Barbell Squats

Barbell squats are the king of leg exercises. They are arguably the most important exercise for building muscle and developing high levels of whole-body strength.

It a lift almost in a class of it’s own, and perhaps should be classified separately from the rest of the exercises here.

It’s the single best exercise you can do to:

• Add pounds of mass to your frame
• Develop immense full-body strength
• Send your fat-burning metabolism through the roof.

In a nutshell; there’s weight lifting, and then there’s squatting.

Which muscles do they work?

Barbell squats primarily target the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings and lower back. The glutes and hamstrings are most active in the bottom of the lift, and the quads become more active as you stand up.

Your calves, abdominal core and upper back are heavily involved in stablisation in the barbell squat. In fact, the barbell squat works so many of your muscles so heavily, it is often thought of as a full-body lift.

The emphasis of stress shifts from muscle to muscle, depending on the technique you use. The closer your stance, the more you stress the lower back and quadriceps. The wider your stance, the more you stress the glutes, hamstrings and inner thighs.

A wide-stance barbell squat is often referred to as a powerlifter’s squat, and a closer stance is usually associated with bodybuilders who use the squat for growth and shape in the quadriceps.

Technique

Position a loaded barbell in the squat rack. Choosing the right height is important. You want it resting on notches where you have to bend your knees a little bit to get yourself under the bar. This makes it easy to dump the weight back at the same level after a heavy set.

Position yourself directly under the bar in the middle. Grasp the bar firmly overhand on either side. Make contact with the bar with the trapezius muscles of your upper back.

Stand up fully, with the bar resting on your back. It should not be resting on the top of your spine – the weight should be spread out evenly across the muscular “cushion” of your trapezius muscles.

If you’ve never squatted before, it might feel uncomfortable. As you train the squat, however, your trapezius muscles toughen up and you get better at resting the bar in the sweet spot.

You’ll find you need to lean forward a little bit to balance the weight over your centre of gravity. This is, fine, as long as you keep your back arched. You should be standing erect, with the barbell resting on your back and stabilised each side by your grip.

Now, take a step or two out of the rack, into the squatting area. Many squat or power racks have safety bars or pins – you should be standing between them. Position your feet roughly shoulder width apart with toes pointing forward.

Keep your head level and look directly ahead. The squat requires stabilisation from your whole body – so your whole body should feel tensed – particularly the core muscles of your lower back and abdominals.

Begin your decent into the bottom of the squat. This should mimic a “sitting” motion – you should bend at the hips and knees. Keep your feet flat on the ground as you descend.

How Deep?

As a general rule, you should descend at least to parallel – that is, to the point at which your upper thighs are parallel with the floor. Ideally, you should go as deep as you can before your lower back starts to round.

Don’t pay to much attention to the gym nazis preaching that you should always be going “ass to grass”. The truth is, deep squatting is safer and more effective – as long as you are not compromising the arch in your lower back. How deep you can go depends on body mechanics - if you have a long back and short legs, you might want to stop the descent around parallel to retain the arch in your back.

However, if it’s just an issue of flexibility or weak hamstrings, then you have no excuse not to go below parallel – strengthen the hamstrings with deadlifts and stiff-leg deadlifts, and stretch your glutes, hams and hips regularly. Squat depth will get better as you increase flexibility and hamstring strength.

Standing Up

At the bottom of the squat, all you need to do is simply “stand up”. That’s the best way to put it – stand up, with the weight on your back. Keep your back arched and your ass sticking out.

It helps to try and push “through the heels” to make sure you aren’t leaning forward on to your toes. Extend your body until you are fully standing, with knees “unlocked”, i.e. with just a slight bend. That’s one rep – phew!

At the end of your set, step forward and re-rack the weight smoothly, but don’t worry about doing it overly slowly – it’s ok to just dump the weight after a heavy set.

It can take weeks to perfect good form in the squat. When you first start squatting it can pay to practice the form with a light barbell 3-4 times a week. Start with an empty bar and add 10lbs a session.

You can learn more about correct technique in the article on perfect squat form.

How do I include it in my training?

Almost everyone will benefit hugely from including barbell squats in their weight lifting routine. It’s probably the single most important exercise for building raw strength, muscle mass, core stability, athletic ability…etc.

It should undoubtedly be the first exercise you do on leg day. 3 sets of 8-10 reps will build mass in the thighs and glutes like no other. Bodybuilders tend to train the squat heavily once per week on leg day, whereas those looking for strength gains may benefit from squatting twice or more per week, in a lower rep range. How you include it depends on your lifting goals.

A word of warning: Be wary of low reps in this exercise. The barbell squat puts your body under an enormous load, and you can’t just drop the bar if you overexert yourself.

If you’re going to train in the low rep range (less than 6 reps per set) then it pays to first master perfect form at a higher rep range, and slowly add weight and decrease the number of reps. Only add weight if you can maintain perfect form.



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