Name: The Official Squat Form Checklist [Are You Squatting Wrong?]
Uploaded: 2025-02-10T07:16:10.000Z
Duration: 9 min 26 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Hey guys, I'm Dr. Aaron Horshig, and today I'm going to give you the official Squat University Squat Checklist.

All right guys, so let's go through a step-by-step checklist that you should go through every single time you squat for an awesome performance.

Step one, very simple, is the bar in the rack at the right height?

Too often I see athletes, they'll get the bar set really, really high.

To even unload the bar, you're going to have to get up on your tiptoes to get the bar off the rack.

Now, while you may be able to do that at your start of your set, when you're done squatting a lot of weight, you're dead tired.

The last thing you want to do is walk it back into the rack, get up on your toes to get it back in.

In the same way, I don't want you to get the bar set too low.

Now, I've had to squat some people before that are a little bit shorter than me, so it's tough sometimes, but you don't want to be squatting real low to get the bar off the  For most of us, we want that barbell set at about chest height.

What that's going to do is allow you, when you get under the barbell, to pull down, create a lot of tension, and then stand up with the barbell.

So first set step is going to be, is it at about chest height?

Now, obviously, to make sure safety, get some collars on the bar.

Now, I see a number of Olympic weightlifters that have been in the game for a long time, they won't use collars.

For you, for most people, put some collars on the barbell.

So, that's step one, in the bar, or the bar in the rack, at the right height.

Step two of the checklist, it's now time to get ourselves under the barbell.

If you have a powerlifter that's attempting to walk out and squat 900 pounds, or even 1,000 pounds, they're not just going to get under the barbell, lock it basically, walk it out, and then try to get set and squat.

They'd clearly be crushed by the weight of the barbell.

Instead, they get under the barbell, create a ton of tension, get strong, stand up at the bar, and then walk it out.

So whenever we get under a barbell, we want to create a tremendous amount of tension in our upper body and lower body, create that stiffness in our core, and then stand up at the barbell.

And I promise you, if you do this correctly, that barbell is going to feel much lighter on your back, which even psychologically is going to make you feel a little bit better about the weight you're trying to squat.

Get your feet, or your arms, set in a good position.

Now, I don't care if you take an under-thumb grip.

For most people, they're going to take a full grip on the barbell.

If you want to, and it feels better to do a thumb-over-the-top position, don't mind that.

I've actually experimented with that myself.

The big thing is we want to be pulling down on the barbell.

Our goal, whenever we pull ourselves under the bar, is to create a ton of tension.

Squeeze the bar down into us, pull your shoulder blades together.

From the back view, we're here, we're pulling down on the barbell and squeezing your shoulder blades together.

That's going to create a nice shelf on your upper back.

We don't want to shrug up on the barbell, so it's down and in.

That's what's going to create a tremendous amount of tension for that barbell to sit on top of, create that nice muscular shelf.

So, from here, we're getting under the barbell.

Now, I'm demonstrating high bar squat, but the same goes for low bar squat.

You're just creating a little bit of a different position for that bar.

Low bar, obviously, it's going to sit a couple inches lower across your shoulder blades.

But we're here, feet not staggered, in a normal squat position.

We don't want to be taking the barbell out of the rack like this.

That's not very stable, especially with heavy weight.

If you watch my arms, I'm pulling down on the barbell, creating a ton of tension, brace my core, big breath, stand up.

Now, this barbell feels much lighter on my back because I did that.

Now, we're taking a couple steps back, one, two, set my feet.

Step three, what am I doing with my feet?

Do I have one foot pointed out to the side?

Do I have my feet excessively turned out?

Now, for most people, we're going to want those feet slightly turned out to the side when we're barbell squatting.

That's going to allow us to open our body up to as much of that depth as possible and keep our joints in alignment.

If you are completely straightforward, a lot of times you're going to run out of mobility.

So for most people, a slight eight to ten degree toe out angle.

I don't want to see most people with their toes turned out like this.

Now, there's a few exceptions to the rule, but for most people, slight toe out and we're symmetrical.

Now, from here, we're creating external rotation torque.

I drove my knees out to the side slightly.

My knees, because they drove out to the side, but my feet still grabbing the ground.

My lateral glutes, almost like springs being loaded.

From here, we start the squat by taking a big breath, breathing, and then squat.

Now, let's go through that checklist one more time.

So again, we're set at about shoulder or chest height.

We're getting our hands in a good position.

We're going to pull ourselves under the bar.

We're going to be squeezing down, creating tremendous tension in our upper body and lower body.

Now, brace your core like someone's about to jack you in the stomach.

Then, from there, we're creating external rotation torque.

Drive those knees out to the side slightly.

Wind up that tension in your lateral glutes.

You'll see some people, they'll get under the barbell, and they'll do this.

That's not really working to improve your intra-abdominal cavity pressure like it could.