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Take Your Squat to New Levels – Part 1

Whenever I take someone through a new gym programme for the first time, I find myself wishing there was a resource I could direct them to with all the information they need on each element of their training. This is my attempt at creating such a resource for the squat. If it’s well-received I will make similar guides for other exercises.

This won’t be a step-by-step guide through the act of squatting. This would be much better demonstrated in a video, not to mention the fact that writing 1000+ words about squatting would probably make it easier to overthink the exercise. Instead, I’ll be focussing on those nitty-gritty decisions that will get the most out of your squat workout.

Part 1: Before You Squat

This part will focus on things you should know about squatting before you even set foot in the gym. Part 2 will be focussed on things you need to know to get the most out of your squatting session.

Table of Contents
  1. Part 1: Before You Squat
    1. Why Should I Squat?
    2. What Muscles Are Worked by the Squat?
    3. Am I Ready to Squat?
    4. How Low Should I Squat?
    5. Squatting to Parallel
    6. “But When I Try To Squat Low, I Feel Like I’m Going to Fall Over…”
    7. Do I Need to Be Completely Upright?
    8. Do I Need Weightlifting Shoes?
    9. Should I Squat Barefoot?
    10. What Kind of Squat Should I Do?
    11. But Aren’t Squats Bad for My Knees?

Why Should I Squat?

It’s a fundamental movement pattern, which means it is a blueprint for a number of other key movements such as:

  • Sitting and standing;
  • Jumping and landing;
  • Decelerating suddenly from a forward sprint;

Any task that requires moving up and down using our legs!

Squatting and Jumping
By Fabio Jock on Unsplash
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6 Things You Need to Know Before You Start Strength Training

If there’s one training service that I’ve provided the most (besides trying to convince people to stop worrying about getting “bulky”), it’s introducing novice gym-goers to strength training. And when I say strength training, I am referring to dedicated strength training as I described previously.

What is strength training

There is an unfortunate stigma that this is “meathead” training, which discourages many people from trying this training style, and in turn missing out on a huge number of benefits. Because of this barrier, most people don’t know where to start with strength training.

If you can relate, please don’t be discouraged. I spent the first two years of my life as a PT oblivious to the benefits of true strength training, and only changed my ways when I went to University to get my strength and conditioning degree. In the years since, I have identified the key lessons people need when they start strength training.

1. In Strength Training, Technique is King

This is an adage that has been repeated so often that it mostly falls on deaf ears now, but if you want to get stronger, you can’t just focus on what you lift – you need to focus on how you lift it.

Strength training is often seen as a physical process; we get less soreness and more muscle, then we can lift more weight. But strength is a skill – a lot of improvements occur because the nervous system gets more efficient at managing our muscle contractions. That means lifting weights is practice, and good, mindful practice makes perfect.

When I was a strength and conditioning intern, I shadowed a coach who told his athletes that starting a set should be like stepping onto the stage in a theatre. You need to be dedicated to your performance – your setup, your bracing, your tempo, everything. Finding this focus will elevate your strength training to new heights.

strength technique is king
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Improve Your Motivation to Workout Part 5

Creating a Back-Up Plan

Don’t forget to check out Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 if you haven’t already.

“No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”

Helmuth von Moltke the Elder

We’ve spent this week establishing that there are no secret tricks to increasing motivation, and that progress will likely come from improving our relationship with exercise, improving our self-talk, and budgeting motivation.

However, no matter how well prepared you are, your motivation will eventually fail. We may have delayed the process, but sooner or later you will renege on your goals/action plans. Even if we’ve controlled every variable, you will:

  • Miss a fitness milestone (like lifting a certain weight or looking a certain way);
  • Fall off the bandwagon with your action plans;
  • Have a terrible day that leaves you stressed/sore/exhausted.
Plan
By STIL on Unsplash
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We’ve spent this week establishing that there are no secret tricks to increasing motivation, and that progress will likely come from improving our relationship with exercise, improving our self-talk, and budgeting motivation.

However, no matter how well prepared you are, your motivation will eventually fail. We may have delayed the process, but sooner or later you will renege on your goals/action plans. Even if we’ve controlled every variable, you will:

  • Miss a fitness milestone (like lifting a certain weight or looking a certain way);
  • Fall off the bandwagon with your action plans;
  • Have a terrible day that leaves you stressed/sore/exhausted.
Plan
By STIL on Unsplash
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Improve Your Motivation to Workout Part 4

Budgeting Your Motivation

Make sure you’ve checked out Parts 1, 2, and 3 before you read this one.

Imagine that your motivation is money. The different disciplines in your life are countries with different currencies, so that your motivation is stronger in some domains, and weaker in others. Some people start with more or less money than you do, and their money may be stronger in different currencies compared to yours.

