Squatting is both a challenging and beneficial exercise. When done correctly, it may drastically improve your lower body in no time, from your abs to your glutes and even your posture. How To Increase Your Squat? We have the answer!
A small but dedicated group of people see the value of the squat and work on it regularly. But why is it restricted to just a limited number of people? The short answer is that most weightlifters are as flexible as a cast-iron skillet but cannot squat properly.
What should I do to get into the right position?
You need mobility to get into the right position and stability to keep your body in check as you squat.
If you want to get the most out of your squats, it’s important to work on your form and mobility. This article focuses on some ways through which you can increase your squat.
Ways To Increase Your Squat
Following are some ways to help you increase your squat and achieve maximum results with little effort and change.
1. Core Strength
Squatting safely requires strong abs, back, and pelvic floor muscles. If you lack these, you may find yourself tumbling forward. You must develop a solid core to squat with as little spine bending as possible.
And breathing is the first step in regulating tension in the core. Squatting properly begins with a full, deep breath in which you hold the air for a few seconds before exhaling. This helps to neutralize your hips by increasing abdominal pressure and sets the tone for the squat.
You can’t expect to achieve a deep squat range of motion while maintaining a more vertical angle if you don’t first establish a solid hip position and strong intra-abdominal pressure.
If you’re doing a set of repetitions, take a deep breath and hold it before starting the following set. Consider each set repetition to be a separate set.
2. Improve Your Technique
Perfecting your technique comes first and is above everything. It’s counterproductive to risk greater injury by using improper form while lifting heavier loads. So keep these three easy cues in mind whenever you squat: hips back, chest up, and legs out.
Unfortunately, you’ll be more prone to lose your balance and tumble forward as the weights increase if you lack these attributes and have a restricted range of motion.
3. Bar Positions
Experiment with a variety of back bar placements. Keeping your body upright throughout the squat requires excellent mobility in your chest and back, hips, and ankles if the bar is higher on the rack.
If you lack this mobility and are weak, you will fall forward when you reach the bottom of the squat. The larger the distance between your hips and the bar, the higher the torque exerted on your hips.
However, if the bar is placed closer to the body and the stance is broader, the distance between the bar and the hips is reduced, resulting in a shorter moment arm and hence greater leverage.
If you have a strong core and sufficient hip mobility, this may help you maintain more verticality when you squat. Test out different placements for the bar until you find one that feels comfortable.
4. Hold the Grip Tightly
Your arms, shoulders, and back muscles will all slacken if your grasp on the bar is weak. If you want to stress your entire upper body, you need to have a tight grip on the bar.
Your palms, wrists, shoulders, biceps, and upper back will all feel the strain as you tighten your grasp on the bar. Maintaining your balance and safety in a squat requires a combination of this tension and a deep breath to set your abdominal pressure.
5. Upper Back Strength
Your ability to squat and the weight you can squat require a solid upper back. So with a solid upper back, you’ll have a better chance of maintaining your posture while squatting.
If you want to avoid tumbling forward at the bottom of your squat, you’ll need the strength to drive your elbows down and in.
6. Hip Strength
When we say that we need to strengthen our hips, we mean that we need to improve our ability to extend our hips. In most compound strength training exercises, correctly extending your hips is a primary movement pattern used to build strength.
This hip action must be performed with the trunk held in a straight posture at all times. As a matter of fact, that’s a major factor in increasing squats.
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7. Change Your Shoes
Most of you have seen weightlifters squat while supporting their heels on plates weighing 10 pounds. This is because, despite having tight ankles, they can squat more deeply and maintain a more upright position.
Most people have trouble squatting to their fullest depth and range of motion because of ankle immobility or tightness. Why? Because of sedentary jobs and bulky exercise footwear.
Weightlifting shoes, with their solid soles and raised heels, can also immediately affect your squat. Weightlifting shoes are like the 10-pound plates that let you squat deeper and more safely, even if your ankle mobility is limited.
8. Changing the Bar
Squatting with a straight barbell call for mobile shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles. People are considered mobile if they can freely move across their desired range of motion.
This means that you should be able to make a squat pattern while keeping your torso upright, chest up, elbows down, and hips and ankles flexible and mobile under good stability and control.
When doing a squat routine with a barbell in place, not everyone can maintain a decent form during the entire set. If you can’t, try practicing functional squat mobility with wall squats and goblet squats to hone your squat form.
Alternately, you might keep working on your mobility and squatting technique with a straight bar and see if switching to a different bar helps you continue to gain strength at squats.
You may improve your squat strength and form by using a variety of barbells, squat safety bars, or huge cambered bars as you challenge your own limits.
Conclusion
The squat is undoubtedly one of the most high-impact exercises to promote muscle growth of the legs and buttocks. However, it isn’t the easiest one as one wrong move can make it less effective or, in the worst-case scenarios, it can cause serious injuries too.
If you were previously worried about increasing your squat, you wouldn’t be now, as after reading our article, you will be able to make the most out of your lower body workout and increase your squat easily.
