Tip 4. Go to China (or anywhere in Asia), grab a pack of darts and smoke up with some uncles on the side of roads. I nailed my squat technique with them
This is quickly becoming my favorite weight lifting youtube channel. Such helpful and easy to understand information, backed by experience and science. Love it!
This is essentially the only source I follow for technique and knowledge on how to do things. Sometimes I watch Jeff nippard but the vast majority of what I do comes from learning from Dr Mike here
The cues are at 8:38 1. Toes out 45 degrees. 2. Knees out. 3. Descend slowly ( one thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand). 4. Take a pause at the bottom. 5. Chest up (powerlifters nah).
This further underpins RP's overarching ethos of getting more out of less weight. When i switched from powerlifting to hypertrophy focused training - using slow descents; full lengthened hamstring-to-calf stretch; pause; chest up was soooo f*cking humbling weight wise (hitherto warmup weights were now a challenge), but it's also much more friendly on my shitty old joints. Much more "efficient" use of poundage. Your videos have been invaluable in helping me change my thinking on this stuff... Thank you.
No way I've been doing shit wrong my whole life... I am SO glad I've found this channel. Thank you good sir! I can now squat with confidence and push myself harder without worrying about injury!
I had to rebuild my squat couple times because I had trainers tell me keep my feet straight and not let my knees open up. What a waste of time to have to relearn something the wrong way to only come back to what naturally felt right and seeing elite squatters do exactly what I was told was wrong. Love this channel.
me too. My fix came with Athlean-X video a few months ago. Another recommendation is to do a couple of light sets of glute exercise (you know that lewd one where you are on your back and trying to screw the sky?). It activates your glutes and gives the whole motion a lot more fluid and natural mechanics. Totally fixed all my pain and feeling the squat properly now!
Same. I worked through basically the same thing, my stance was a tad too narrow and forward. Having my feet pointed out and a little wider, plus focusing pretty hard on keeping my knees over my toes rather than caving in, completely removed that knee pain.
The great thing about the knees out cue is that you can actually practice it on the hack squat or leg press. I know it's different, but it reduces the variables where you can focus on just that, and make it a habit. Then when you get back to squatting you are already in that habit. It's the same thing with foot positioning. I stay more in my heels, and in the edges of my foot because I'm high arched. I have just enough weight on the ball of my foot to prevent more of the weight from going there. I had to practice that in the leg press, bent over rows, Bulgarian split squats, and every other lift that I could because during the squat too much was going on. It had a huge pay off, my feet don't move anymore, and my weight stays where I want it to the whole time. So I am in the habit of practicing things in other lifts so that when I squat those are more automatic, and I can focus on the things I can only practice during the squat while squatting.
This channel is in-cred-i-ble. The amount of knowledge and tips explained in such a great way, along with amazingly odd humor (luv it). Discrete, judiscious and always eager to gain even more knowledge; Mike and Jared are the shit
Thumbnail squat stance is perfect. I did this wrong for decades, and hated squats. Then, I learned to angle my feet more, and I entered a new universe of leg gains. It’s that simple, really. Now I squat 3x/week with no hint of strain or anything in my knees or lower back. I used to think it was heel elevation, or long limbs, or a lot of other stuff that it wasn’t. You know, the stuff most UA-cam videos say it is 🤡
I struggled with squats since I started lifting. Falling forward, not getting the butt close to the ground and a sharp pain in my hips. All these "asian squat" tutorials about hip internal rotation and calf stretching didnt do jack. Thanks to you I started to take a wider stance with my feet and it feels "golden" like you say. I have long femurs and now I see that I was fruitlessly fighting against my physiology all along.
Thank you for bringing out the different squat types - ribs down vs chest up. Watching different channels and getting different (but correct) cues from them can get confusing when someone tries to mix and match them.
