Barbell Back Squat
Trains the Quads.
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Beginner
How to do it
- Set the bar in a rack at roughly mid-chest height. Too high and you have to rise onto your toes to unrack it; too low and you waste effort standing it up before you start.
- Set the safety pins or spotter arms just below the depth you intend to squat to, so that a repetition you cannot finish lands on them rather than on you. Squat down empty once to check the height — this is part of setting up the lift, and it changes how confidently you can push a heavy set.
- Step under the bar and rest it across your upper back, not on your neck. Squeeze your shoulder blades together first — that builds a shelf of muscle for the bar to sit on. Grip the bar wherever your shoulders allow, keeping your wrists straight and stacked over your elbows.
- Stand up to lift the bar out of the rack, then take one or two steps back. Two steps, not five: you will have to walk them again with the weight on your back.
- Set your feet a little wider than your hips, toes turned out ten to thirty degrees. Your knees should be able to travel in the same direction your toes point.
- Take a breath into your stomach rather than your chest and brace as though someone is about to push you over. Hold that breath for the repetition.
- Sit down and back at the same time, letting your knees travel forward over your feet and your hips travel back. Keep your whole foot on the floor — you should feel pressure across the heel and the base of the big toe together.
- Descend until the crease of your hip drops below the top of your knee. Depth is what brings the glutes and adductors in; a squat stopped high is a quadriceps movement only.
- Drive back up by pushing the floor away, keeping your chest and hips rising at the same rate. Breathe out near the top, then take a fresh breath before the next repetition.
Common mistakes
- Cutting the depth short. Stopping above parallel keeps the load in the range the quadriceps are already strongest in and never reaches the range where the glutes and adductor magnus take over. Depth is worth more than added weight — reduce the load until you can reach it.
- Letting the hips rise faster than the chest. The bar stays over your feet but your torso folds forward, so the movement becomes a good morning and the load transfers to your lower back. Think about keeping your chest facing forward as you stand, and it usually means the weight is heavier than your position can hold.
- Knees collapsing inward on the way up. The hip abductors — the gluteus medius and minimus — are what hold the thigh bone in place under load. Pushing the knees out in the same direction as your toes for the whole repetition is the correction, and side-lying or band abduction work addresses the cause.
- Squatting heavy in a rack with the pins set too low, or not set at all. Pins set just under your depth cost nothing on a normal repetition and are the only thing that makes a failed one uneventful. Set them before you load the bar, not after.