 Ladies and gentlemen welcome Silent Mike, good company, Third Street Barbell. Today we're teaching you how to squat with kind of like a three-tier system that I focus on three points that'll help any squatter beginner to advance and I want to help you build your legs, build some strength, build some athleticism. So tap in, give this thing a thumbs up. Let's see if we can get a thousand likes. Let's learn how to squat a little bit better. So the three main pieces we look about is stability in the upper body where we're putting the bar itself and holding that as stable as possible. Rigidity in the middle of our body, a way to keep this as secure and stable as we can so we can transfer that power through our legs into the barbell into the weight itself. And then with our lower body we got to talk about stability and finding balance. So we'll break those down for the simplicity and I think for being optimal all we worry about is what bar position feels most comfortable to start and then as we get better at squatting majority of people will find that a lower bar position it's not only more comfortable but you'll handle more weight. So with a higher bar position kind of any bar position we're going to really work on squeezing our back together and if you got traps if you got a scapula if you got some mid-back if you got some rear delts that's going to build a foundation of where this bar is going to sit. As much of this bar as we can feel and fit onto our body the less chance it's going to wiggle around and as stable as we can be is as strong we're going to be. A lower bar position similar with your hand grip if you guys want to start real simple I always just use these lines on any power bar find a grip that's comfortable but overall I think you want to be as close as you can without pain. It's going to automatically make your scap and upper back tight on its own without you having to overthink it. If I go too wide now I have to worry about squeezing my back together with the wide grip and that's all in the shoulder rather than if my grip's automatically tight my back tightens up all on its own and so why take a step out and make it more difficult than it is. So I go as close as I can with the lower bar position now we're going to try to really focus again on those squeezing that back together and we're going to put the bar on a rear delt to begin with we're going to have to place it across the dead middle of our back just naturally you're going to have to lean over a little bit more just because the bar is going to roll the whole goal of all this again is just contact with our body contact with the bar and stability cross but I'm squeezing that back as tight as humanly possible show off our body find a grip that's even close enough that it doesn't hurt but it forces you to squeeze your back squeeze your scalp which is your wings back there it's tight as humanly possible together and down we want to flex our lats flex our traps build a foundation for that bar to sit on we want to squeeze every muscle we have in our upper body squeeze the bar and hold from here up as foundational with no movement as humanly possible next part we're talking about rigidity of the midsection kind of transfer of power all it comes down to is a fancy word is the valsalva maneuver people say get tights see people talk about midline rigidity and breathing into your stomach not only on the unwrapped but on every rep on every major set you want to breathe and brace into your lower stomach as much as possible so I'm often a cue for me that helps is breathing through my nose first and then finishing and topping out with my mouth breathing in but what I'll do is I'll breathe into my midsection my sides and my low back and I want this entire thing to be just a little chunky tuna can I don't want it to bend either way I don't want to lean anyway and I don't want to over arch or over flex I want to be a stiff and as straight as I can regardless of where the bar is regardless of where my legs are doing from my hip to my shoulder big breath in my nose I finished off with my upper with my mouth the upper breath and I'm squeezing and flexing through the entire rep as stiff as we can hear a strong confident unwrap is going to allow you to be a more successful squatter rep after rep so the basics are stance width matters but it's going to be slightly individual so what we'll start with is a blanket statement have your stance slightly wider than shoulder width that's going to allow most people to be as powerful as you can a lot will depend on your torso length how long we are from here and how we all long we are on our femurs from our hip to our knee the longer the femur it might get a little bit more difficult to squat to depth depth in both training and the sport of powerlifting is this hip crease has to be below the top of my knee at the bottom of the hole even for the regular gym goer someone trying to get strong that range of motion is really really solid cue so we can have a standard of which we exercise and execute every single rep every single week what we'll do for most people again slightly shoulder than hip width slightly wider than shoulder width and then maybe depending on leverages we will have to wiggle that out or in when we are making changes to our squat let's go inch by inch and week by week we don't want to make drastic changes it's just going to make it more difficult to learn and also more difficult to execute and get a good workout so small changes over time to find what fits best but a little bit wider in shoulder width and then typically just a very small narrow angle out of our knees depending on how you're built again the longer femurs you might have to go wider stance a little bit more angled out shorter femurs you might be able to bring in stance a little bit and toes a little bit more straight from there the biggest thing on the execution of the squat is simply to get yourself to move straight up and down as possible I like to think of myself as an elevator going up and down straight up and down on a pulley keeping that bar stable again we got the foundation we got the rigidity and now we're just going to break at the hips and knees simultaneously at the same time my goal is to keep my knees over the middle of my feet and toes I'm pushing my knees forward don't be scared of knee bend and pushing your knees towards your toes while I'm keeping my knees in track with my shins hips going straight down slightly back but when I mean hips back the biggest thing isn't the hinge I'm not moving my torso because we need that tuna can we need that rigidity what I mean by hips back is actually this angle so we'll be squatting like that it's a hinge not a twist so big breath you walk them out stand solid I'm going to break at the knees and hips simultaneously at the exact same time you see at the bottom position my knees are just over the middle of my foot aiming towards my toes hips are just below the top of my knee under control stand straight up ultimate goal with all of these three parts putting together is keep this bar down the middle of my foot the entire time that's we're going to be strongest if we set ourselves up to do the same things control the variables that we can we're more likely to have a system to allow us to success we do the same thing same thing that we execute the squat the same way walk out rack height all matter I like to get the rack height to a certain height maybe I get two or three inches of clearance once I unwrap the bar and that's going to be based on a two-step walkout basically what I like to do is I like to unwrap the bar with even foot stance very close maybe just a hair in from where I'm squatting a lot of people unwrap too wide or the unwrap too narrow and now you have to take multiple steps and you're stuttering all the way there you want to be as stable as you can while controlling energy and the stability of the bar as weights get heavier so I'll unwrap with basically hip width big breath unwrap and I simply take two steps back slightly out to get into my stance you don't have to overthink it and now I'm ready to squat you can do a couple wiggles make sure you're in the right place your right angles but the goal is unwrap step slide step slide we don't have to take big monster steps there's no speed bumps in the way just enough to move your foot my foot stays in contact with the ground again stability is king here one of the most common questions I've had over a decade on the business what shoes do you wear most commonly for beginners I would say just train in anything flat that could be a converse that could be a vans I don't care don't break the bank just wear something flat and stable with a very low insult I'm wearing something called a squat shoe or a weightlifting shoe it has an elevated heel for many people especially beginners this may throw you out of position and push you too far forward as you get more advanced or more stable and controlled in your squat it does allow you to hit depth slightly easier it elevates the backside which puts more allows us to flex our knees forward slightly more and get our hips to depth slightly more efficiently ladies and gentlemen silent mic new videos once a week shorts every day check it out be sure to subscribe show some love 3sb.co for all your clothing needs this tea drops in a week so stay tuned join our discord good company discord.com I appreciate you got so much hanging out comment below what you want to see in upcoming videos how can I help you in your fitness journey your life during your business journey let's get out for a wee over me be a part of something big in yourself so I might come out