Squats muscles used

Effect of limiting ankle-dorsiflexion range of motion on lower extremity kinematics and muscle-activation patterns during a squat. He or she will need to stop just before any these faulty movements occur. It does not discuss the squat as it relates to performance such as competing in powerlifting or Olympic Weightlifting.

Rather, the purpose of this article is to provide an overview of the movement requirements, involved musculature, common technique errors, and recommendations to maximize safety and performance.

A lot of these principles are covered in the Corrective Exercise Course. 

Learning Objectives:

1.

As mobility and stability improve, the individual will be able to successfully squat to deeper depths.

Movement Compensations

Performing a squat with ideal technique is needed to maximize muscle recruitment and minimize risk of injury. As you stand back up, the hips need to rise up and forward to come back in line with the line of force.

Squatting Kinematics and Kinetics and Their Application to Exercise Performance. (2009) showed that narrow, medium, and wide stance squats all had the same level of quad activation. The further your knees travel forward, the stronger your quads must be.

So the deeper you go, and the greater your forward knee bend, the more you can expect the quads to work.

In other words, due to limited ankle mobility, the knees are not able to track over the toes in the sagittal plane, so motion is borrowed from another plane. Your core will also get a good workout.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do Squats Help Your Abs?

Yes, squats help your abs. This is likely due to your quads being too weak.

However, you won’t all of a sudden fail in the bottom range before at least grinding a few reps out.

Second, the hamstring acts as a stabilizing muscle to support the knee joint. Since the body is a kinetic chain, any impairment at one joint can affect adjacent joints up and down the chain. She has over ten years of experience in the health, community development, and communications sectors.

Paoli, A., Marcolin, G., Petrone, N.

(2009). Others can do full squats (below parallel). This occurs when a person bends their knee, bringing their heel closer to their thigh or butt.

Ankle Dorsiflexion: Flexion at the ankle in which the top of the foot (dorsal) is brought closer towards the shin.

Overview

The barbell squat is a compound, multi-joint exercise designed to target many muscles of the lower body and lumbo-pelvic-hip complex (pelvis, low-back, and abdominals).

Experienced individuals or athletes seeking to improve 1RM can use these variations once properly instructed and have displayed adequate physical capabilities.

Hip Flexion: Decreasing the angle between the femur (thigh) and pelvis. If your quads get overly sore from squatting, check out my article on quad soreness after squatting to learn how to prevent and reduce soreness.

If you have long legs, check out my article on How To Squat With Long Legs to see how your quad activation changes as a tall lifter.

Glutes

When considering the question of ‘what do squats work,’ it’s not just the quadriceps we should consider.

They do this by preventing the erectors from pulling the spine into hyperextension.

As you'll remember, the erectors' job is to prevent the spine from flexion (rounding). This will look like you are in a good morning squat position with your legs relatively straight and your back horizontal to the ground.

This is the body's way to get your glutes and low/mid-back more involved in the range of motion in order to complete the movement.