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Back Squat

Learn how to master the form of the Back Squat with an in-depth tutorial. Professional personal trainer Ashley provides tips, techniques, and progressions to help you optimize your Back Squat form and strength.

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Transcript

00:00 - 00:03This is Brent coming at you with a big strength training video, we're doing the
00:03 - 00:08back loaded squat by request. Now I haven't done this video in the past, I
00:08 - 00:13think part of it is just because in my thinking you guys already know how to do
00:13 - 00:17a squat. The squat is a squat, the kinetic chain checkpoints for all of our lower
00:17 - 00:22body exercise stay relatively the same. The back squat in particular has a very
00:22 - 00:28narrow scope right. So if we're doing a back loaded squat other than possibly
00:28 - 00:33introducing it in a stabilization phase, this is going to be a strength or max
00:33 - 00:37strength exercise in that 1 to 12 rep range. I'm going to have my friend Yvette
00:37 - 00:42come out, she's going to help me go through some of the finer points of a
00:42 - 00:45back squat. But I think once we get turned around you guys are going to see that
00:45 - 00:49this is an exercise you already have down, and you just needed to see it
00:49 - 00:54applied. So first things first, where does that bar go right. We hear a lot of
00:54 - 00:59questions about that, if you guys palpate you can feel a ridge just underneath
00:59 - 01:04your your upper traps here, this is the spine of your scapula. The bar should sit
01:04 - 01:09just above the spine of the scapula on the ridge that your upper traps create.
01:09 - 01:13You don't want to have the bar way up high where it's putting a lot of
01:13 - 01:17pressure on your your cervical thoracic junction, there's not a whole lot of
01:17 - 01:22muscles here to try to stabilize a posterior to anterior force on the
01:22 - 01:28cervical spine. We want that bar placed here so the friction of the skin, the
01:28 - 01:32ridge that the spine of the scapula creates, and these large scapular
01:32 - 01:36elevators can stabilize the amount of weights that it's going to be on Yvettes
01:36 - 01:42back. Now Yvettes going to go ahead and get in position. Let me also make the
01:42 - 01:48note here guys that's getting underneath the bar and stepping forward, this is not
01:48 - 01:53ideal. The only reason I set this up like this is so you guys can see the squat
01:53 - 01:59technique on camera. Ideally I would have Yvette take a step backwards, so that if she got
01:59 - 02:03into trouble she could lean forward into the safety rack. She's going to go ahead
02:03 - 02:08and get in the squat position, stand up, take a big step forward. Now another safety
02:08 - 02:13principle, I want you guys to be able to see what the squat looks like, if I was
02:13 - 02:18going to spot Yvette I would spot a Yvette from the back right. I want to be in good
02:18 - 02:23position to have my hands underneath the bar if that's where she's comfortable. I
02:23 - 02:26can also put my hands underneath her shoulders, and then I want to make sure
02:26 - 02:32that i can get my hip, thrust into her backside, so that if she starts falling
02:32 - 02:39forward or falling back I'm here to stabilize her. I have heard some nasty
02:39 - 02:43stories of personal trainers getting themselves into trouble with with
02:43 - 02:46clients falling over on this exercise, there really shouldn't be a reason for
02:46 - 02:53that providing that you can get in this position and spot them. Now I know Yvette
02:53 - 02:57is very very comfortable with this weight, she can actually do at least double this
02:57 - 03:05weight, so I'm going to spin around to point out her form here. So first thing I want
03:05 - 03:09you guys to notice, I've actually had to have Yvette bring her feet just a little
03:09 - 03:15closer. You knowing your kinetic chain checkpoints; feet parallel hip to
03:15 - 03:23shoulder width no wider, knees over feet, hips over knees, she has a neutral pelvis
03:23 - 03:29and her head when she's up is facing up, other than that she has a nice neutral
03:29 - 03:34spine. As she descends into a squat, go ahead descend into a squat here,
03:34 - 03:39notice that all of this stuff stays nice and aligned, her head actually starts facing
03:39 - 03:43down a few feet in front of her, as her spine comes down she wants to keep that
03:43 - 03:48cervical spine neutral. So let's see another one of those because it should
03:48 - 03:52all sound really familiar, it's the same kinetic chain checkpoints we keep going
03:52 - 03:59over. I think the popularity of the powerlifting squat has actually
03:59 - 04:04confounded what you guys already know. Now let's have Yvette go through another
04:04 - 04:12one and notice what her range of motion is. Her range of motion is as far down as
04:12 - 04:19she can control with optimal mechanics and no pain. I don't care how close your
04:19 - 04:23butt is to the floor, I don't care for femurs are perpendicular to the floor.
