What I see happen a lot is people get into position like this. They stand back here. They get their hand position, right?
Okay
And then they come in and as they come in
They duck their head and drive forward and they drive that barbell right into their neck on their upper traps and then from here
They lift and step backward and then they try to get into position and in this position right here
And you guys can see from my back
My elbows are really far back like this in the Boz a little too high resting on my upper traps and Ray on my neck
And everything is so tight up here that as you start to squat
You're pushing yourself forward like this because of how tight you are
So what you need to learn how to do right from the beginning is number one
That proper placement of the BA at least for me is more like right here. Okay right down on my traps
So the barbell is almost going across my shoulders
And then in this position, you'll notice I have some mobility with my elbows and it doesn't hurt now
You still might feel some tightness in your shoulders, but not as tight as when you were like this
Okay, so I'm able to move my elbows back and forth
and then once I'm in this position
I'm able to keep my wrist straight and then pull that barbell down onto my traps to make it nice and tight
So it's not going to move as I go up and down and then the third thing that's gonna happen here
is that because I'm now in this position and my elbows are more pointed towards the floor versus back as
I descend the tightness in my shoulders isn't pushing me forward
I'm able to keep my chest up and able and I'm able to descend without any issues and another quick tip about barbell placement
I know some of you are gonna use a pad or are using a pad now
But you just have to keep in mind a few things
Okay when you put a pad on the BA
Even if it's one of these where it has some support for your neck and it allows the BA to still sit
You know relatively in the correct position
You're still
elevating the BA about an inch and a half
Off of your back from where it should sit normally and that can throw you off as you descend
So if you are gonna use a pad make sure you're still going lower on your neck like this
Don't let a pad be an excuse to rest the barbell on your neck kind of like we saw in that
Tom Ellis video while back from men's health remember that he had a pad in the bath
But it was all still on his neck
so even if you're using one make sure it still sits low on your neck and you're still pulling it down and
if you do have to use the bad guys you
Want to get used to not having it. So let's say you're doing four sets of squats
Do the first two sets without it?
it might hurt a little bit do the first two sets without it and then maybe the next two sets with it and try to
wean yourself off the pad the second tip is
Inch counts and what I mean by that is as you're descending if you are not in the proper foot position
We already have everything figured out a bar placement, right if your foot position is off
You're not gonna be able to fully descend and go as low as you can now again, like I said
You don't have to necessarily go ask the grass like me
But you definitely want to make sure that you're not going to here and you're not just stopping here
You want to break parallel and then come back up. So what happens?
All right
And if you've never thought about this before like lights and bells going to start going off in your head
what happens to most of us when we squat is we automatically come in and get the weight and step back and
Then we try to figure out our foot position and where our feet are gonna be the most comfortable
But by then it's too late, especially if the weights too heavy if your foot position is off
You don't have time to fix it because now you're more worried about being able to
Bring the weight down and bring it back up again
so what I want you guys to do and you can do this with light light weight on the BA or
with just your body weight is I want you to descend and get to the bottom position and kind of
Move your feet around. Okay move your heels back and forth move your toes back and forth and just
figure out
where you can sit and be in a comfortable position to go all the way up and
All the way down and practice that a few times and then as soon as you find that correct position
I want you to look down and memorize where your feet are and this is gonna be important and
Once you memorize your foot position and you know, you can descend and go back up without falling over and feel stable
When you now take the BAI off the rack and take a step back
You know exactly where to put your feet and you can start squatting correctly
Alright guys tip number three has to do with bracing your core and using a weightlifting belt
Now we use this thing that as soon as you put a belt on
Your core is gonna start to get weak and it's actually just not true
However, if you don't know how to brace your core without a belt
Using the belt is pretty much useless because you're not using it to its fullest extent to help you lift more weight now
Your core is actually relatively easy. All you have to do is take in a breath. I like to breathe in through my nose and
As you breathe in you're gonna hold that air in your diaphragm and you're gonna flex this entire area
Okay
so breathe in and
Then flex your core as hot as you can and you're gonna maintain
That flex and it should almost feel like as you're flexing your muscles
It's pushing against your diaphragm and you're just creating this solid block
Where your core is and what that's gonna do is prevent you from going into spinal flexion
You have got to support your spine when doing squats
especially as you start lifting super heavy if you guys don't take in a breath or if you follow some advice which people say
It's friggin ridiculous
If you breathe out as you're descending what you're doing is you're losing that solid block that you have
Right here
And as you breathe out, that weight is gonna force you to crumble
Forward and go into spinal flexion and then all that weight that's supposed to be on your legs
Now goes on to your lower back and then it's a trip to snap city. We don't want that to happen
So in order to brace correctly
once you unwrap the buck and you're in position before you do your first rep take in a breath through your nose and
Then flex as hot as you can and maintain that flex as you go down and then as you go back up now
Sometimes you might take it a little too much breath and it might feel like you're gonna pass out from all that pressure
If that's the case just do a little a little release valve. You guys have heard me in my videos
I'd make all kinds of weird noises sometimes when I squat I take in a breath
And come down and I go. Oh that's tight and I go
And I do a little release just a little bit though
Not all the air just up just a little bit until it feels comfortable. And now when you put a belt on
Number one when putting on the belt you need to make sure that it's set up correctly. This is a lever belt
Which means right now I can fit my whole hand in here once it's tight
I can still kind of fit my fingers in but only up to my knuckles
This is how tight you want your Bell
