What's up guys, Jeff Cavaliere, Athleanx.com. By the end of today's video, I want to help you
to squat and squat better. You see most often the things that you get wrong in a squat you're not
even aware of. I identify ten of the most common mistakes that people make when they're squatting,
and I'm going to make sure that we fix them today. So, with that being said,
let's start breaking them down one by one. Now, before you go to say, But, Jeff, I can't
squat because when I do, my knees hurt or my back hurts or insert body part hurts. The good news is
there's always a variation of a squat that you can perform. And even better news is that most
everything I'm showing you here in this video is going to apply no matter what version of the
squat you choose. So whatever version of the squat you pick, the first big mistake is, how wide are
your feet? Are you a narrow squatter, a shoulder width squatter, or an extra wide squatter?
And again, how would you even know? If you want to perform the best squat you've got to know and
for that I have a way to help you with the stance finder. And all you have to do is lay on your back
and simply pull your knees up towards your chest and try to find the point that allows for the most
hip flexion without causing an excessive rounding of the low back, because you
don't want that at the bottom of the squat. So, you simply just kind of pull up on your legs
and find that comfortable spot. Maybe narrow, feels better for you. Maybe rotating your hips
out a little bit allows you for that deeper hip flexion and feels more comfortable. Once you find
that spot, you just want to line your lower legs up with your femur, simply stand up and then from
there just tweak your stance an inch or so in or out to make it feel ultimately comfortable. And
of course, just squat down and reinforce it, and you've chosen the right squat with.
So now I mentioned fine tuning. What that means is what are you going to do now with your feet are
going to point them out a little bit or maybe turn them in a little bit? Well, it's pretty
generally accepted that a little bit of outward rotation of the foot is going to create more room
inside of the hip joint when you go deeper. And also, to get a better job of recruiting
the adductors at the bottom of the squat to help you to power back up. But if you forget to remove
the rest of your leg in addition to your foot, you're asking for problems, mostly because you're
creating torque issues here at the knee. See, if you turn your foot out and you leave your
knees straight ahead and you move them forward, you can get a disruption of that tracking,
creating a whole mess of problems here for the patella. So, what I say is stop worrying about
rotating your feet and instead of worry about rotating your knees. If you move your knees out,
your foot will come with it, as will the hip, so now you don't have that torque being created,
so pain free squatting becomes a reality instead of being something out of reach.
Mistake number three hat you're making is you're too obsessed with not allowing your knees to go
past your toes when you squat. Maybe you heard it before, but the problem is you have to if you're
going to get to proper depth. And the reason for that is because we need that lower leg to be able
to go forward if we're going to maintain proper mechanics to the squat. You see when we're going
down, we can't lift our foot off the ground to create the dorsiflexion needed to get a deeper
squat because our foot has to stay in contact with the ground. But we can create dorsiflexion
by allowing that tibia to move forward in relation to the foot. And in order to do that,
it's going to have to track more and more forward again towards your toes. Guys, it's unavoidable,
just let it happen naturally. And if you do, your squats do not only feel better, but you're going
to have better mechanics up and down. Mistake number four when squatting is not
keeping the chest and the pelvis linked throughout the exercise. Not only does this create a more
inefficient and less powerful squat, but it also leads directly to the squat morning. We know how
ugly this can be and it's also quite bad for your back. You can avoid this, however, by just simply
thinking about the chest and the pelvis as one unit and moving them in space at the same time.
It's quite simple because these are pretty big moving targets and pretty easy to control.
It becomes most challenging at the bottom of the squat, where there's a tendency to allow the hips
to move first, thereby breaking that link between the two. However, if you do this and do it right,
not only does this lead to, as I said, a more efficient squat, but one with a straighter
bar path and a straight bar path is a good squat and one you're going to want to try to
emulate every time you get onto the bar. Interestingly, one of the biggest allies that
you have to create and maintain that relationship between the chest and the pelvis is a muscle that
oftentimes gets overlooked in the squat and it's the lats. And that leads to mistake number five,
you're not creating and maintaining enough lat tightness. And the easiest way to do this is to
simply imagine trying to break this bar over your back. If you do that, you're pulling your elbows
down into your sides, activating and engaging those lats which creates that rigidity of the
torso. Now, no, it doesn't lead directly from the chest to the pelvis. We know that the last will
attach from the arm to the pelvis, but it still maintains that lateral support needed to create
that rigid torso, create that efficient squat and lead to a better overall squat in the end.
