Hi, I'm a female in my mid twenties and I'd like to do unweighted squats to tone up my thighs. Unfortunately, I can't find any sort of consensus on the right way to do them and I'm not going to do anything that I have any suspicion will cause immediate or future injury. Also, they don't hurt, but my knees crack, one much more than the other, and I don't know why. Is this normal and harmless? Please cite your sources if you answer.
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How to squats safely?
- Thread starter gerbera
- Start date
There's really not much argument on the correct way to do squats. Keep all the weight in your heels, knees behind the toes, butt sticking riiiiiight back, and keeping your chest proud. The spine should maintain a neutral curve (the same position as in standing) with the movement occurring at the hips and knees only. If the back curls, you're doing it wrong. Aim to go low enough so that your thighs get parallel to the ground.If you knock-knees that collapse towards each other, throw a resistance band around your legs right above the knees.
Sources? My brain? Four years of school and certification for personal training through multiple organizations. I'm sure most Youtube videos would reiterate what I said as well though.
Sources? My brain? Four years of school and certification for personal training through multiple organizations. I'm sure most Youtube videos would reiterate what I said as well though.
If in doubt on squats even after what jrahien has said try the following in front of a mirror, the most abused, but arguably most useful piece of kit in the gym for beginners.
Foot width at start is personal, but the most commonly recognised sensible is just over shoulder width.
Always lead with the hips, in other words they start the movement.
Keep yourself so you can see your chest straight on in the mirror, this will involve curving your back the way it should go, hyper extending not bending forward.
Knees follow feet in terms of angle, if this isn't happening move your feet to match the knees, it's safer and easier. Exception is if you are really going wide or knocking as Jrahien said, then sort your knees out.
Apart from the alignment don't worry about the knees, if the rest of your squat is right they cannot help but go where they need to be. Hips moving back and weight lowering will mean the knees bend naturally.
Depth is personal, the parallel is power-lifting minimum and therefore recognised as something you should aim for. Reality is this is where you will find most dispute. I agree that parallel should be your aim.
This is beginners tips and guidance only. It is a way to set you on the right path. As you progress in terms of weight and intensity you will fine tune to suit your individual physiology etc. to get the most out of it. You will also use variations like sumo, front, jump squats, high an low bar etc. If I started trying to type you through all of these I would be wasting a lot of your time, and confusing you because each is slightly different. This is just the generic simple squat.
Jrahien will have far more qualifications than me and there are very rarely times when my experience trumps his knowledge, this like most cases isn't one of them. I cite 23 years of training, progressing from squatting with a 30kg bar to 195kg under the watchful eye of 3 power-lifting judges, if they say I squatted well you can trust I did, they are gits who let you get away with nothing.
I have trained people of various abilities to be able to do squats of various types, including one person with no arms, if you are really good on form you can squat without holding the bar safely, but if you have no arms have a competent spotter. Latest person I have trained into them is my early pubescent son he is currently lifting a piece of plastic plumbing pipe with 5kg on it with perfect form, high and low bar.
It is a good thing that you are wanting this to be perfect. This is one exercise that can be very dangerous if done badly.
Foot width at start is personal, but the most commonly recognised sensible is just over shoulder width.
Always lead with the hips, in other words they start the movement.
Keep yourself so you can see your chest straight on in the mirror, this will involve curving your back the way it should go, hyper extending not bending forward.
Knees follow feet in terms of angle, if this isn't happening move your feet to match the knees, it's safer and easier. Exception is if you are really going wide or knocking as Jrahien said, then sort your knees out.
Apart from the alignment don't worry about the knees, if the rest of your squat is right they cannot help but go where they need to be. Hips moving back and weight lowering will mean the knees bend naturally.
Depth is personal, the parallel is power-lifting minimum and therefore recognised as something you should aim for. Reality is this is where you will find most dispute. I agree that parallel should be your aim.
This is beginners tips and guidance only. It is a way to set you on the right path. As you progress in terms of weight and intensity you will fine tune to suit your individual physiology etc. to get the most out of it. You will also use variations like sumo, front, jump squats, high an low bar etc. If I started trying to type you through all of these I would be wasting a lot of your time, and confusing you because each is slightly different. This is just the generic simple squat.
Jrahien will have far more qualifications than me and there are very rarely times when my experience trumps his knowledge, this like most cases isn't one of them. I cite 23 years of training, progressing from squatting with a 30kg bar to 195kg under the watchful eye of 3 power-lifting judges, if they say I squatted well you can trust I did, they are gits who let you get away with nothing.
I have trained people of various abilities to be able to do squats of various types, including one person with no arms, if you are really good on form you can squat without holding the bar safely, but if you have no arms have a competent spotter. Latest person I have trained into them is my early pubescent son he is currently lifting a piece of plastic plumbing pipe with 5kg on it with perfect form, high and low bar.
