How to Improve Your Squat Form

The squat is a fundamental movement everyone should be able to perform. This is one of the first movements we screen in our patients with any lower body issue. If someone cannot effectively lower their hips, without undue stress on their knees or over rounding their back, they should start there.

The squat is a foundational movement for many other exercises. It’s involved in the beginning of a push press, the position you catch the weight when olympic lifting, how you plant your feet after a burpee, even how you jump and land.

If you watch a two year old move, they often are able to squat down with perfect form. They seem to already have the foot position and balance figured out when they sit down to the bottom position.

This seems to degrade over time as the child grows into adulthood and spends more time in a chair with their hips and knees in a static 90 degree position. (Tissues are really good at becoming the range you tell them they are.) This starts the beginning of someone’s stiffness journey that will have to be undone several years later in life.

We have been informed by patients they were told squatting is bad for your knees by other healthcare providers. We are unsure as to what information they have used to arrive at this conclusion. If this is the case, how would you:

get off the toilet or out of your arm chair?
go to the bathroom in a foreign country where toilets are uncommon?

6 Ways to Improve Your Squat Form

The squat is a fundamental movement pattern that we use in our daily life. Every time we sit down in chair, use the toilet, or get in and out of a car, we perform the squat. We do these multiple times a day, let’s leverage good technique so we can do them for many more years to come.

Keep feet pointed forward/straight
Grip the ground with your toes.
Start movement with the hips, rather than the knees
Drive knees out
Keep chest high
Butt wink

Squat Tip #1: Keep feet pointed forward/straight

About 10 degrees of outward rotation is natural.

In this picture: The athlete on the left has his feet turned out slightly, the athlete on the right has her toes pointed forward. With the feet facing forward, we can take advantage of the use of our big toe muscle. When the toes are pointed out, we may be missing out on some major force production.

Squat Tip #2: Grip the ground with your toes.

With the feet pointed forward, toes should grip the ground. As you squat, push your feet into the ground. This will help to activate muscles in your feet, ankle, and calves as well as create more posterior chain activation.

Squat Tip #3: Start movement with the hips, rather than the knees

Which ever tissue is loaded first is normally loaded maximally. When you begin with your knees you load the tissues around the knee joint and the patella gets pulled harder into the patellar groove. This can cause an increase in stress in tissues behind the knee, ie cartilage.

Box squats are an excellent way to practice this movement. Start with a higher surface to focus on technique and not balance or strength.

Squat Tip #4: Drive knees out

Pushing your knees out allows the athlete to create torque in the hips. This allows for better balance and activation of the external rotators.

Squat Tip #5: Keep chest high

When the athlete’s chest drops, they will typically round their lower back to compensate. This puts more pressure on their lower back and changes their center of gravity. One tip for this is to make sure the athlete is not looking at the ground. Have them pick a target on the horizon and keep looking at it.

Squat Tip #6: Butt wink

Rounding the back in the bottom position can be problematic over time. This stresses the spinal erectors and puts extra pressure on the posterior part of the disc. When this position is loaded, the discomfort can be accelerated. Make sure the athlete is able to get their hips wide enough for their pelvis to drop through. This may require a wider stance.

Closing Out

Following these directions can help reduce the amount of force your knee receives. Working with correct form will strengthen muscles in your legs and likely help your knees. If you need to increase the difficulty, you can always slow the movement.

At Pillar Kinetic, we provide sports PT in Las Vegas to help athletes recover from injuries and pain to perform their best. We’re here to help answer any questions about squatting.

Looking for ways to maximize your recovery? Reach out to our Las Vegas physical therapy clinic.