Three Tips to Improve Your Squats

The squat is the king of all exercises.

Why?

It works the largest muscles in the body, relying on the center joint, the hip, and it releases HGH and testosterone into the body.

All in all, the squat is arguably the best exercise that you can do for performance and general fitness.

As great as the squat is it comes with risky biomechanics. What do I mean? Well. if you do it wrong you can tweak your back, hips, or knees.

The easiest way to ensure you do it right is to apply basic biomechanics -

1. Check you joint alignment. Line to line. Hip to knee. Knee to ankle. Straight lines? All joints facing inward? No knee collapse? You're good.

2. Next, while doing a squat, is your hip mobile, going through its full range? If not, that's a problem. Back off your weight. Practice partial range of motion exercises.

3. Is your ankle tight? If yes, it will most likely limit your hip mobility which triggers a cascade of negative events. Stretch the muscles around your ankle and make sure it is healthy before squats.

Watch the video for a clear and easy demonstration of a back squat.

And to learn more about how the squat relates to athletic performance and your knowledge of it can help you perform qualitative analysis to predict sports outcomes, click here.

Author Biography

Amy Ashmore, Ph.D. holds a doctorate in Kinesiology from the University of Texas at Austin. She is located in Las Vegas, NV.