04:23 - 04:28None of that matters if it requires compensation for her to get down there.
04:28 - 04:32She's actually doing a wonderful job of maintaining perfect alignment, if I know
04:32 - 04:36that she has good alignment, I know that her like tension relationships are
04:36 - 04:41optimal, I know that I'm getting the most out of her muscular system, as well as
04:41 - 04:45putting the least amount of stress on her arthrokinematic system. Now the one
04:45 - 04:49big cue I would give you guys to help increase the strength of this exercise,
04:49 - 04:54which is a cue that i've found works really really well, so the prime mover of
04:54 - 05:00this exercise should be the glutes, right in order to get the glutes firing when Yvette
05:00 - 05:03gets to the bottom, i'm going to have
05:03 - 05:07her squeeze her glutes and thrust her hips forward in order to get herself up.
05:07 - 05:12So she's actually throughout thinking about thrusting her hips that way, which
05:12 - 05:18is more or less the direction of force that your glutes imply or glutes
05:18 - 05:23impose. How does that feel Yvette? Good. Now I'm going to have Yvette go ahead and
05:23 - 05:29rack this back up. I'm going to help into this position as this is awkward. All right give
05:29 - 05:32her a couple seconds breather. I'm going to have her turn around because there is
05:32 - 05:38one thing that I want you guys to watch for, if you see this i would say that a
05:38 - 05:45back-loaded squad is contraindicated, and so i'm going to have Yvette actually get
05:45 - 05:56underneath the bar on the back-up. Take a step back good, she's going to get into
05:56 - 06:00position. Now what I see in the gym a little bit which always gets me worried,
06:00 - 06:05is what's called an asymmetrical weight shift. I know some of you guys know what
06:05 - 06:10I'm talking about where somebody squats down, and I can't have a Yvette do this
06:10 - 06:13because just to have her do it would be dangerous, but have you guys ever seen
06:13 - 06:17where somebody does this thing towards the bottom, where they they get a little
06:17 - 06:23wink sometimes what we call it where they actually shipped laterally. If you guys
06:23 - 06:29see that that increases the load on the lumbar spine and lumbosacral joints a
06:29 - 06:34whole lot, that is setting somebody a promo back pain. If I saw that I would go
06:34 - 06:39back to my corrective exercise, take the back squat away from them. I know that
06:39 - 06:42that might cause a little bit of an argument with your
06:42 - 06:46patient, but I would take this this exercise away from home for a little
06:46 - 06:56while, while I had a chance to correct this.
06:56 - 06:59So just kind of reviewing guys I think you've always known how to do the back
06:59 - 07:04squat.The back squat is the same as the front squat video we did, it's even kind
07:04 - 07:08of the same as the lunge video we did, or the step up video. It's always the
07:08 - 07:12same kinetic chain checkpoints, we're looking for optimal alignment. I have to
07:12 - 07:16say I've been somewhat disappointed what I've seen especially on a fitness realm
07:16 - 07:21recently. We made so many strides towards improving the quality of human movement,
07:21 - 07:29this whole idea that it is as important to move better as it is to move more, and
07:29 - 07:33somehow through the popularity of certain programs, and the popularity of
07:33 - 07:36powerlifting which i'm not against, all of a sudden i'm starting to see that
07:36 - 07:44super super wide knee turned out squat, this is nothing more than a compensation
07:44 - 07:48pattern just as you would assess it during an overhead squat. Yes will this
07:48 - 07:53feel better to somebody who has lower leg dysfunction, absolutely but why not
07:53 - 07:58fix their lower leg dysfunction, stretch their calves, activate tibialis anterior.
07:58 - 08:03There is going to be a price to pay for this, I can guarantee that this will
08:03 - 08:09increase adductor Magnus tonicity, it's going to increase biceps femoris, it's
08:09 - 08:13going to increase the stresses that are placed on your hips and lower back; and
08:13 - 08:20over the course of time this is actually far more dangerous than
08:20 - 08:27this is while fixing compensation. Now you might not be able to feel it now, but
08:27 - 08:32over time these little things, these little form things start to add up. So
08:32 - 08:38guys this is me giving you my view of the squat. I think you guys will be great
08:38 - 08:43benefits from a squat, considering using it with inside of that small parameter
08:43 - 08:51of strength and max strength train. If you want to work on multi-planar
08:51 - 08:54movement, three dimensional movement as I've heard it's called, I don't know that
08:54 - 09:00I would use a back squat for that exercise, and always always always
09:00 - 09:06quality of movement first. It is not enough to have people move more if you
09:06 - 09:09can also make them move better. I hope you guys get great results, talk to you
09:09 - 09:12soon.

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