Stepping under the barbell to perform a squat for the first time can be intimidating. Or perhaps you are new to barbell squats but it is still not quite feeling right because you are not sure what to focus on, or not sure what advice will work best for you.
At Desert Barbell, we work with a range of clients including total beginners. Through many years of practice, we have developed a system on how we teach the squat that has found a lot of success - even with more experienced lifters. This is done using three universal truths.
We suggest reading through the short article below before watching this video.
Universal truth 1
The prime movers for the squat are the muscles of the legs and hips. To get the force generated from these muscles to transfer into the bar we need to create torque in the hip. At the top of the squat, we encourage our lifters to twist their quads away from each other and focus on maintaining that on the way down and the way up of the Squat. Be mindful to not push the knees out, but rather focus on twisting your quads away from each other.
Universal truth 2
Once we have created torque in the hips maintaining an effective brace is crucial for power transfer from the muscles of the legs and the hips into the bar. It doesn’t matter how strong the legs and hips are if the brace is not maintained. To maintain a strong brace, we must create pressure through breathing and also contracting the muscles of the abdominals, obliques and lower back. It is important that we are in a neutral spine position when bracing. Often, we end up giving our athletes the que of keeping the ribs down. This is to counteract the fact that having the barbell on the back often results in lifters going into spinal extension.
Universal truth 3
We want the upper back to be in a fixed neutral position that is working against flexion. In general lifters should grip the bar as narrow as shoulder mobility allows. Once grip is established the lifter needs to pull the shoulder blades back and down to achieve maximal tension.
At Desert Barbell, our personal trainers and strength coaches work with a range of clients to build better lifting technique to support their strength training goals. If you are serious about strength training in Dubai and want to learn how strength training can help you, then get in touch with us.
If you are a strength coach or personal trainer and want to learn how to coach within the Desert Barbell system, then apply for our REPs accredited Strength Coach Certification.