It is a good thing that you are wanting this to be perfect. This is one exercise that can be very dangerous if done badly.
The advice you have been giving by both Jrahien and the crazy old man in the previous posts is spot on. There are really no arguments on how to correctly perform squats anymore. The only things I would add as an aid to your proper form squat is to have a chair, bench or box and squat down onto this so that you can get your depth right and get your ankles, knees and hips all in alignment while preparing to raise yourself back to the upright position. The other really important thing I would add is to make sure that your feet are ALWAYS flat on the floor, if your heels raise off of the floor during the execution of the squat your Calf, Achilles flexibility is not sufficient and needs to be addressed, or your form is bad and your not keeping your weight on your heels. Don't just drop down into a squat, actually push (your actually pulling as muscles cannot push, but it feels like you are pushing )your butt back down onto your box, chair, bench etc .
Addressing your cracking knee question, everyone pretty much has one joint or another that creeks, groans and cracks at some point during the day. You could have it checked out by a sports medicine doctor to make sure it is nothing that is going to cause long term issues but in general if it is not causing pain or inflammation and you are doing your squats as your supposed to be then you should not have any issues and no long term ill effects of doing body weight exercise. As is the case with any physical activity there is always a chance of sprains, strains and aggravation to muscles tendons and joints, so just be mindful of correct lifting techniques, not over doing it, and stretching to help keep muscles, tendenous tissue and joints loose and as free from injury as possible. Often times stretching alone will alleviate a lot of the cracking noises coming from the knee due to the muscles becoming more flexible and allowing the tendons associated with them to better track in the groves of the bones they are attached too.
(30 plus years dealing with athletes and general public in physical education consultancy)
Addressing your cracking knee question, everyone pretty much has one joint or another that creeks, groans and cracks at some point during the day. You could have it checked out by a sports medicine doctor to make sure it is nothing that is going to cause long term issues but in general if it is not causing pain or inflammation and you are doing your squats as your supposed to be then you should not have any issues and no long term ill effects of doing body weight exercise. As is the case with any physical activity there is always a chance of sprains, strains and aggravation to muscles tendons and joints, so just be mindful of correct lifting techniques, not over doing it, and stretching to help keep muscles, tendenous tissue and joints loose and as free from injury as possible. Often times stretching alone will alleviate a lot of the cracking noises coming from the knee due to the muscles becoming more flexible and allowing the tendons associated with them to better track in the groves of the bones they are attached too.
(30 plus years dealing with athletes and general public in physical education consultancy)
Welcome back kiwiinmn, long time no see.
We seem to be adding to each others work here and I can only add one thing to kiwi's post. When squatting onto something ensure of 2 things. first that what ever you are squatting down onto has cushioning just in case the second goes wrong, second that you use this as a touch guide on the down. Coming to a sudden stop butt first onto a solid object, especially with a weight on your shoulders is not a good idea.
I have witnessed this going wrong to often to have ever used the method myself, though in fairness I have witnessed many things going wrong in gyms and this is one of the least frequent. The times this has gone wrong are generally when people are using a solid base and maxing out, recipe for disaster.
Like anything else, keep safety and risk in mind and use your intellect to minimise this. By the time you are shifting any serious weight or doing massive reps you should be so used to the movement the box etc. should be a thing of the past.
The feet flat on the floor is something I totally forgot and read as a serious 'Doh!' moment on my part. One of the crazy things I have seen in gyms is people using a piece of wood or two discs under their heels to enable depth of squat. If your calves are too inflexible to do this with feet flat, improve your flexibility, unless medically told not to. I use gymnastics shoes, because I am a tight wad and they work so well, solid grippy thin base and totally flat.
We seem to be adding to each others work here and I can only add one thing to kiwi's post. When squatting onto something ensure of 2 things. first that what ever you are squatting down onto has cushioning just in case the second goes wrong, second that you use this as a touch guide on the down. Coming to a sudden stop butt first onto a solid object, especially with a weight on your shoulders is not a good idea.
I have witnessed this going wrong to often to have ever used the method myself, though in fairness I have witnessed many things going wrong in gyms and this is one of the least frequent. The times this has gone wrong are generally when people are using a solid base and maxing out, recipe for disaster.
Like anything else, keep safety and risk in mind and use your intellect to minimise this. By the time you are shifting any serious weight or doing massive reps you should be so used to the movement the box etc. should be a thing of the past.
The feet flat on the floor is something I totally forgot and read as a serious 'Doh!' moment on my part. One of the crazy things I have seen in gyms is people using a piece of wood or two discs under their heels to enable depth of squat. If your calves are too inflexible to do this with feet flat, improve your flexibility, unless medically told not to. I use gymnastics shoes, because I am a tight wad and they work so well, solid grippy thin base and totally flat.