How to Do a Squat | Video

The basic squat is a great way to strengthen your quads, gluts and low back but many people are performing it incorrectly . So today, I want to show you how to perfect the basic squat. There are many variations of squats that you can do. And some people like to add weight but before you do, it's important to master the basic squat correctly. We're gonna start with our feet shoulder width apart, toes facing forward. I want you to place your hands on your thighs and gaze up toward the sky, lifting your chest nice and high. As you bend your knees, I want you to place weight through the heels and sit back as if you're gonna sit in a chair, keep your head and chest upright. Slide your hands down your thighs, you want to end where your elbows meet your knees. so you're right here, chest is up, head is up, hips are back, weight is on the heels. Really important to go all the way down. Most people are going to get to about parallel with their thighs to the ground. And here you want to pause about 5 seconds. Keep the chest up as if you're showing your numbers on your jersey. You're gonna press though your heels as you come up. Press through the heels, come up nice and tall. Straighten out the hips and that is the perfect squat. A common mistake that people might make during a squat is a rounding of the back. This puts an unnessecary strain on the spine. And it could cause a pulled muscle or herniated disc, especially if you're holding onto weight, so you don't want to do that. You wanna make sure that you keep your chest upright and by doing doing that, you'll have a nice lumbar curvature where your back is nice and straight and you'll be protecting that spine as you go down through the movement and then back up. If you're having trouble with the squat it might be due to low back or glute weakness. So a couple exercises that you can do would be the bridges to strengthen your glutes and the Superman to strengthen that low back. Try to perform 3 sets of 15 reps to perfect your form. We'll see you next time on FitSugar TV.