Barbell Back Squat

intermediate · squat

Setup

Set the bar in the rack at chest height and set the safety pins at your standing hip height, a little below where the bar stops at the bottom of your squat; take one rep with an empty bar to be sure the pins actually catch it. Step under the bar, rest it on the shelf of your upper traps rather than on the neck bones, and take an even grip on both sides.

Execution

Pull your shoulder blades together, lift the bar off the hooks by standing up, then take exactly two steps back to clear the rack.
Set your feet shoulder-width or slightly wider with the toes turned out a little, and spread your weight across the whole foot.
Take a breath into your belly, brace your abs around it, then lower by bending the knees and dropping the hips together.
Go down until your hip crease is level with your knee, keeping the bar traveling straight over the middle of your foot.
Exhale, drive the floor away and bring the whole body up as one piece, not letting the hips shoot up ahead of the chest.
At the end of the set, walk in and re-rack by pushing the bar into both hooks before you let it down.
If a rep will not come up, do not fight it: stay in position, sit down so the bar lands on the safety pins, then step out from under it.
With no safety pins, or only a pair of stands, do not go heavy: to bail, push your hips forward, tip your chest down a little so the bar rolls off your back behind you, then step forward. Always keep the space behind you clear and nobody standing in it.

Breathing

Breathe in at the top and brace on that breath while you lower, then exhale as you push up through the hardest part. If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, a hernia or you are pregnant, do not hold your breath: exhale on the way up and drop to a load you can still talk under.

Quick cues

Elbows down, pin the bar to your back.
Push your knees out.
Lift chest and hips together.
Eyes level, do not crane your neck.
Three seconds lowering, every rep.

Common faults

Fault: The hips shooting up first and the lift turning into a good-morning
Fix: Cut the load by about 20% and do 3-second ascents until the shoulders and hips rise at the same speed.
Fault: The lower back tucking under at the bottom
Fix: Stop just above the depth where the pelvis tucks and add the knee-to-wall ankle drill to your warm-up.
Fault: Resting the bar on the neck bones, where it hurts and slips
Fix: Squeeze your shoulder blades together to build a shelf of muscle and set the bar on it, about one hand lower.
Fault: Taking four or five steps back after the un-rack and burning energy before the set
Fix: Groove three beats: un-rack, one step back, second step back and set the feet where you are.
Fault: Skipping the safety pins because they are a hassle
Fix: Set the pins at your standing hip height, a little below the lowest point the bar reaches, then test one rep with an empty bar. That is what lets you dump a failed rep safely.

Equipment

barbell, squat_rack

Muscle groups

legs, glutes, back, core