A properly performed squat doesn’t just work the quadriceps muscles, it also recruits the big powerful muscles of the glutes and requires coordinated activation of the hamstrings to help stabilise the knee joint and calf muscles to stabilise and create movement through the ankle. On top of the recruitment of pretty much all of the muscles of the lower body in some manner, either to create movement or stabilise the joints, the squat also recruits many of the muscles of the back to support the load of the bar through the spine, and also flexion and extension of the spine is required to keep the bar over our base of support as the knees and hips flex to squat, recruiting the erector muscles that run parallel to the spine.
One of the biggest debates in squatting is what squat depth is. For me it really depends on goal, for strength sports like powerlifting, the strict definition is that the crease of the hips must go below the line of the top of the knee. For bodybuilders, squatting to around a 90-degree angle between shin and thigh is enough to maximise load on the quads to support muscle growth. But how do we get to depth? In part one, we talked just about the set up to the squat, but what do we do now we’re ready to perform the squat? This may seem simple, but actually it needs some thought.
Typically with the high bar squat we are talking about in this article, as we are stood at the start position the bar is pretty much over our ‘base of support’. Start by thinking about viewing the squat from the side, if we start the squat by bending at the hip before the knees then the bar might drift forwards and make it difficult to control the bar path, which we want to keep in as straight a vertical line as possible and directly over our base (around about mid-food). By keeping the bar in a straight path, we can focus on just controlling and lifting the bar in the vertical direction, not having to ‘fight’ the bar in both the forward or backward direction. Therefore, we want to ‘break’ at the knees and hips at approximately the same time. In my experience, for most people, a break at the knee slightly before the hips allows the bar to stay in a better position and allows a person to really sit back into a squat (instead of straight down) allowing them to get more depth, more comfortably with better bar path control and generate more force to actually lift the bar from the bottom of the squat.
This will be dependent on a lot of factors, including the length of the different segments of the body, the shin, thigh, back, pelvic structure and bar position. So, the key is to really work out what works best for you to help you achieve depth. This will also include a specific tempo, some people like to drop into the squat quickly and use the stored, elastic energy in the muscles and tendons to almost bounce out the bottom of the squat. Others prefer to really control the decent with a slow eccentric movement, allowing the load to be felt, tension to be kept on the muscles and a more stable, potentially safer feeling squat.
If we think of the squat from the front position, one of the most important things that even experienced squatters often ‘Fail’ on is when going heavy, the knees cave inwards from the sides. This is not good for loading the structures of the knee. It is really important that along with ensuring a fairly neutral spine position is maintained that the knees track over the foot (this does not mean that the knees can’t drift forwards from the side view) with as little cave in as possible. This can be achieved by actively driving the knees outwards at the start of the squat, which will help to activate the big muscles of the glutes, leading to a more stable and powerful squat. If you find that you always have knee cave then it could be a sign of two things, either your squat setup and stance are wrong for you, or most commonly that you are not recruiting the glutes and other abductors of the thigh correctly. If this is the case you need to do some specific work to correct this.
At this point it may seem like there is a lot to think about, to a certain point there is, but once you have mastered the technique at lighter loads, found your own tempo and positioning, then it does become automatic and requires only a few key ‘prompts’ to make sure you squat perfectly and as safely as possible each and every time. Remember, the ‘tone’ of the squat is set from the second you get under the bar at the rack, so remember to attack this with intent and the rest of the squat will follow suit.
Paul Rimmer (BSc, MSc, PhD).