So I watched this video before I went to the gym today, I haven't heard of the chest up queue in till Dr Mike brought it up in this video. I was about to fail my 1RM attempt of 140kg/308 lb and then I heard Dr Mike yell CHEST UP in my head and It made all the difference! Thanks heaps!
One of your best videos! I've always struggled with squat form (especially finding the right stance width and foot angle for me). Quick, concise, and informative with visuals to help emphasize the ques you make. I've always struggled with squat form (especially finding the right stance width and foot angle for me), and felt like there was a lot of complicated and sometimes contradictory info out there to sort through when I was getting started. BTW, that shirt is amazing and I really want to know where I can get one.
I feel like another great tip especially for beginners or limited mobility is some heel elevation for that full ROM squat. Helps keep your chest up in that lower range of the movement.
Heel elevation goes a long way for people with limited dorsiflexion. Those having this problem typically bend over more when they squat, and that makes the exercise more glute-dominant (the moment-arm becomes larger for glutes than for the quads). It is because of this bending over that they probably can't keep their "chest up". Thus, I agree with what you say about elevating the heels being a great tip for those with limited mobility, but I don't see how a beginner would benefit from it.
I am pretty sure I've found my new favorite lifting technique channel. Ive always struggled in the squat and I'm looking forward to implementing these. Thanks Dr Mike.
Here from Jonni's channel. Damn your information is conveyed in such a good natural manner! I can see why you and jonni collab, you're quite similar! And you're both hilarious. Got to spend a few weekends just binging your past videos!
Dr. Mike thanks a lot for your great and informative videos. I trained for 15 years and still make corrections watching your videos. Also, I love the fact you keeping it real and your great sense of humor.
I’ve been having a ton of knee valgus since I had surgery, I’m doing a lot of hip abduction exercises, but I’m noticing I come up way too fast. This is good advice
This channel has changed my gym life in all the right ways. Never change Dr Mike. You can’t hear the 1000s of laughs when these jokes hit…but know they are there.
I've been trying to get a two plate squat for months. The que to turn my toes out more did it for me. Did it for reps for two sets. Thank you Dr. Mike! : )
At last, an RP video where I already do all those things correctly. There really is a first time for everything! Weightlifting for the win. I’m still weak as shit, but I’m weak as shit with great squat form. And in spite of my terrible leverages, too. I credit my perverse enjoyment of ATG front squats, with my one and only successfully grasped technical model.
Love this! So often I see and hear cues like - sit back - toes straight - knees straight. Feet - knees - ankles and hips all need to work together. Especially true with the knees and toes tracking together. Learning to do a pause squat at depth is a game changer for form and actually prioritizing how a squat should feet. Always have people do BW then light squats as a practice.
Dr. Mike has been a huge influence on my fitness journey. He's taught me to learn the technique and execute as many reps as technically perfect as I can and I'll see results.
Honestly. I think far to many people are told how to squat wrong or extremely poorly. I can not tell you how frustrating it was when I was trying to do squats and be told that I have to keep my legs and feet straight in front of me only to cause a hip impingement due to my long femurs. Actually having you say that and slow pushback on it being allowed is so wonderful and your sumo squat ques finally made it to where I could feel it in my glutes instead of having to trash my quads first in order to take them out of the picture
I do slightly notice my heels and toes fighting to balance sometimes during a squat. My back is sometimes very stiff and jacked up. I will re watch you squating techniques many times. THank you.
Always great form tips Dr. Mike! I always did the look up on a high focal point to keep my back straight but had to learn the slow lowering. My right knee I injured back in my 20's and had some scar tissue behind my right knee that kept me from getting as low as would have prior to injury but the slow lowering over time seemed to free up my right knee.
Chest up is good for both. Keeps your upper back tight. But your chest will be higher for front/weightlifting squat or high bar and bodybuilding squats. But low bar which is Chris duffins style of squat the better queue is elbows down. It'll force your chest out/up you'll just have more forward lean due to bar positioning
I’ve been struggling with my squats, realised I was dive bombing it, and then struggling to get out of the hole, as soon as I slowed the eccentric my squats improved so much
Great advice thank you. I’m watching as need to understand proper technique for doing squats (recommended by Dr) to help with knee pain. Would you recommend anything different technique wise for people with knee wear and tear (early signs of osteoarthritis)?
A thing I do that came to mind from the rep speed que is that I always include full 3-5sec paused squats with a slower than normal eccentric in my warmup pyramid for eight or so reps at around 50-60% of my working weight. I feel this reinforces the depth, opens up my hips further and has taught me to be comfortable at the bottom of the squat. I sometimes include heavier paused squats later on the warmup for a rep or two, but keeping that one paused warmup set for my squats I feel has helped me to develop a really nice and deep high-bar squat technique.
i've found that another helpful tip is elevating my heels which has really helped with getting LOW and keeping my back/abductors engaged and limited forward lean, as my hip mobility is a bit lagging + i have very long femurs
I think starting or regressing to goblet squats where you keep the weight touching you and not swinging away from you as a cue to keep your back from frontward rounding is worthwhile. That and other ideas I got from Mike Boyle, a video of his on squatting.
I had a really hard time back a couple years ago comprehending that good form for quad hypertrophy in the squat isn't a "how to lift more when you squat" guide, and made it so I had to reduce the load. What do you think of the front squat - I hated it at first, but kept hearing it get called "hypertrophy squat" and I wanted bigger legs so I kept working on it and eventually it started feeling a lot better. The front squat kind of requires you to go "chest up" or you dump/lose the bar LOL. It's hilarious how much weaker most people are in the front squat compared to back squats - but it leaves little room for rounding or "squat-mornings".
Man recently I've REALLY been wanting to try the front squat, tried it a few times when I started lifting YEARS ago and I just couldn't get the bar placement down. Any tips on that?
@@richardcaraballo1185 I just started playing around with just the bar during warm ups, a set or two between air squats and the back squat warm up - it really took me a while to not hate them, like over a year. I really can't give any real tips.
lol, i always thought i was pushing my knees out naturally and had no focus on it. My squat never felt great because of it - tried it out today and it made all the difference in the world, thanks Mike!
I don’t do any back squats anymore due to degenerating discs. I do tempo (3/3/X) front squats on a slant board. I pause in the bottom, a$$ to Achilles, literally feeling my quads stretch. This exercise lets me keep my spine from flexing, which I have to avoid, and it is very challenging with seriously minimal weight, so I’m not overloading my spine.
Hi big Chief hope all is good with you. My name is Q and I'm from Maryland/D.C.. Quick question is there a major difference between "free" barbell vs assisted barbell machine squats? At least when it comes to stimulating and creating a hypertrophic response. Thanks in advance
Great video. Although they are applicable to the front squat, it would be great to have more front-squat-specific content! (I may have added a hyphen too many there)
Yesterday was my first lower-body day in a while (I've been off of weights for most of the past year because it was starting to screw with my back.) After watching this I know at least one reason my back hurts today and will have to correct that. Thank you
Hey Dr. Mike I noticed in your demo at 3:10 that it looks like your quads are actually stretching apart as you descend. This seems to be because your butt stays in nearly the same plane of motion throughout the movement while your knees move forward much more. I have two questions: 1) Is this quad stretch actually happening? 2) If so, is it something that is easier to achieve when you have shorter femurs?
Man i missed you at the Arnold. I missed a lot omly getting to walk around Saturday due to competing in powerlifting but would have been fun to have my competition set up analyzed. Always room to improve.
Great advice. Just solid information. Being on the taller side I had to find my personal sqaut technique. Since high-school I have done 2-3 vertical jumps and use that to find my body's natural leg width and toe angle. From there I take that information face a wall with toes and knees as close to the wall as possible and do 20 bodyweight wall sqauts to warm up. I adjust knees out or toes out as needed to find my full ROM squat. The days your tight this tells you immediately by trying not to run your face down the wall 😂 You can take it to the next level by holding a wooden dowel and doing a overhead wall sqaut. This technique finds your power out of the hole, teaches optimal toes out, knees out for your hips with a upright torso and in my opinion the most important, your current flexibility and weaknesses.
My toe angle is probably around 25-30 Degrees, 45 feels way too wide. I don't low bar squat and try to hit full depth with high bar and I feel like 45 degrees might be good if you want to powerlift because it does feel like there's a strong stretch reflex at the bottom.
any tips on how to not fuck up my shoulders when i load the bar? this is genuinly the limiting factor at times and in spite of this I have shown much growth but its getting a little much
Thank you very much for this great advice ! Just tried squatting like this in my living room and this feels way better than whatever the f4ck I was doing. Can't wait to try this with a bar and actual weight. Thanks again ! Your channel is pure gold :)
I'm a big fan of the Chris Duffin "bear down" cue, and it helps me hit depth easier too since I tend to not rotate my hips forward. You said in powerlifting, bear down is fine, but in hypertrophy training, you would arch. Is there a weight threshold you'd recommend doing the duffin stuff? Like, anything over 70% or 80% go for a max brace?
Agree with everyone here on the tips and value of the channel -- I love all of the advice you offer here! But I gotta ask... where can I get that t-shirt? It's fantastic
Tip 4. Go to China (or anywhere in Asia), grab a pack of darts and smoke up with some uncles on the side of roads. I nailed my squat technique with them
You guys were checking my squat form, and I felt honored when you complimented how "perfect" it was. My day was made. I'm grateful, Dr. Mike.
I stopped by the RP booth at the Arnold and worked on my squat. Squatting has never felt better with just a few tips. Thank you Dr. Mike and Jared!
Thanks for stopping by! - Dr. Mike
This is quickly becoming my favorite weight lifting youtube channel. Such helpful and easy to understand information, backed by experience and science. Love it!
Woooo! - Dr. Mike
😂😂
This is essentially the only source I follow for technique and knowledge on how to do things. Sometimes I watch Jeff nippard but the vast majority of what I do comes from learning from Dr Mike here
@@FloatingLeaf1111 He really is! I didn't expect it, but he actually makes me laugh.
He makes me laugh when he acts like a 3 year old but not when he acts like a gay 3 year old 😂
Baby here - thanks for this! Goo goo ga ga!
The cues are at 8:38
1. Toes out 45 degrees.
2. Knees out.
3. Descend slowly ( one thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand).
4. Take a pause at the bottom.
5. Chest up (powerlifters nah).
This further underpins RP's overarching ethos of getting more out of less weight. When i switched from powerlifting to hypertrophy focused training - using slow descents; full lengthened hamstring-to-calf stretch; pause; chest up was soooo f*cking humbling weight wise (hitherto warmup weights were now a challenge), but it's also much more friendly on my shitty old joints. Much more "efficient" use of poundage.
Your videos have been invaluable in helping me change my thinking on this stuff... Thank you.
No way I've been doing shit wrong my whole life... I am SO glad I've found this channel.
Thank you good sir! I can now squat with confidence and push myself harder without worrying about injury!
“If you’re a baby and watching this, then Hello 😏” went to a completely different direction than I had expected and I loved it. Thanks Dr.Mike 🙋♂️
Hahahahahaha I laughed out Loud in the gym when he said that
I had to rebuild my squat couple times because I had trainers tell me keep my feet straight and not let my knees open up. What a waste of time to have to relearn something the wrong way to only come back to what naturally felt right and seeing elite squatters do exactly what I was told was wrong. Love this channel.
💯
6:11 - "Not to be politically incorrect but YOUR BABY IS TRASH AT SQUATS." lol I love Mike
I used to get sharp pains in my left knee while squating. Pointing my feet out more completely changed the exercise for me.
I also get pain in my quad tendons but with the toes out completely fixes the problem
me too. My fix came with Athlean-X video a few months ago.
Another recommendation is to do a couple of light sets of glute exercise (you know that lewd one where you are on your back and trying to screw the sky?).
It activates your glutes and gives the whole motion a lot more fluid and natural mechanics.
Totally fixed all my pain and feeling the squat properly now!
Same. I worked through basically the same thing, my stance was a tad too narrow and forward. Having my feet pointed out and a little wider, plus focusing pretty hard on keeping my knees over my toes rather than caving in, completely removed that knee pain.
Dr. Mikes humor is my cup of tea. Love this dude. Good cardio video.
The great thing about the knees out cue is that you can actually practice it on the hack squat or leg press. I know it's different, but it reduces the variables where you can focus on just that, and make it a habit. Then when you get back to squatting you are already in that habit.
It's the same thing with foot positioning. I stay more in my heels, and in the edges of my foot because I'm high arched. I have just enough weight on the ball of my foot to prevent more of the weight from going there.
I had to practice that in the leg press, bent over rows, Bulgarian split squats, and every other lift that I could because during the squat too much was going on. It had a huge pay off, my feet don't move anymore, and my weight stays where I want it to the whole time.
So I am in the habit of practicing things in other lifts so that when I squat those are more automatic, and I can focus on the things I can only practice during the squat while squatting.
This channel is in-cred-i-ble. The amount of knowledge and tips explained in such a great way, along with amazingly odd humor (luv it). Discrete, judiscious and always eager to gain even more knowledge; Mike and Jared are the shit
Thumbnail squat stance is perfect. I did this wrong for decades, and hated squats. Then, I learned to angle my feet more, and I entered a new universe of leg gains. It’s that simple, really. Now I squat 3x/week with no hint of strain or anything in my knees or lower back.
I used to think it was heel elevation, or long limbs, or a lot of other stuff that it wasn’t. You know, the stuff most UA-cam videos say it is 🤡
I struggled with squats since I started lifting. Falling forward, not getting the butt close to the ground and a sharp pain in my hips. All these "asian squat" tutorials about hip internal rotation and calf stretching didnt do jack. Thanks to you I started to take a wider stance with my feet and it feels "golden" like you say. I have long femurs and now I see that I was fruitlessly fighting against my physiology all along.
Thank you for bringing out the different squat types - ribs down vs chest up. Watching different channels and getting different (but correct) cues from them can get confusing when someone tries to mix and match them.
You can count on Dr. Mike to make you laugh out loud at least once in every damn video. Love this channel 🫶🏼
So I watched this video before I went to the gym today, I haven't heard of the chest up queue in till Dr Mike brought it up in this video. I was about to fail my 1RM attempt of 140kg/308 lb and then I heard Dr Mike yell CHEST UP in my head and It made all the difference! Thanks heaps!
One of your best videos! I've always struggled with squat form (especially finding the right stance width and foot angle for me). Quick, concise, and informative with visuals to help emphasize the ques you make. I've always struggled with squat form (especially finding the right stance width and foot angle for me), and felt like there was a lot of complicated and sometimes contradictory info out there to sort through when I was getting started. BTW, that shirt is amazing and I really want to know where I can get one.
Check out their older technique series too, "15 squat mistakes" with Charly demonstrating
did you track down the shirt?!
Thanks Dr. Mike. I started training ~2 years ago and still consider myself a noob. really appreciate these videos.
Its ok Mike I started training 10 years ago and still consider myself a noob
I feel like another great tip especially for beginners or limited mobility is some heel elevation for that full ROM squat. Helps keep your chest up in that lower range of the movement.
Heel elevation goes a long way for people with limited dorsiflexion. Those having this problem typically bend over more when they squat, and that makes the exercise more glute-dominant (the moment-arm becomes larger for glutes than for the quads). It is because of this bending over that they probably can't keep their "chest up".
Thus, I agree with what you say about elevating the heels being a great tip for those with limited mobility, but I don't see how a beginner would benefit from it.
This was huge for me. On front and back squats just using a 10mm gym mat under my heels has been a game changer.
I am pretty sure I've found my new favorite lifting technique channel. Ive always struggled in the squat and I'm looking forward to implementing these. Thanks Dr Mike.
I love your humorous delivery RP. Thanks for making learning, FUN !
Here from Jonni's channel. Damn your information is conveyed in such a good natural manner! I can see why you and jonni collab, you're quite similar! And you're both hilarious. Got to spend a few weekends just binging your past videos!
Always a better day when you grace us with knowledge and your hilariousness!
Dr. Mike thanks a lot for your great and informative videos. I trained for 15 years and still make corrections watching your videos. Also, I love the fact you keeping it real and your great sense of humor.
I’ve been having a ton of knee valgus since I had surgery, I’m doing a lot of hip abduction exercises, but I’m noticing I come up way too fast. This is good advice
Thanks...love listening to you...
This channel has changed my gym life in all the right ways. Never change Dr Mike. You can’t hear the 1000s of laughs when these jokes hit…but know they are there.
This is a very good video. Delivery, advice, explanation all really good. Thank you!
I've been trying to get a two plate squat for months. The que to turn my toes out more did it for me. Did it for reps for two sets. Thank you Dr. Mike! : )
what does two plate mean exactly?
Sir, you and your team are the best. Greetings and blessings from Spain ❤🎉
I watch your videos everytime i want to educate myself and get a laugh with your marvelous humor n jokes
Squats are me fave lift! I recently hit 495 for a single, and I have used the hell out of these cues for a long time. Great video.
The best UA-cam channel for who looks to real good knowledge!
At last, an RP video where I already do all those things correctly. There really is a first time for everything! Weightlifting for the win. I’m still weak as shit, but I’m weak as shit with great squat form. And in spite of my terrible leverages, too. I credit my perverse enjoyment of ATG front squats, with my one and only successfully grasped technical model.
Great video and tips as usual!
my god. mikes humor gets fucking better every video that ive been sending these videos to friends that dont even work out just so they can laugh too
Scrolling through UA-cam has gotten pretty simple lately, I see a video thumbnail with Dr Mike and it gets a thumbs up first and then I watch it.
Love this! So often I see and hear cues like - sit back - toes straight - knees straight. Feet - knees - ankles and hips all need to work together. Especially true with the knees and toes tracking together. Learning to do a pause squat at depth is a game changer for form and actually prioritizing how a squat should feet. Always have people do BW then light squats as a practice.
Advice: Great, Shirt: INCREDIBLE
So glad i seen this. Start my journey next week and Squats were a concern.
Def my favorite channel
Great info with a bit of entertainment
Dr. Mike has been a huge influence on my fitness journey. He's taught me to learn the technique and execute as many reps as technically perfect as I can and I'll see results.
CONGRATS ON 500K!!!
Honestly. I think far to many people are told how to squat wrong or extremely poorly. I can not tell you how frustrating it was when I was trying to do squats and be told that I have to keep my legs and feet straight in front of me only to cause a hip impingement due to my long femurs.
Actually having you say that and slow pushback on it being allowed is so wonderful and your sumo squat ques finally made it to where I could feel it in my glutes instead of having to trash my quads first in order to take them out of the picture
Would love a video to show the 2 squat variations that you spoke about 🙏🙏🙏🙏
Not for nothing, I was doing a couple of sets with dumbbells. It’s helping me to slow down and go lower
I do slightly notice my heels and toes fighting to balance sometimes during a squat. My back is sometimes very stiff and jacked up. I will re watch you squating techniques many times. THank you.
Turning my feet out a bit really helped.. I hated squats because I kept going on my toes but now it's great
I really like your content. Thanks for doing this. I know creating good content is damn hard.
Always great form tips Dr. Mike! I always did the look up on a high focal point to keep my back straight but had to learn the slow lowering. My right knee I injured back in my 20's and had some scar tissue behind my right knee that kept me from getting as low as would have prior to injury but the slow lowering over time seemed to free up my right knee.
Lol love the great info with the mixed in humor. Doing good man, good job.
I have to sit down and plan my next meso today. Now, I''m going to have to program in squats. Damn you and your good advice.
Chest up is good for both. Keeps your upper back tight. But your chest will be higher for front/weightlifting squat or high bar and bodybuilding squats. But low bar which is Chris duffins style of squat the better queue is elbows down. It'll force your chest out/up you'll just have more forward lean due to bar positioning
As a baby of 38 years I found this profoundly insightful!
I’ve been struggling with my squats, realised I was dive bombing it, and then struggling to get out of the hole, as soon as I slowed the eccentric my squats improved so much
I've been struggling with my squat depth for a while, and this video provided some great insights on how to work on that.
Great video!! Love it! Best channel for bodybuilding by a mile.
Thank you. I have been struggling to get the perfect form for myself and trying to assist my GF. This will help a ton.
Dr. Mike's t shirts are the best
Great advice thank you. I’m watching as need to understand proper technique for doing squats (recommended by Dr) to help with knee pain. Would you recommend anything different technique wise for people with knee wear and tear (early signs of osteoarthritis)?
A thing I do that came to mind from the rep speed que is that I always include full 3-5sec paused squats with a slower than normal eccentric in my warmup pyramid for eight or so reps at around 50-60% of my working weight. I feel this reinforces the depth, opens up my hips further and has taught me to be comfortable at the bottom of the squat. I sometimes include heavier paused squats later on the warmup for a rep or two, but keeping that one paused warmup set for my squats I feel has helped me to develop a really nice and deep high-bar squat technique.
i've found that another helpful tip is elevating my heels which has really helped with getting LOW and keeping my back/abductors engaged and limited forward lean, as my hip mobility is a bit lagging + i have very long femurs
Thank you Dr. Mike, is it possible for you to recommend some exercises for hip pain experienced at the deepest part of the squat?
following
I think starting or regressing to goblet squats where you keep the weight touching you and not swinging away from you as a cue to keep your back from frontward rounding is worthwhile.
That and other ideas I got from Mike Boyle, a video of his on squatting.
I had a really hard time back a couple years ago comprehending that good form for quad hypertrophy in the squat isn't a "how to lift more when you squat" guide, and made it so I had to reduce the load. What do you think of the front squat - I hated it at first, but kept hearing it get called "hypertrophy squat" and I wanted bigger legs so I kept working on it and eventually it started feeling a lot better. The front squat kind of requires you to go "chest up" or you dump/lose the bar LOL. It's hilarious how much weaker most people are in the front squat compared to back squats - but it leaves little room for rounding or "squat-mornings".
Man recently I've REALLY been wanting to try the front squat, tried it a few times when I started lifting YEARS ago and I just couldn't get the bar placement down. Any tips on that?
I like the "zombie squat" variation of the front squat for that very reason. It's nearly impossible to cheat the movement.
@@richardcaraballo1185 I just started playing around with just the bar during warm ups, a set or two between air squats and the back squat warm up - it really took me a while to not hate them, like over a year. I really can't give any real tips.
Forget Sheryl Dr. Mike! She missed out on a dime piece!
Love your content! I wish I can go to one of your meet and greet some day.
lol, i always thought i was pushing my knees out naturally and had no focus on it. My squat never felt great because of it - tried it out today and it made all the difference in the world, thanks Mike!
I don’t do any back squats anymore due to degenerating discs. I do tempo (3/3/X) front squats on a slant board. I pause in the bottom, a$$ to Achilles, literally feeling my quads stretch. This exercise lets me keep my spine from flexing, which I have to avoid, and it is very challenging with seriously minimal weight, so I’m not overloading my spine.
