How to Squat Properly (MAJOR FORM FIX!)

Squat with proper form and see explosive leg growth!

[Music] what’s up guys Jeff Cavalier aex. com obviously the squat obviously a major uh focus of a lower body strength program why because it’s one of the most functional movement patterns we do we do know that there’s some checkpoints though with a squat and I think that a lot of guys are overlooking one of the most important and I want to show you that today when we squat we know that elbows should be tucked head should be up feet should be on a line toes pointed out knees go out as we go down now I’m going to do a whole other video talking about how one squat position doesn’t fit for everybody okay but we’ll get to that in a different at a different time for this video though we know those points and I wanted to show you how even when you have all those checkpoints right chest out right there’s still one thing that you could be doing dramatically wrong and show you how to fix it today so we take any kind of a stick that we can put on the ground here and we know that if you want to squat and squat properly you should be square right right it’s like playing golf anybody that’s ever played golf it should be square to the line so my feet are square here we’re going to point the toes out a little bit okay still still Square the line whether your toes are straight ahead or whether your toes are pointed out your feet are still square and lined up on that line when I go down into the squat again the knees will go out and I come down heads out chest out elbows down right glutes engaged there’s still one major problem watch if I take this and I put it up against my hips right here okay this has also got to be square these should be square with this because I can do this and my feet have not changed I’ve just opened up my hips but my feet haven’t changed so I can think that I’m Square because I’m facing ahead my chest is ahead my feet are square my feet are Level everything is good but I’ve just opened up my hips and it happens all the time guys because we’re very asymmetrical people whether we sit all day and we develop imbalances in the in the muscles around our hips or we have an actual leg length imbalance that will cause something like this but this torsion that’s going on here is a very common problem so what happens is in a really exaggerated way if I were to turn all the way like this okay complete exaggeration no one’s ever going to look like this and then I try to squat look what happens to the right leg the left leg goes down Fine the right leg is caving in okay we’ve got a valgus at the knee okay it’s looking like that this is a bad position for your knee especially if you count up all the Reps of squats that you’re doing this applies to deadlifts as well guys the same position the same thing can happen up here at the hips you count up all the Reps that you’re doing damage here at your knee that’s going to cause a problem over time so what we want to do is make sure that we’re squared off here too how do you do that if it’s already something that you can’t perceive and it’s already something that your body has adapted to here’s one quick thing you can try to do when you get up in your position here I’ll put it down here first if you’re the kind of guy who’s a little bit tight again it could be the other way too but to demonstrate here if you’re somewhat open hips are feet are square but your hips are somewhat open the best way to check for that and to make sure even if you don’t know if you are is to squeeze your glutes tight just like that I squeeze my glutes together as tight as I possibly can what that does is it levels off the hips it will Square them off I just found that by being back here my left glute had a lot more work to do to get me back to Center all right so I squeeze the glutes now from here okay then I go down into my rep and then I come out and before I go another rep I squeeze the glutes again real tight just to make sure that I didn’t fall back out of line again okay that I stay here and then down down and then up and through and the same thing can happen and apply to a deadlift as well you go down you come up it’s a little easier there because it’s a really natural portion of the deadlift to come up and actually squeeze follow through with your hips but on the squat a lot of guys will come up and kind of hang out right here which looks good it looks like you’re at the top but you’re not really fully extended and that full extension is going to set your hips properly so that now everything’s in line and a little bonus tip for you guys that do play Go that is a major issue you set your alignment up there’s the flag you’re here everything’s good the hips are open likely you’re going to come over the top and probably uh either slice the ball or whatever but you have to be lined up no matter what it is you’re doing and especially when it comes to the gym you want to be doing reps that are quality that have you in the right biomechanical alignment or you’re going to cause joint problems pain discomfort uh all that all that stuff for uh a long time so you want to make sure you set your Stu up right so there you have it guys this tip again this is where I put in my physical therapy hat and I try to show you guys from a biomechanic standpoint how doing the wrong things can actually lead to bigger problems forget just in your strength levels but really to your body over time starts to have uh major implications on how you function so I got to get these videos out there to you as well and I think now that we have our third video kind of slots in nicely as I’m able to give you guys sort of that pts video to help you but again you can see just a small tweak in the hips I’m telling you not will it will only not just correct some of these biomechanical flaws you have but it’s going to allow you to lift more weight it’s going to allow you to get stronger because your body is not working the way it wants to guys we put the science back in strength again not to be flashy but to do this for a purpose to make you guys stronger more functional and athletic and if you guys want a complete program to help you do that that’s the athletex training system you guys can get that at aex. com in the meantime let me know if you like these types of videos what other problems are you deal dealing with what would you like to see me cover leave that in the comments below and as always if you like the video and found it helpful a thumbs up too all right guys I’ll be back here in just a couple days