Squats - Why you should be doing them

Squats are one of the very best exercises that you should be incorporating into your workouts that you probably arent. A lot of people shy away from squats because they think it is bad for their knees, or bad for their back or they are intimidated by them. If you have never done squats before, I can understand your apprehension but there are ways to build up to squats that make them more accessible.

Squatting works the largest muscles of your body: the quadriceps (front of the thighs), adductors (inner thighs), gluteals (buttocks), hamstrings (back of thighs), the gastrocnemius/soleus complex (calves) and the erector spinae (lower back) and studies have also shown that your core gets as good a workout during suats as doing ab exercises. Squats are also great because they are functional for daily life. You sit, stand up, bend over and reach for things many times during a day but how often do you do anything that resembles a leg curl?

If that isn't good enough, squats also are good for your cardiovascular system. You will be breathing hard after a set of squats, something that you don't neccesarily get with other exercises. Plus, you just look like a bad ass when you squat because you see so few people doing them. Don't get me started on the ridiculous men who have huge upper bodys but seldom or never do lower body exercise and walk around with little chicken legs.

The problem with squats though is they are often done incorrectly. I was a bad squatter for awhile and would use too high of a weight which would cause me to have bad form, which is why squats can hurt your knees and your back.

If you have never squated before start with no weight or use a broom to get a feel for the movement before adding weight. You should stand with your feet shoulder width apart and legs slightly bent and not in the locked position. If you aren't using weight put your hands in front of your chest like you are praying, make a fist with one hand and wrap your other hand over it, this will help you balance and feel more natural. Your weight should be balanced, not too far on your toes or on your heels, but on the balls of your feet so you feel stable. Your chest should be stuck out, shoulders back.

Squat down slowly making sure your knees do not pass your toes. Keep squating down until your quads are paralell to the floor - this is where I used to mess up, I wouldn't go down far enough. Maintain a slight arch in your lower back, keeping your head level and your upper back as upright as possible. Once you reach paralell with your thighs, drive back up focusing on driving up through your heels and squeezing your legs and glutes while you come up.
Bad Form:

Good Form:

You can start doing squats with just your body weight and progress to dumbbells. If you use dumbbells start in the same position and use the exact same form, but hold a dumbbell in each hand, plams facing in and arms at your sides. During the squats your arms should not move much, they are just there to hold the weight. From there you can progress up to squats on the Smith Machine, which is great because the bar is kept stable for you and then ultimately move up to a barbell and do squats freestanding. If you are doing heavy weights and don't have a spotter you might want to stick with the smith machine. It does the same function but the weight is stabalized for you so you won't crash to the ground, but you also won't be losing your stabalzing muscles and core as much.

You can also do variations of squats to work your legs differently. A 1 legged squat can be done by starting with one leg crossed over the opposite leg like this:

Or if you are a complete bad ass as well as really flexible, like this:

That shit is hard and if I could ever accomplish one rep of that I would be super excited.

Other variations include the barbell hack squat:

And one of my favorite, the plie squat, which works your inner thigh very well and can also be done with a barbell or on the smith machine:


So if you aren't doing squats, emrace your inner bad ass and start doing them today. Your ass will thank you for it.