What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.COM.
Obviously, the squat.
Obviously a major focus of a lower body strength program.
Why?
Because it's one the most functional movement patterns we do.
We do know that there are some checkpoints, though with the squat.
And I think that a lot of guys are overlooking one of the most important, and I'm want to
show you that today.
When we squat, we know that elbows should be tucked, head should be up, feet should
be on a line, toes pointed out, knees go out as we go down.
Now, I'm going to do a whole other video talking about how one squat position doesn't fit for
everybody, ok, but we'll get to that at a different time.
For this video, though, we know those points.
And I wanted to show you how even when you have all those checkpoints right, chest out,
right.
There's still one thing that you could be doing dramatically wrong, and I'll show you
how to fix that today.
So we take any kind of a stick that we can put on the ground here, and we know that if
you want to squat, and squat properly, you should be square, right.
It's like playing golf.
Anybody's that ever played golf, they should be squared to the line.
So, my feel are square here.
We're going to point the toes out a little bit, ok, still square to the line.
Whether your toes are straight ahead or whether your toes are pointed out, your feet are still
square and lined up on that line.
When I go down into the squat, again, the knees will go out, and I come down.
Head's up.
Chest out.
Elbows down, right.
Gluts engaged.
There's still one major problem.
Watch.
If I take this, and I put it up against my hips right here, ok, this has also got to
be square.
These should be square with this because I can do this, and my feet have not changed.
I have just opened up my hips, but my feet haven't changed.
So, I can think that I'm square because I'm facing ahead, my chest is ahead, my feet are
squared, my feet are level.
Everything is good, but I've just opened up my hips.
And it happens all the time, guys, because we're very asymmetrical people whether we
sit all day and we develop imbalances in the muscles around our hips,
or we have an actual leg length imbalance that will cause something like this.
But this torsion that's going on here is a very common problem.
So what happens is, in a really exaggerated way, if I were to turn all the way like this,
ok, complete exaggeration.
No one's ever going to look like this, and then I try to squat.
Look what happens to the right leg.
The left leg goes down fine.
The right leg is caving in.
Ok, we got a valgus at the knee.
Ok.
It's looking like that.
This is a bad position for your knee, especially if you count up all the reps of squats that
you're doing.
And this applies to dead lifts as well, guys, same position.
The same thing can happen up here at the hips.
You count up all the reps that you're doing damage here at your knee, that's going to
cause a problem over time.
So, what we want to do is make sure that we're squared off here, too.
How do you do that if it's already something that you can't perceive, and it's already
something that your body has adapted to?
Here's one quick thing that you can try to do.
When you get up in your position here, I'll put it down here first.
If you're the kind of guy who's a little bit tight, it could be the other way, too, but
to demonstrate here, if you're somewhat open,
if your feet are square, but you're hips are somewhat open, the best way to check for that
and to make sure even if you don't know you are, is to squeeze your glutes tight.
Just like that.
I squeeze my glutes together as tight as I possibly can.
What that does is it levels off the hips.
It will square them off.
I just found that by being back here, my left glute had a lot more work to do to get me
back to center, alright.
So, I squeeze the glutes.
Now, from here, ok, then I go down into my rep, and then I come out.
And before I go another rep, I squeeze those glutes again real tight just to make sure
that I didn't fall back out of line again, ok.
But I stay here, and then down.
And then up and through.
And the same thing can happen and apply to a dead lift as well.
You go down, you come up.
It's a little bit easier there because it's a very natural portion of the deadlift to
come up and actually squeeze, follow through with your hips.
But on the squat, a lot of guys will come up and kind of hang out right here which looks
good, it looks like you're at the top.
But you're not really fully extended, and that full extension is going to set your hips
properly so that now everything's in line.
A little Bonus Tip for you guys that do play golf, that is a major issue.
You set your alignment up, there's the flag.
You're here.
Everything's good.
The hips are open.
Likely, you're going to come over the top and probably either slice the ball or whatever.
But you have to be lined up no matter what it is you're doing.
And especially when it comes to the gym.
You want to be doing reps that are quality that have you in the right biomechanical alignment,
or, you're going to cause joint problems, pain, discomfort, all that stuff, for a long
time.
So, you want to make sure you set yourself up right.
So, there you have it, guys.
This tip, again, this is where I put on my physical therapy hat, and I try to show you
guys from a biomechanic standpoint, how doing the wrong things can actually lead to bigger
problems.
Forget just in your strength levels, but really to your body.
Over time it starts to have major implications on how you function.
So, I got to get these videos out there to you as well, and I think now that we have
our third video, it kind of slots in nicely.
I'm able to give you guys sort of that PTS video to help you.
But again, you can see, just a small tweek in the hips,
and I'll tell you, will it not only just correct some of these biomechanical flaws you have,
but it's going to allow you to lift more weight.
It's going to allow you to get stronger because you're body's now working the way it wants
to.
Guys, we put the science back in strength, again, not to be flashy, but to do this for
a purpose, to make you guys stronger, more functional, and athletic.
And if you guys want a complete program to help you do that, that's the ATHLEANX Training
system.
And you guys can get that at ATHLEANX.COM.
In the meantime, let me know if you like these types of videos.
What other problems are you dealing with?
What would you like to see me cover?
Leave that in the comments below.
And as always, if you like the video and found it helpful, a thumb's up, too.
Alright guys, I'll be back here in just a couple days.