Hi big Chief hope all is good with you. My name is Q and I'm from Maryland/D.C.. Quick question is there a major difference between "free" barbell vs assisted barbell machine squats? At least when it comes to stimulating and creating a hypertrophic response. Thanks in advance
6:44 "you are not a baby.... I assume " hahahahaha
You are the best!!!
Great vid Doc.
I feel like i've stumbled upon The Great Library of Alexandria here.
One extra component I'll do with clients, is have them close their eyes during the squat, so they can't "rely" on any visual cues.
Great video. Although they are applicable to the front squat, it would be great to have more front-squat-specific content! (I may have added a hyphen too many there)
Dr Mike please can you do one of your reviews on the GOATA movement system?
Great advice as always man, also huge congrats on the 500k subs, much deserved!
Super helpful. Thank you.
Yesterday was my first lower-body day in a while (I've been off of weights for most of the past year because it was starting to screw with my back.) After watching this I know at least one reason my back hurts today and will have to correct that. Thank you
Hey Dr. Mike I noticed in your demo at 3:10 that it looks like your quads are actually stretching apart as you descend. This seems to be because your butt stays in nearly the same plane of motion throughout the movement while your knees move forward much more. I have two questions: 1) Is this quad stretch actually happening? 2) If so, is it something that is easier to achieve when you have shorter femurs?
Wow the knees out really helped. I'm currently putting all 3 into practice. /salute
Man i missed you at the Arnold. I missed a lot omly getting to walk around Saturday due to competing in powerlifting but would have been fun to have my competition set up analyzed. Always room to improve.
Hey Mike, I love you and the RP Team
Great advice. Just solid information.
Being on the taller side I had to find my personal sqaut technique. Since high-school I have done 2-3 vertical jumps and use that to find my body's natural leg width and toe angle. From there I take that information face a wall with toes and knees as close to the wall as possible and do 20 bodyweight wall sqauts to warm up. I adjust knees out or toes out as needed to find my full ROM squat. The days your tight this tells you immediately by trying not to run your face down the wall 😂
You can take it to the next level by holding a wooden dowel and doing a overhead wall sqaut.
This technique finds your power out of the hole, teaches optimal toes out, knees out for your hips with a upright torso and in my opinion the most important, your current flexibility and weaknesses.
thank you to the hundreds of squats done at the arnold classic so i can have this info in my home.
My toe angle is probably around 25-30 Degrees, 45 feels way too wide. I don't low bar squat and try to hit full depth with high bar and I feel like 45 degrees might be good if you want to powerlift because it does feel like there's a strong stretch reflex at the bottom.
Thank you!! 💪🏋️♀️🎉
any tips on how to not fuck up my shoulders when i load the bar? this is genuinly the limiting factor at times and in spite of this I have shown much growth but its getting a little much
Thank you very much for this great advice ! Just tried squatting like this in my living room and this feels way better than whatever the f4ck I was doing. Can't wait to try this with a bar and actual weight. Thanks again ! Your channel is pure gold :)
I'm a big fan of the Chris Duffin "bear down" cue, and it helps me hit depth easier too since I tend to not rotate my hips forward. You said in powerlifting, bear down is fine, but in hypertrophy training, you would arch. Is there a weight threshold you'd recommend doing the duffin stuff? Like, anything over 70% or 80% go for a max brace?
First comment baby ! Came for the squats , came from the squats
Are u a super intelligent baby
@@eawavy2316 he is
Wow you came quick
Fav veg is kumquat, fav exercise is cumsquat
That could mean 2 things
I am clutching my pearls as I heard this eccentric man's unhinged rant on the squat form of babies. How dare you, good sir? How dare you?!
Awesome as usual!!
Great lifting tips and hilarious comedy?! Love it!
Agree with everyone here on the tips and value of the channel -- I love all of the advice you offer here! But I gotta ask... where can I get that t-shirt? It's fantastic
5:11 “You’re learning a tennis forehand? They teach you it slowww.” 🙌