Thursday, February 3, 2011

Squats the different styles and how to do them

There are two different styles and two different types of squats. The main type is the barbell squat this squat is done with a barbell and off of some sort of squatting rack that holds the weight. There are two general styles for this movement. The first style is what I call the standard style this is were the bar comes down about right in the middle of you shoulder blades and at the base of your neck. Your elbows are bent and  your hands are parallel to your shoulders holding the bar. This is sometimes referred to as a free squatting style due to the fact that barbel free moving this way. The exercise is performed by lowering your torso while keeping you back straight and you feet a little wider than shoulder width. As you go down your knees should not go past your toes doing this hyper extends your knee joints ligaments. You should come down to the point where you are just below a 90 degree bend and then return up.The second style of squatting are front squats or hack squats. These squats are called front squats because the bar is placed in the front of you body with your arms crossed over it. With this method you are putting more emphasis on the front of the quadriceps area of your thigh.  This method employs more of those leg muscles to the front to move the weight. The two different types of  squats are the barbell and the machine squat. Everything I have previously described applies to the machine squats as well as the barbells. I recommend you incorporate both into your regiment The preferred rep range for this exercise is 10-15 reps for 4-5 sets per movement. If your main goal is to develop your quadriceps muscle more than move more weight I would suggest the front squat style as that requires more use of just the quadriceps  than the free squatting style. However if you were to hit a sticking point with either style change is always good and would help you to get through this sticking point. So I suggest that you do both movements in your routine. So start squatting for a stronger quads and keep checking us out for updates and tips.

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