How to do a good bodyweight squat

Click below and watch the video:

A few more pointers below:

Feet
- Have your big toe, little toe and heel all on the ground, so that you have a stable base of support.
- Keep your feet at least hip-width apart, if you need to go wider, that's up to you and your anatomy.
- You will be more stable if your toes are facing forwards, or slightly angled out. And regardless of their angle, make sure they stay ‘screwed into’ the floor and don’t move. This will help you generate force against the floor, as you push it away to come back to standing.

Hips and Knees
Your hips and knees should bend at the same rate, so that your body folds like an accordion. Keep your knees from caving inwards. Make sure they track over your feet, or ever so slightly outside. Send your hips back on the way down, and squeeze your glutes to come back up. 

Upper body
Inhale to begin, let a little air out, and then hold the rest of it in and brace your abdominals, until you come back up. Exhale.
Keep your torso upright, with your shoulders back.
Look forward.

The bottom of the squat
If you relax your body at the bottom of the squat, you’ve lost power to get back up. Stay tight at the bottom and hold your upper body as you did on the way down.

Types of squats you’ll find at the Strong & Bendy Class:

Tempo squat
This is a slower bodyweight squat. Typically we will take a few seconds in the lowering phase, and a few seconds at the bottom, then come back up fast.

Cossack Squat
This is a single leg variation of a wide-stance squat. It is a fantastic strength and mobility exercise. 

Box Pistol Squat
This is a single-leg squat variation. It will get you incredibly strong and more balanced as you use one leg at a time.The full version is unsupported, but we will practice on a box, or a chair, or sofa, whatever you have available.

We will do a lot of squatting on Mondays and Fridays, so if you want to get plenty of experience, book on to a few weeks of those classes here below: