Just a quick question regarding form in doing squats. I've looked on a bunch of sites, and essentially, it's pretty much "pretend you're sitting in a chair, and squeeze as you come up".

Now, I have a friend who has this personal trainer that is adamant that a "real" squat involves the squatting part (a little obvious, I know), but then as you come up, you're supposed to THRUST, to squeeze the quads (and butt?). Frankly, I don't know if there's a huge difference, but I'd like to hear any and all opinions.

THANKS!! :tu:

These advisories should be used as a guideline. Even among elites, there are differences in squat form, in great part because of what feels comfortable to them and based on their biomechanics. I'm hardly elite, and in fact no longer squat, but after a long time, I found that for me the most painfree, natural way to do it was feet wider (slightly) than shoulders, feet pointed out maybe 25 degrees, and simply go up and down. No weird concentrating on squeezing anything at any time--simply moving the weight as easily and naturally as I could. A guy I used to workout with had his feet almost pointed straight ahead and his stance narrow with his knees always close together. For him it worked but not for me.

Just a quick question regarding form in doing squats. I've looked on a bunch of sites, and essentially, it's pretty much "pretend you're sitting in a chair, and squeeze as you come up".

Now, I have a friend who has this personal trainer that is adamant that a "real" squat involves the squatting part (a little obvious, I know), but then as you come up, you're supposed to THRUST, to squeeze the quads (and butt?). Frankly, I don't know if there's a huge difference, but I'd like to hear any and all opinions.

THANKS!! :tu:

Seems like you haven't been reading that much from Louie Simmons on the subject....

And although I expect you aren't likely to want to go the whole Westside Barbell route, I think your question comes from squatting with maybe too low a weight. When you squat with a heavy load (meaning whatever is heavy for you) then you have to recruit all your muscles and you don't have to think about what is real or not.

If you want to use low weight, try a split squat. You will find it easier to recruit a lot of muscle for a low weight.

Or try a few squats with enough weight that it's a real chore to get it up, and then remember what muscles you needed to contract and keep that thought when you squat lower weight.

Figuring out how to do squats and distinguishing them from deadlifts was a many month struggle for me, including an episode when I injured myself doing a deadlift which kept me out of commission for nearly 3 months.

Here is a link to a post on a thread from some time back by chicanerous that I found help clarify both exercises for me. Even though he is primarily comparing deadlifts to squats and the effect of using dumbbells, I find his central description extremely useful and I have it loaded onto my PDA, which has all my workouts and I re-read it regularly before I am about to do one or the other exercise.

Chicanerous on squats versus deadlifts (http://forums.johnstonefitness.com/showpost.php?p=245268&postcount=43)

Perhaps you might find it useful as well.

I also found his descriptions of specific types of squats (as well as deadlifts) extremely useful.

Chicanerous, along with zenpharaohs and many others here have discussed various types of squats on a number of threads. I have found reading these discussions extremely useful to understand the flow of the motion. I too started out with the idea of squatting on a toilet... and didn't get very far... :lol:

Frankly I have gotten much more out of these boards than any personal trainer I have hired in person. And whenever my form is checked out by trainers I respect, they pretty much always are surprised how good my form is without the benefit of a trainer to show me.