And so squat mistake number six is actually a fairly obvious one and that is
you're using one of these. Oh, you mean a pad.
Don't you just want to be squatting? Yeah, you're in the way actually.
Get out of here please. Okay.
But let's discuss this guys is actually I have a problem with it, but for a far less offensive
reason. We're talking more about the anatomy of this and see what happens when you put this on
the bar as you're creating a really thick bar. And that bar has very few options to sit comfortably
on your back. You can't put it in a low bar position because it feels like it's just going
to roll off and most people won't even attempt it. The only place it wants to naturally sit is right
here on C7. C7 is the last cervical vertebrae and it does want to sit sort of right on there
because it's comfortably carried right there. The problem is it's not going to stay comfortable
for long because the compression on there could actually lead to numbness and tingling down the
arm into those fourth and fifth fingers and it just doesn't make squatting a really enjoyable
experience. The fact is, guys, if you ditch this and get used to putting the bar on your back,
you're going to be able to find a more optimal position without the
downsides that come along with that pad. Mistake number seven is actually forgetting
from time to time to step out from under the bar and do some unilateral exercises. You see
exercises like the Bulgarian Split Squat or even a Step Up or a Lunge. Do a great job of not only
helping you to identify those imbalances in the first place, but game plan for working on them.
You'd be surprised at the difference in strength levels that you have in your right and left leg
right now. We're able to actually assess that with force plays, but what do you do if you
don't have access to something like that? Well, you could actually see it in the form
of the dreaded hip shift at the bottom of the squat. You've probably seen it before.
You slide a little bit to one side or the other as you work your way back up to the top of every rep.
It's happening because you're just simply trying to find that stronger leg, but it comes at a cost.
Usually in the form of a hip impingement or worse, a labral tear, all of which would be preventable
if you simply just learn to incorporate some additional exercises into your routine.
And so, mistake number eight is one that I know all too well, unfortunately, especially
more these days than when I was younger. And it's not properly warming up to squat. And so,
we've all been there either because we are short on time or maybe long on ego, where our idea of
a warmup consisted of unzipping our gym bag, only to realize just moments later that maybe
you weren't really warmed up enough. The fact is, guys, if you're looking to get your body ready
to perform something like a squat, you've got to make sure you take at least some time to prepare
your body to do it. If you're looking for a great squat warm up, you're going to definitely want to
check out this video that I put together. I will link it for you at the end of this video.
So, mistake number nine is a big one. And it's when we seek out those big squat totals
with a body that's not necessarily ready to do it. You see people pile the plates on in a rush
to get to bigger and stronger numbers. However, if you built these numbers upon a cracked foundation,
then how strong are you really? And that's what I try to preach all the time. You don't want to
build just strength, you want to build true strength, absolute strength. In the case of
someone like Jesse, sure, maybe it takes a little bit longer in order to make sure that we're doing
this the right way. But in the end of the game, when you still have impressive strength totals
and you've done it the right way, you've not only gotten stronger, but you've built it upon
a foundation that's less likely to crack right at the very moment that you need it the most.
Mistake number ten is actually one of the biggest squat mistakes you can make. And the reason why
it's actually so problematic is because it's very deceptive. It happens from the moment you put the
bar on your back. I made a whole video on how to identify whether you're doing it. I want you
to make sure that you check it out. It will be incredibly helpful, and it'll set the stage for
success with all these other tips. If you're looking for a program, guys, you can find it
over at Athleanx.com. If you haven't done so, make sure you click Subscribe and turn on your
Notifications, so you never miss a new video when we put one out. All right, guys. See you soon.
Fine tune and adjust your stance just an inch or two out and then from there simply--oh, fuck.