Barbell Full Squat

1. Set the bar in a rack at about upper-chest height, step under it, and place it across your upper traps, squeezing your shoulder blades together to build a shelf.
2. Grip the bar just outside your shoulders, stand up to unrack it, and take two or three steps back.
3. Set your feet shoulder width apart or slightly wider, toes turned out 15 to 30 degrees.
4. Take a deep breath into your belly, brace your core, and keep your chest up.
5. Bend your knees and hips together and sit down between your legs, keeping your knees tracking over your toes.
6. Descend under control until your hips drop below the level of your knees, keeping your whole foot flat on the floor.
7. Drive up out of the bottom by pushing the floor away, keeping your chest up and knees out.
8. Stand up fully at the top, exhale, re-brace, and repeat for the desired reps.

Common Mistakes

• Cutting the squat high: stopping above parallel skips the range where the glutes and quads work hardest. If depth is limited, reduce the load and work on ankle and hip mobility rather than stacking plates on a half squat.
• Knees caving inward: letting the knees collapse toward each other under load stresses the knee ligaments. Actively push your knees out in line with your toes, especially out of the bottom position.
• Heels rising off the floor: shifting onto the toes tips you forward and turns the squat into a knee-dominant good morning. Keep your weight spread across the whole foot and drive through mid-foot and heel.
• Losing the brace at the bottom: relaxing the trunk in the hole lets the chest drop and the lower back round. Take a full breath at the top and hold the brace through the entire rep.

Programming Tips

Squat for strength in the 3 to 6 rep range for 3 to 5 sets, resting 3 to 4 minutes so you can hit every rep with good depth. For muscle growth, sets of 8 to 12 with a slightly lighter bar build the quads and glutes without grinding recovery the way heavy triples do. Progress in small increments, 2.5 to 5 kg, and only add weight once every rep hits full depth with a flat back; chasing weight at the expense of depth just teaches a bad pattern. Squat first in a lower body session while your legs and central nervous system are fresh, ideally after a short warm-up ramp of empty bar and light singles.

Common Questions

How deep should I actually squat? Hips dropping below knee level, often called below parallel, is the standard for a full squat and is where the glutes and quads do the most work; stopping short of that is a partial rep even if it feels heavy.

Why do my knees hurt at the bottom? Usually the knees are caving inward or the heels are rising off the floor; both shift stress onto the knee joint instead of spreading it across the hips and ankles.

Is it bad if my knees go past my toes? No, some forward knee travel is normal and necessary for most people's proportions; the real red flag is the heels lifting or the knees collapsing inward.