How to Squat like a Pro and Avoid Mistakes

Since the pandemic, hiring a personal trainer to help with your exercises has become difficult. Personal trainers are usually good at spotting errors in your form when you are exercising. Errors can lead to a painful next morning if they are not corrected. Since it may be impossible to see a trainer right now, we have laid out some tips for how to squat properly.

Squatting is something everyone should master because it is one of the most foundational and functional movements that can be done with the human body. Yet most of us have lost our ability to squat because we spend much of our time in a seated position. Being seated for long periods of times makes us lose that mobility in our hips, ankles and spine. Our bodies naturally want to give us a comfortable position when doing squats which can result in bad form that can result in injury. The most common mistake of squatting is torso collapse. This occurs when you lean forward, and your inflexible joints and weak core muscles prevent you from holding yourself upright when doing a squat. To fix your form and prevent your torso from collapsing, you need to improve your hip, ankle, and spinal mobility, as well as core strength. You can do this by doing straddle rocks and using a foam roller on your spine before working out. It is also a good idea to practice ankle mobility exercises to produce a better and more stable squat.

The second most common mistake is when your heels come off the ground when doing a squat. Not being able to keep your feet flat on the ground is a sign of limited mobility. More specifically in the ankles, hips and spine. To fix this common squat mistake, you need to spend some time on your ankle mobility because this is the main reason you cannot keep your feet flat. You can do this by doing band assisted exercises as well as ankle stretches before your workout. This will increase ankle mobility and help you achieve that perfect forum when you squat.

When it comes to squatting, you need to have optimal mobility in all your joints to get that faultless form. This means if you have limited mobility in your joints and ankles, you must work hard in improving them. You can achieve this by doing exercises and stretches before your workout.

For more information on proper squatting, click here.

Article written by William Graves.