Plenty of people discuss what the king of all exercise movements is. Most fitness professionals will probably agree that the squat is one of the best exercise movements for building muscle on your entire body. There is no doubt that lifting heavy weight in this exercise will turbo charge your results, but first you will need to learn how to effectively perform the movement.
Begin by putting your feet shoulder width apart. There are several variations of the squat. You can execute the exercise with your legs and feet spread wider like a sumo wrestler, or you can squat with a very narrow stance to place more focus on your quadriceps. If you use a shoulder width foot position, you can then learn any other variation.
Right before you step under the barbell, you should arch your back as tight as you can. Holding a firm back arch through the entire movement will help to avoid injury to your lower back. With a strong back arch, you should put your hands slightly wider than shoulder width on the bar and then step below the bar so that it is resting on your trapezius muscles.
Hold the bar as hard as you can, and think about arching the weight out of the supports. Once the barbell is out of the supports you should think about sitting back with it and not actually squatting down with it. This sitting back motion will stimulate your hamstrings and also take most of the load off of your knees and place it on the more durable hip joints. You may have to lean forward slightly to preserve your balance, but as long as you keep a firm back arch a small bit of leaning will not hurt you.
Proceed to sit back up to the point your thighs are parallel with the ground and then push hard into the floor with your feet until you are standing fully vertical. Be sure you keep your entire body tight for the duration of the exercise. This can easily be accomplished by just gripping the barbell as hard as possible and maintaining a hard back arch for every repetition. A tight stomach and arched back muscles, will help to stop injury.
The squat can be executed with heavy weight for low reps to build power or lighter with higher reps to greatly enhance your stamina and conditioning. Always remember to warm up before you set about to handle heavy weights, and for the sake of your safety it is best to use a minimum of one spotter when you execute the movement.
Begin by putting your feet shoulder width apart. There are several variations of the squat. You can execute the exercise with your legs and feet spread wider like a sumo wrestler, or you can squat with a very narrow stance to place more focus on your quadriceps. If you use a shoulder width foot position, you can then learn any other variation.
Right before you step under the barbell, you should arch your back as tight as you can. Holding a firm back arch through the entire movement will help to avoid injury to your lower back. With a strong back arch, you should put your hands slightly wider than shoulder width on the bar and then step below the bar so that it is resting on your trapezius muscles.
Hold the bar as hard as you can, and think about arching the weight out of the supports. Once the barbell is out of the supports you should think about sitting back with it and not actually squatting down with it. This sitting back motion will stimulate your hamstrings and also take most of the load off of your knees and place it on the more durable hip joints. You may have to lean forward slightly to preserve your balance, but as long as you keep a firm back arch a small bit of leaning will not hurt you.
Proceed to sit back up to the point your thighs are parallel with the ground and then push hard into the floor with your feet until you are standing fully vertical. Be sure you keep your entire body tight for the duration of the exercise. This can easily be accomplished by just gripping the barbell as hard as possible and maintaining a hard back arch for every repetition. A tight stomach and arched back muscles, will help to stop injury.
The squat can be executed with heavy weight for low reps to build power or lighter with higher reps to greatly enhance your stamina and conditioning. Always remember to warm up before you set about to handle heavy weights, and for the sake of your safety it is best to use a minimum of one spotter when you execute the movement.
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Learn more about getting strong. Stop by Dustin Aaron's site where you can find out all about strength building exercises and what they can do for you.
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