to be
You don't want to be so tight that you can't breathe because then you can't take in a breath in order to keep your core
tight
But if you can fit at least four fingers in up to your knuckles
You can still practice the same movement or not the same movement both at oh the same way of taking in a breath
So breathe through your nose and then flex your core and but this time as I'm flexing my core
It's also pushing against the belt creating an even stronger block
alright guys tip number four is it's time to loosen up now if you apply everything we just talked about and you're still having a
Hard time maybe you can get to parallel
It's getting easier
but you can't quite get as low as you want -
Chances are that you're tight and you need to work on a few things
and for most of you guys it's gonna be obviously opening up your hips and then
working on your ankle flexibility a lot of people
When they squat they look straight ahead and they can't tell that as they descend that their shins aren't moving
Forward if you have poor ankle mobility
When you squat down, I mean I've had clients where they literally squat like this and their shin doesn't even move
It can't even move forward at all
So if your shin can't move forward so that your knees track over your toes
We have to try to loosen that up as best
we can now a
very simple stretch that you can do before you start squatting and in between your squats is this
We can work on your plantar flexion and your dorsal flexor see flexion
So the work on the dorsiflexion
What you're going to do is put your foot up against the bow like this and you're gonna pull yourself forward
And you're gonna feel your calves that's of stretching big time. Alright and depending on how tight you are
You might not even be able to get into this position of the staff
you might have to even start like this and pull yourself forward or half way from where I was but
try to get that foot as high as you can and
Pull yourself up and then you're going to hold this position for a 12 - 15 seconds
And then you're gonna stop and then you're gonna do it again
And you're gonna repeat this on both sides
Okay, just two quick sets 12 to 15 seconds and then to work on the plantar flexion
What you're going to do is hold on to the bus still put your foot behind you like this and then drive your leg forward
Okay
And you should feel a big stretch right through here right through the front of your shin and down into your foot
Again, hold this 12 to 15 seconds. Come
Back and then do it again and then repeat on the other side
And you're gonna do this
Like I said before you start squatting and in between your sets and the other stretch
I want to show you guys this is gonna help open up your hips
if you want to get close to the bar or get close to the squat rack and
You want to try to mimic your foot position?
There's no point in doing this
If you don't have the same foot position as when you're squatting
So mimic you're squatting foot position and then pull yourself down and then use your elbows
To try to push your knees out and then kind of rock side to side a little bit
And you're gonna feel a huge stretch as you start to open up your hips. And again, I already have good mobility
So I'm able to get nice and deep a lot of you you might be here trying to work on your mobility
It's gonna take some time obviously to get as low as I do
So back and forth again
12 to 15 seconds come up shake out your legs a little bit get back with the position and then do it again
You know
I recommend just kind of sticking with these two
Doing them before you start squatting do them in between your sets and when you get to a point where you're nice and loose you
Won't have to do it every time
Alright, you have to just kind of play it by ear and listen to your body
But in the beginning if you're tight
It's gonna be very beneficial for you guys to do this as much as you can until you loosen up
Alright guys, and now for the fifth and final tip, this is more of a bonus tip
If you're applying everything, I just said and you still find yourself leaning forward
it's probably because subconsciously
you've been doing it like that for so long that we need to just break that habit and one way we can do that is
By applying a different type of squat to stat your workouts with all right
I'm not saying completely replace your barbell squat in your workout
But we can utilize something called a Zurcher squat
to try to fix that movement patterns that your chest stays up the entire time now the
Difference between a search a squat and a barbell squad
Is that the barbell sits on your shoulders up here or across your traps?
The searcher squad is gonna be in front of your body and you have to hold it like this
so right from the beginning you have to brace your core and keep
Your chest up right as you descend or you're just gonna fall over
So let me demonstrate for a researcher squat you get into position like this and you pick up the BA
Step forward and then what you want to try to do is push your hands towards your chest in order to stabilize the BA
Make sure your feet are in the same position. They would be for a traditional squat
And then as you descend keep your chest up all the way down all the way up pushing through your heels
Now it would be super obvious on this movement that if you started to lean forward
The bars gonna roll away from you go into your forearms
it's gonna hurt like how depending on how heavy it is and you will fall over and you're gonna feel all of this in your
lower back, so
Instinctively without thinking about it
you're gonna keep your chest up and lean back the entire time because if you don't it's gonna hurt so what I would recommend
Because we obviously the whole point of this video is to correct your your traditional barbell squat
Maybe start off your workout and get some light weight and do a quick set of eight to ten repetitions
Maybe two quick steps two quick warm-up sets and just get your body used
To staying upright as you go up and down then it's did you get those warm-up sets out of the way?
Go get into your working sets of your bobhouse squats
So hope you guys enjoy the tips in this video and if you did go down below and click that like button also
Guys, I put out tons of great content and you might not be seeing it
You know why it's because you don't have that notification belt clicked YouTube is tricky
They like to make sure that you click that bow
If you don't they punish you by taking away all this amazing content that I force Ricki to edit on a weekly basis
So it's not even really debt hurting me. It's hurting Ricky's feelings
You don't want Ricky to cry as he films me thinking that you're not gonna see his videos
Click that notification belt. He told me to say that
Alright guys, but seriously, hope you have a great day
If you enjoy the tips make sure you subscribe and for more great information or at home workouts
You can check out this playlist link right here. And if you're looking for a new routine to bring with you to the gym
Check this one out. This is my full body evolution program full body training three to four times a week in the gym
You're gonna absolutely love it. I'll see you guys next time