3 Tips To Improve your squat

You might recognise squatting as a great exercise that people do in the gym, but it's far more than that.

Squatting is a fundamental human movement.

If you have ever...

• got up and down from the floor,

• helped a child tie their shoes,

• tied your own shoes without a seat or step to sit on,​

• picked up a large and heavy object from the floor, or

• crouched down to get something out of a low cupboard...

...then you've probably squatted. It might not have looked exactly like the classic squat that you see i​n​ the gym, but it was still a squat.

​Squatting is everywhere, so it pays to get good at it.

In this post we'll share with you 3 tips to improve your squat. They won't give you the perfect squat all on their own,​ and ultimately my squat will always look a little different to your squat simply because body proportions play a massive role in squatting,​ but they'll take you a long way in the right direction for relatively little effort.

TIP 1 - Knees in line with feet

A common error that many of us will make when we first start squatting is to have your knees come too close to each other during the squat. It's like we temporarily become a little bit knock kneed as we squat.

What we want is for our knees to track in line with our toes as we squat.

The reason this is important is knee health. The knee is essentially a hinge joint. It primarily wants to move in one direction. Yes, it can rotate a little in other ways, but it's not what it really wants. When we allow our knees to track towards each other our knees bend in a way that they don't love!

Here’s how you start to keep your knees tracking in line with you toes:

1) Feet shoulder width apart. That's probably slightly wider than your normal stance.

2) Feet close to straight. You don't want them dead straight like standing on train tracks, but nor do you want them pointed out like a duck!

3) Weight evenly distributed between (a) the ball of the foot behind the big toe, (b) the outside edge of the foot, and (c) the heel.

4) As you squat, maintain points 1, 2 and 3 while keeping your knees tracking in line with your toes. This will likely feel like you need to push your knees outwards more than you currently do.

Tip 2 - Hips back!

​Try this for me.

Do a ​squat that's comfortable for you and pay attention to which part of your body initiates the movement.

Which body part moves first?

​If you are like many other people, then when you first start consciously practicing squats, the first movement in your squat will come from your knees. They will move forward​, and then continue to move forward as you descend. At a certain point, you'll feel that you can't go any lower without lifting your heels off the ground. ​It looks like this.​

​Contrary to popular fitness industry opinion, squatting with your heels raised off the ground is not necessarily a problem. But it is a problem if that's the only way you can squat. Some squats ​should be performed with your heels off the ground.

If I'm squatting down to get something out of the cupboard, that is much easier done with my heels in the air.

​On the other hand, if I'm squatting down to pick up a heavy object, that's best done with my heels on the ground.

And if I want to get into a deep squat with my heels on the ground, I need to learn not to start the movement​ by bending my knees.

The way we learn to do this is by deliberately starting the movement by pushing our hips back a little bit. Don't get me wrong, in the long term we want to start the movement with a simultaneous movement of both the hips and knees, but for the time being, while you're learning not to start the movement with your knees, we're going to go in completely the opposite direction and move our hips first.

It goes like this:

1) Start standing

2) Push your hips back a little bit, accompanied by leaning forward sightly

3) From here, descend by bending both the hips and knees simultaneously

​​If you do this correctly, you will almost certainly immediately be able to squat lower than you could when you initiated the movement with your knees.

Over time, once you are comfortable with moving the hips first, you should adjust the movement to initiate your squat at the hips and knees simultaneously.​

Tip 3 - Ankle mobility matters

When you squat do you feel like you have to bend forward a long way?

Do you feel like you can't stay as upright or squat as low to the ground as everyone else?

D​oes your squat look like this?​

Your ankles might be the problem

I know it can sound weird that your ankles might be the problem, but hear me out.

Have a look at this photo. In it you can see that the front of my knee is in front of my toes. This is a hallmark of a quality deep squat.

I know that you might have been told that squatting with your knees over your toes is bad for your knees, but that is a myth. With the right technique and mobility it's totally fine. In fact knees coming in front of toes towards the bottom of a deep squat is a critical feature of that squat. Let me show you why.

In the next two photos sequences I start in a deep squat and then pretend that I don't have flexible ankles. To do this, I move my knees back to in line with my toes. When I do this, one of either two things happens.

If, as I shift my knees backwards, I stay low in the squat, then I fall over. Shifting my knees backwards shifts my whole centre of mass backwards such that it is no longer over my feet. Then I fall.

If I don't want to fall then the other option is to raise my hips. If I do that then I keep my centre of mass above my feet. I don't fall, but I do end up bent forwards much further.

Th​is​ might look / feel familiar to you.

In this position it might feel that my hips are too tight to squat deeper (and they could be), but don't forget to check if the problem is your ankles.

If you’d like to know more about how to improve you ankle mobility in ways that will help your squat then check out this post.

​OTHER TYPES OF SQUATS

So far almost all the photos we have shown you related to a typical flat footed squat with your feet in a line that you might see in the gym. But there are many other different types of squat.

You might be wondering, "Will these tips help with those squats as well?"

Yes, for the most part they will.

Even though some squats look quite different to others, the fundamental principles still apply. As an example, let's look at a split squat (similar to the position you might adopt to tie your shoes).

Are my knees in line with my toes​?

Yes. See the difference between these two photos.

​​Have I moved my hips back to begin the movement?

You can't tell from the photo, but the answer is no. However, remember that in some squats it's ok for the heels to raise off the floor, and in that case, there is likely to be less hip movement required. A split squat like this is one of those cases.

​​Are my ankles sufficiently mobile for the squat I’m performing?

Yes. In this squat I maintain an upright posture, indicating that my ankles were sufficiently mobile for the movement. Note also that a split squat requires less ankle mobility that the flat footed squats that you might be using to lift weights in the gym.

Want help with your squat?

​We help people of all ages and abilities to improve their squat, both for athletic performance, but just as importantly, to keep ourselves fit and active in daily life. If you'd like to know more then click below to book a free consultation​

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