We often hope to overcome issues of fitness motivation by hoping we’ll have more of it next time. Just as hoping to win the lottery is not a good way to manage your finances, this is not a good way to maintain your motivation to workout when you’re preparing to take on a new challenge.

Money Motivation
By John McArthur on Unsplash

Continuing with this analogy, part 2 of this blog was about making sure we aren’t borrowing money from a sketchy source that will punish us with interest at a later date. Part 3 was about making sure we don’t associate our money with our self-worth or future prospects. This part will be focussed on budgeting your money.

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Improve Your Motivation to Workout Part 3

Fitness Motivation and Identity

Identity
By Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

New to this series? Be sure to read Part 1 and Part 2.

It’s easy to look at all the success stories on social media and convince yourself that the people who are full of fitness motivation have some quality that you don’t. This narrative is perpetuated by captions about how “motivation is BS,” and “if you want something enough, nothing will stop you.” These statements may be true in the eyes of the person sharing them because they can’t relate to your motivation obstacles. Occasionally, it’s a lie perpetuated to portray success, garner legitimacy, or simply provide social media bragging rights.

Fitness Motivation douche
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Improve Your Motivation to Workout Part 2

Motivation Quality

Just getting started? Check out Part 1 first.

We often think about fitness motivation in terms of quantity. We complain when we have little or no motivation to workout, and want to get more. However, it’s also important that we focus on the quality of what motivates you.

What is the Source of Your Workout Motivation?

One of my favourite films is Inception. You should definitely have already seen it, but in case you haven’t, Inception is all about motivation. Inception is the task of planting an idea so deeply within someone’s subconscious that they accept the idea as their own without question. It’s exactly what we’re trying to do when we want to start a new habit, such as going to the gym or eating kale (for some reason). We want a new behaviour to become so firmly rooted in our psyche that it’s not a thirty-minute battle just to put the trainers on. This is no easy feat.

Inception Motivation
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Improve Your Motivation to Workout Part 1

Introduction

When starting a fitness habit, one of the biggest obstacles will always be finding motivation to workout. Unless you’re superhuman (or kidding yourself), you’ve probably asked yourself one of the following questions at one point:

  • How do I get motivated to work out?
  • What is causing my lack of motivation?
  • Why do I get super motivated, only to fall off the bandwagon weeks later?

The Fitness Motivation Cycle

We tend to go through cycles of motivation. Sometimes, your motivation will be super high. This leads you to set up a new training or dietary routine. A few weeks pass by if you’re lucky, then boom – it’s all over. Your motivation takes a nosedive. You give up your hard work and go back to square one. Then the next time you feel pressure to change, the cycle begins anew.

Fitness Motivation Cycle
The Fitness Motivation Cycle
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5 More Great Reasons You Should Try Strength Training

Spotting Bench Press

The benefits of strength training for women and men have been listed a million times by a million different coaches. I’m going to list them again – hopefully, with a new twist.

There’s two reasons I’ve decided to rehash this post:

  1. No matter how many times it has been said, it always needs to be said again.
  2. Strength training has been mislabelled in common gym parlance.

If you have ever performed a challenging resistance workout that made you stronger over time, then technically you have engaged in strength training. However, in my opinion dedicated strength training is more than just lifting weights – it’s a completely different workout to the ones you’ll usually see in your local gym. This distinction can cause you to miss out on some of the benefits of a committed strength training period.

So What is Strength Training, Really?

Dedicated strength training is characterised by the following features:

  • Increasing the weight you can lift at low (1-8) reps;
  • Exercises that use multiple joints and muscle groups through a long range of motion;
  • Fundamental movement patterns such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, single leg work and carrying;
  • An emphasis on free weights or bodyweight (although this can be tweaked for the individual);
  • A strong focus on your technique, tweaking exercises to suit your leverages;
  • Long rest periods (usually 2-5 minutes).

Unfortunately, strength training is usually confused with:

  • Lifting the heaviest weight you can every session;
  • Spontaneously maxing out without strategy;
  • Chasing failure/soreness;
  • One resistance exercise in the middle of a circuit;
  • Going so heavy that you only move the weight a couple of inches;
  • An overreliance on machines.
Strength Training Benefits
By Victor Freitas on Unsplash
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9 Training Methods You Need to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse

Prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse
By Nathan Wright on Unsplash

You’re surrounded by zombies on all sides. You’re cut off from your fellow survivors. All you have for company is a rusty shovel. The zombie apocalypse is here – and if you want to survive, you’re going to have to get out of this yourself.

As the zombies close in, you think back to a time before the dead began to walk the earth. How could you have been better prepared?

One of the most rewarding signs of progress in training is feeling like you’re prepared to face any physical challenge. But if you’re training for the zombie apocalypse, then some training methods are better than others. 

Count how many of these training methods you use, and check your score at the end to learn what your odds are of surviving a brush with the living dead…

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