- What's up everybody?
Steve Kamb from nerdfitness.com here.
I'm here joined by Staci Ardison
and Jim Bathurst.
Two members of Team Nerd Fitness.
We are at Day One of Camp Nerd Fitness.
I wanted to shoot a quick video for you
to discuss how to do a proper bodyweight squat.
Seems something simple,
something we do all day long.
We get up and sit down from our desk chair,
but most people don't actually do them properly.
I wanted Jim to walk us through some mistakes
that people make when they do a bodyweight squat
and how to do them properly.
(electronic music)
Jim, what do you say?
- Cool, awesome
We'll start off with Staci.
We're gonna start with a foot placement.
We wanna make sure it's not too super close
or also not really wide.
Around shoulder width apart.
That's obviously too wide.
Around shoulder width apart.
In terms of the way the feet face,
a lot of people are gonna find a much more comfortable squat
if they turn their tows out just slightly,
15 to 30 degrees or so.
Again, everyone's gonna be a little bit different
in their squats simply for the fact
that our bodies are a little bit different
based on limb length and mobility and strength
and what have you.
Once we've got the feet set up,
we're gonna make sure those feet stay well-balanced
and we keep the heels on the ground.
A lot of times I'll see people go to squat,
they'll lift their heels up,
get on their toes.
Again, no good whatsoever.
We wanna keep things nice and solid,
keep a good foundation just like anything else.
Once we've got the feet set,
what I like to cue next is keeping a good chest-up position.
If I start to curl forward,
it's not going to be very good,
especially if I start moving toward other exercises
like a barbell squat.
Chest up is a good cue here like this.
Once we get ourselves set up like this,
we can also even put our hands out like this
to help facilitate that cue.
If your hands start to drop,
then you know that your chest is probably dropping as well,
as you can see.
You have phenomenal posture regardless,
so don't look at that.
So, chest up.
- Kind like a zombie.
- Chest up, hands up like this.
- [Zombie] Brains.
- [Man] No!
- Now as we start to squat on down
what I like to cue is just starting off on the hips
just a little bit before the knees.
That'll help keep the balance in the feet.
If you bend the knees too soon
or at the beginning,
a lot of times people will come forward on their toes
just a little too much.
Load the hips up.
Hips start just before the knees
and then squatting on down.
That's the second cue.
Talking about the knees,
another big mistake that we tend to see
is the knees caving in as we squat.
We wanna make sure that the knees track over the feet.
Right now let's do the incorrect squat
of the knees caving in.
She can squat,
but it's not gonna be good news for her knees
especially in the long run.
When I say tracking,
what I mean is that if I draw a line from heel to toe
that we want the heels in that line.
This is good.
Push 'em inwards.
This is bad.
Bad.
Okay, open up.
Good.
- Good, Staci.
- That's the Veras position.
That's too far.
We want them right in line like this
and then right on up.
Now, another thing that we get asked all the time
is should the knees come forward over the toes.
- Then everything explodes, right?
- Explosion.
- Everything explodes and you can never walk again.
- Everything falls apart.
- The world ends.
- It's crazy.
- Keeping your knees out over your toes.
- It's insane.
It's crossing the streams.
- You're going to endanger us.
You are going to endanger our client,
the nice lady who paid us in advance.
- As we can see right here,
again, if I dropped a line straight from the knees
it's clearly past the toes.
- That's totally okay.
- That is totally okay,
you'll see especially in sports like Olympic lifting
that you absolutely need this good ankle flexion,
good knee forward squat position
in order to be able to catch a bar upright
and do things like the clean and the snatch
and all this other fun stuff we learn at camp.
Now, just because the knees are forward,
we still want the heels down.
This is still all the way down on the ground
making sure that we still have that solid foundation
we had before.
Hop on up.
We'll take it from the bottom and the top.
Feet are set about shoulder width apart,
turned out slightly.
Chest is up.
Hands can be up to facilitate that movement.
It's gonna be hips back just slightly to start
and then you're bending your hips and knees.
Knees tracking over the feet like that.
Steve, what are some of the common mistakes
that you tend to see?
- I think one is that we call it a power curtsy.
- Okay.
- It's just people not realizing that's not a squat.
You gotta drop your butt to the ground.
- Absolutely.
That's usually caused by people having too much weight
on the barbell.
That's easily remedied,
but if you are doing a bodyweight squat
and you find I'm just kinda falling out of position,
my chest is dropping
and my knees are coming in like this,
what you can do is you can do an assisted squat.
Super simple.
I can use a box.
I can use a power rack.
I'll stand right behind you.
Staci, come up here.
She can literally just use that box for a light assist.
Get the same thing set up as before.
Feet set out,
turned out slightly.
Chest is up.
Hands on the box as you start to descend.
From here, make sure that we're not leaning back.
A lot of times people ...
You really can't lean back with a box
or you'll tip it right on top of you.
Some people lean back too far,
like they are water skiing.
No good, okay.
We wanna keep a balance just like a regular squat.
- If you go down.
- So, we're not water skiing.
- What's that? No.
Is that next year for Camp Nerd Fitness?
I can't wait.
I still haven't done the blog.
Anyway, let's get our hands set on the box like this.
You'll know you're in a good position
with this assisted squat if,
squat down to the bottom just to squat,
You know you're in a good position
if you can remove your hands from whatever you are using.
Boom.
And still stay balanced with no movement.
Hands right on and right back up.
Staci, of course, squatting pro
so she doesn't need this at all,
but if you do need this you'll feel it
because it's might be very tight in your hips
as you go down toward the bottom of the range of motion.
You wanna make sure that the chest is up,
the lower back is nice and tight
and everything is nice and balanced in your squat.
- Sweet, cool.
Thanks, guys.
Make sure you check out the rest of our videos
and head on over to nerdfitness.com
in case you want to learn more about us and the rebellion.
Cheers.
(shooting)
- Gotcha.