Train Like an Athlete by ATHLEAN-X (Video Podcast)

If you are looking to improve your squat, then this video is mandatory viewing. When it comes to squats, there are lots of tips used to help you perform the lift better, safer and with more weight. The problem is, the wrong tip can get you focusing on something that you don’t have much control over and can set you off down the path of compromising elsewhere in the lift and getting hurt. Here I show you the best tip for getting out of the hole and explain why it works so well.

Firstly, nothing is more important than the setup of the squat. If your body is out of alignment and the bar is not braced in the appropriate place for you then you are going to struggle on the lift no matter what else you do. The same can be said about your hips. Your hips need to be squared off when initiating the lift in order to ensure symmetrical loading of the legs during the descent.

I actually covered this in a previous video that has been helpful to many. You can view that here and it will be linked at the end of this current video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEQQle9-0NA

The key to any good tip is that it solves a problem quickly (on the first time you try it) with minimal focus on the minutia and details that are hard to control once the weight is added to the bar. Similar to a back row, we are often given a tip to extend our arms back behind our torso to ensure a good contraction. That is not necessarily the case. I can pull my arms back but still lack thoracic extension which is going to prevent the full contraction of the back muscles.

Instead, the better cue is to stick your chest out while pulling your arms back. This fixes the issue of kyphosis while automatically allowing you to pull your arms into extension behind your torso and get the best back contraction in the process. Because you can actually see your chest and control its movement much easier, it becomes a more practical tip with much more bang for the buck.

The same can occur on the squat. First, on the descent, we are told to sit back. This is a tough concept to visualize and feel without some form of objective feedback that ensures you are doing it correctly and enough. The box squat provides you with the biofeedback to know that you now have a target to sit back towards while at the same time giving you a physical cue on when you have reached the appropriate depth.

Well, once you get to the bottom of the squat (the hardest portion of the lift) the key is knowing how to get out of it explosively and with maximum stability. Any stability loss here and compromise of your tightened core will lead to a loss of strength and potentially you missing the lift. So, people will tell you to keep a tight core throughout. Once again however, what does that really mean? Are you supposed to just bear down, contract the abs, lean forward?

Instead, if you focus on simply initiating the upward movement of the bar by moving your hips and chest at the exact same time you will nail this every time. Because the core connects the hips and chest together, movement of the two simultaneously demands that the core contracts and braces to keep the two in sync. Problem fixed. Ambiguity gone. Squat improved.

If you want to lift more weight, get stronger and perform better on every lift you do then you have to start focusing on doing the things that help you to improve at every opportunity. Athletes take every element of their training seriously and leave no room for error. If you are looking to train like an athlete and get more out of every workout you do, head to http://athleanx.com and get the ATHLEAN-X Training Syste