How to back squat

The set-up

1. Set the rack hooks at roughly mid-chest height. Too high and you have to tiptoe out of the rack with a maximal load; too low and you waste a squat unracking.
2. Get under the bar and decide where it sits. High bar rests on the upper traps, keeps the torso more upright and biases the quads. Low bar sits on the rear delts a few centimetres lower, allows more hip drive and usually more weight. Pick one and stay with it for a training block.
3. Squeeze your shoulder blades together to build a shelf of muscle for the bar to sit on, and grip as narrowly as your shoulders comfortably allow — a tight upper back keeps the bar from rolling.
4. Unrack with both feet under the bar, take one or two steps back — not five — and set your stance around shoulder-width with toes turned out 15–30°.
5. Breathe into your stomach, not your chest, and brace as if about to be punched. Hold that breath for the whole rep.

The rep

1. Start the descent by sending your hips back and bending your knees at the same time. Not hips first, not knees first — both.
2. Let your knees travel forward and track in line with your toes. Knees moving over the toes is normal in a squat and is not what injures people.
3. Descend until your hip crease is below the top of your knee. If you cannot get there without your lower back rounding, stop above that point and work on ankle and hip mobility separately.
4. Reverse without pausing or bouncing. Drive your whole foot into the floor and think about pushing the floor away rather than standing up.
5. Keep your hips and shoulders rising at the same rate. Stand fully, breathe, and reset the brace before the next rep.

Common mistakes

The hips rising faster than the chest

Also called a good morning squat — the hips shoot up, the bar stalls, and the lift turns into a bent-over row of your own spine. It usually means the weight is above what your trunk can brace. Drop 10–15% and pause at the bottom for a second until the pattern holds.

Knees caving in

Common when driving out of the bottom. Cue spreading the floor apart with your feet, and check your stance is not too narrow. Persistent caving under light loads is worth training directly with split squats and abduction work.

Heels lifting off the floor

Almost always ankle mobility, not weak calves. Shoes with a raised heel solve it immediately; ankle work solves it eventually. Squatting on plates is a worse version of the shoe fix and less stable.

Cutting depth as the weight goes up

Very easy to do and impossible to notice from inside the set. If your reps get shallower as the bar gets heavier, you are not actually adding weight to the same lift. Film from the side at a slight angle, once a month.

Sets and reps

Squats cost more to recover from than any other lift, so more is not automatically better. Two sessions a week is enough for almost everyone, and at least one of them should be well short of a maximum effort.

Variations worth knowing

Front squat

Bar racked on the front delts. Forces an upright torso and hammers the quads, and self-limits — if your position collapses, you drop it rather than grinding a bad rep.

Bulgarian split squat

One leg at a time with the rear foot elevated. Brutal, humbling, and the most effective way to stop a strong side from carrying a weak one.

Leg press

Removes the balance and bracing demand entirely. Useful for adding leg volume when your lower back has had enough, not as a squat replacement.

Questions