hello guys I want to talk to you today about incorrect counterbalancing in the
body weight squat. So if you find yourself reaching out with your arms to keep
balance, don't! You should not be doing that if you want to progress in your
squat. You'll probably see something like this.
two things are incorrect, number one you're creating and counter balance with your
arms, number two, you're leaning forward with your shoulders, the shoulders are
coming down and the hips are not. The hips should always come down, the
shoulders should follow. If your hips stop going down then your shoulders
should stop too - all right, now for alignment of the feet and why, you want
just outside of hip width and you want your toes pointing out, now I'm not
going to tell you that's 45 degrees or it's 10 centimeters I'm not gonna tell
you anything like that because everybody's different everybody's got
different types of hips and different body types so it's not gonna be the same
you've got to find out what a good position is for you to maintain a good
balance during your squat and to go nice and deep, you should play with it a bit
go out a bit, turn out the toes bit, but never go to sumo squat stance, sumo squat
stance is good for your glutes medius and minimus but that's
not what we want to do, right here we're focusing on a bodyweight squat that can
progress to a weighted squat with a barbell or overhead squat with kettlebells or
rack squat with kettlebells, that's what we're progressing to, so you want to have
a good solid base where you're not gonna fall forward and not gonna fall back
you're not gonna fall to the side, so to do that you need to have your feet
outside of hip-width a bit if they're right under your hips it's quite easy to
fall sideways, not only that, your hip flexors are gonna need more flexibility
with this type of squat, plus you need more thoracic extension for this type of
squat the more your knees are in the more flexibility you need in that area
and the more strength in your back too. So, start with a wider position but not
too wide and not too far out. Think about a Y a narrow Y you want to just feel
comfortable in this stance this is where you want to start
you bent the knees forward, hips back and the knees keep coming forward and the
hips keep coming back. Your hips keep coming low, your shoulders stay high and
you go past that point where it could feel uncomfortable this is where you gain
your strength past that point. Keep pressing into the ground keep
pulling your knees out, keep pulling your shoulders back, everything in my back is
active right now if I didn't have that I'd be here, it's pulling, there's a lot
of work done by my erector spinae my trapezius and my rhomboids. A lot of work
done and glutes medius and minimus pulling the knees out. You want to pull
the knees out because you want that good alignment to protect your knees, right
now they're not aligned. Your knees are a
hinge joint which means they work like the hinge in the door, they only go one
way in our case, that's either flexion or extension, so always keep good alignment
between your ankle, knee, and hip. Coming back to the counterbalancing. As you find
your position, you're coming back with your hips you might feel that your
toes are coming off the ground and falling backwards that's when you start
putting your arms out or you start putting your shoulders forward and down
but your hips are not coming down, so you should have already stopped there. Do not
use your hands or arms for counterbalance, it's incorrect.
You're never gonna progress. Keep them here or here or overhead.
But not out here. To fix this counterbalance that you're creating with
the arms, you need to start looking at your knees and ankles. The counterbalance
needs to be created right here this part here staying upright, not too far back.
If you find that you're having issues there, you just can't go further forward, you
need to do this test. Feet flat on the ground, drop your knee, if it's pretty
much past your toes, great! Also don't listen to any trainer that
says "your knees should not come over your toes" that's something that became
popular awhile ago, but it's not true yes it's true in certain cases I'm not
gonna go into that, in our case you want to create proper counterbalance, maybe
for some people that doesn't need to come over the toes and for others it
does, but just be aware the fact that your knees are coming forward is to
create counter balance and not fall backwards.
right now I'm not gonna put my knees over the toes, I'm gonna try and come
into a squat and I'm already putting my hands out because my toes are coming off
the ground and I'm fallen backwards. But if I keep coming forward with those
knees my hips are also moving forward, see that, as my knees come forward my
hips are moving forward, so they're not out here, so the center of gravity is
here, all your wife is here in the middle, rather than hanging out here.
Again, knees forward, shoulders in the middle and high, hips low. If your hips are not
coming down you stop. Do not create range with the shoulders, it's a fake
range. And do not put your arms out to counterbalance if you want to progress
with your squat. Simply stop where you feel that you need the counterbalance
and then start adjusting, start adjusting, start finding that balance
without your hands, okay. And take it from there
progress step by step. The squat is a basic fundamental exercise that
everybody should be able to do, everybody does it
when they're young. Everybody's great at it when they're young and then as we sit
every day on our asses doing nothing for eight hours to nine hours we lose the
squat ability and we only squat when we go to the gym, but we don't squat in any
other scenarios anymore, for example on the beach or watching a movie or talking
with your friends try sitting in a squatting position, even on your toes
Hindu squat even that's great
yeah. Don't always sit on something, sit on yourself, it's gonna help improve your
hips knees ankles and feet, see you later. If you want to get strong if you want to
get flexible if you want to work on your cardiovascular endurance your muscular
endurance if you want to look better feel better
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