Make The Squat a Core Exercise in Your Workout For Fast Results!

If you were new to the gym that I go to, you would be forgiven for thinking that squats were not in most people’s workout routines and that the squat rack, or power rack was some kind of exotic sculpture!  In my gym, just like other gyms I have been a member of in the past, the squat rack often cuts a lonely figure in the corner, rarely visited, hardly ever used.

Meanwhile, the leg press machine, and even the hack squat machine get more attention.  There is no justice for the poor squat rack.  Why is this? I think the answer to this question lies in the fact that squats are hard.  If you haven’t done squats before, or you are not used to doing them, they can be difficult and uncomfortable.  The bar across your shoulders can be awkward, and squatting down to where your thighs are parallel to the ground is actually quite difficult, and presents most people with problems that have as much to do with balance, as with strength.

Put Some Effort Into Your Squats For Explosive Results!

Put Some Effort Into Your Squats For Explosive Results!

But like many of the compound exercises, that is the beauty of squatting.  It takes so many muscles to balance the bar and keep you body on a level plane as you descend to the bottom of the squat, that squats in themselves are a full body workout.  Your shoulder, traps and arms need to steady the bar.  Make sure you allow the bar to roll down slightly to rest on your trap muscles rather than pressing against the bony part of your spine that sticks out at the base of your neck.  Your lower back and glutes are instrumental in moving your body into position to help lower the weight through your knee bend.  All the time during the exercise, your abs and core muscles are flexing and adjusting to maintain your balance and stability.  And squats of course, are great for your quads and hamstrings, but they are so much more than a leg exercise.

Compound exercises, and squats in particular have a greater effect on your metabolic rate than isolation exercises like leg curls.  You only have to perform the exercise to notice the difference.  The overall bodily strain is greater and forces the body to adapt to greater demands.  As a result, squats have a greater effect on building lean muscle mass and overall strength. Exercises like the leg press have their place, but the principle difference is the leg press moves where the machine allows it to move, which almost always is straight up and down in a line.  With a free weight exercise like squats, the weight moves with your body and your muscular contraction which means that it is up to you, not a machine, to stabilize the weight to stop it from tipping over, and to keep it on the plane of motion that you want, and that is what brings in all the ancillary muscles into play.

I think sometimes gym users don’t do squats because of pride.  They are not used to doing them and are reluctant to start with lighter weights.  Far easier to load up the leg press, or wear big baggy sweats, and ignore legs altogether.  Some load up the bar and do a leg bend routine that is some way removed from squats – all weight and no depth. My advice is check your pride at the door.  Use the bar with no weight.  Find a comfortable position with the bar across your back resting on your traps.  Choose a spot on the wall just above your eye line that you can watch as you perform the exercise – it will help you to maintain a straight back.  Let your hips initiate the movement and squat down to parallel, and then back up.  Don’t bounce.  Get used to the movement, and once you are, you can start to add weight, but do not lose depth to add weight.  The depth of the squat affects the load that your quads have to deal with and also, the shallower you squat, the less your ancillary muscles will become involved in stabilizing the weight.

The squat is a great exercise for all round fitness, strength and fat burning – get it into your workout routine!

Image credit: Dehwang