Top Tips for Better Squats: Trainer-Approved Strategies for Superior Leg Workouts

Squats are often called the king of exercises, and that’s a sentiment I agree with. Squats are incredibly beneficial and, regardless of your fitness goal, doing them will probably help you achieve it faster.

Want bigger, more muscular legs? Get massively strong? Jump higher or run faster? A better-looking butt? Squats are the answer!

They can even help you lose weight and get lean, as explained in this article.  

It’s no wonder that squats are the cornerstone of so many popular workout plans, including the legendary 20-rep squat program.

And contrary to a very outdated but still widely held belief, there is very little evidence supporting the idea that squats are bad for your knees. In contrast, research suggests that squats are safe and even have the potential to enhance knee health (1).

I’m a veteran personal trainer and prescribe squats to most of my clients. I’m also a former powerlifter and athlete and have done thousands of squats throughout my training career. Consequently, I’ve learned a lot about squats, and the best way to use them to achieve various fitness goals.

In this article, I break down all this experience into eight easy-to-digest tips and hacks that you can use to make your squat-based leg workouts safer and more effective.

Top Squat Tips for Better Leg Workouts

Squats are a challenging exercise so it’s only sensible to make them as productive as possible. This ensures that you get the biggest return for your investment of time, effort, and energy – let’s make every rep count!

Use the following tips to ensure your squat workouts are as beneficial as they can be.

1. Choose the Squat Variation That’s Right for You

When most trainers talk about squats, they’re referring to a movement pattern that involves bending your knees and flexing your hips simultaneously. Consequently, there are lots of exercises that can be classified as squats.

However, some people think that barbell back squats are the only way to perform this exercise. Such a narrow point of view is a problem.

Because of my powerlifting background, I have a lot of love for barbell back squats. That said, I also recognize that they’re not always the best choice, and depending on your fitness goal, another squat variation may be better.

Effective squat variations include:  

• Front squats
• Goblet squats
• Air squats
• Paused squats
• Overhead squats
• Smith machine squats
• Single-leg squats
• Box squats
• Dumbbell squats
• Kickstand squats
• Cable machine squats

Related: 12 Unique Squat Variations for Stronger, More Muscular Legs

So, don’t feel you have to do barbell back squats – there are plenty of alternatives that you can use to achieve your training goal. Ultimately, like a mechanic, you must choose the best tool for the job.

2. Unlock a Deeper Squat by Raising Your Heels

While shallow squats have their uses, most people get better results from squats if they descend to at least parallel or deeper. However, this is difficult for a lot of exercisers and requires above-average mobility and flexibility to do safely.

Raising your heels with weight plates, angled wedges, or thin planks of wood takes the tension out of your calves and will instantly allow you to squat deeper. This old-school squat technique fell out of favor for many years but is making a comeback as the unfounded fear of going “knees over toes” is starting to vanish.

However, it’s worth noting that raising your heels makes squats more knee-dominant and quads-centric. Your glutes and hamstrings become slightly less active when you raise your heels (2).

3. Squat to an Appropriate Depth

According to many popular gym memes, for squats to be effective you must descend until your hamstrings touch your calves. This is known as squatting “ass to grass” or ATG for short.

Unfortunately, not everyone is built to squat so deeply, and trying to force your limbs through such an extreme range of motion can cause serious injury.

One of the most obvious problems associated with squatting deeper than you should is known as “butt wink.” This is where the pelvis tips posteriorly resulting in a rounded lower back. A rounded lower back is a weak lower back, and the load that should be supported by muscles ends up being borne by your fragile spinous disks and ligaments.

So, while you may feel pressured to do ATG squats, you should always adjust your squat depth to reflect your mobility, joint health, and limb length. Never compromise good form for a deeper squat, as any potential benefits are far outweighed by the increased risk of injury.

Related: How Deep Should You Squat?

4. Adjust Your Foot Placement for Comfort

Most squat instructions recommend that you stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. While this is good general advice, a shoulder-width stance is not ideal for everyone. Instead, you should adjust your foot placement for comfort.

But how wide should your stance be?

One way to determine the correct squat stance is the squat jump test. Simply leap into the aid and land with your feet placed naturally. In most cases, where your feet land will also be close to your ideal squat stance. Fine-tune from here to find your perfect foot placement. Remember to turn your feet slightly outward so they’re in line with your knees.

Of course, you can still squat with a wider or narrower stance to achieve different training outcomes, but a comfortable stance is usually best in most situations.

5. Use a Booty Band to Maximize Glute Engagement

Squats are one of the best exercises for building bigger, stronger thighs as they preferentially target your quadriceps. Your glutes are working, as are your hamstrings, but it’s the quads that are doing the majority of the work.

However, you can increase glute engagement and make squats much more hip-centric by using a simple booty band. Worn around the knees, a booty band forces you to push your knees out against resistance, so your glutes work much harder.

You can use this strategy with all bilateral (two-legged) squat variations. As an added benefit it reinforces good squat mechanics and can help prevent your knees from caving in, which is a major squat form error.

6. Brace Like a Boss

Squats are more than just a leg exercise and, depending on the variation you perform, involve numerous upper body muscles, too. However, arguably the most critical muscle group for better, safer, more effective squats is your core.

Core is the collective term for the muscles of your midsection, including the rectus abdominis, obliques, transverse abdominis, and erector spinae. When properly engaged, these muscles squeeze inward to increase intra-abdominal pressure, or IAP for short. IAP is your body’s primary mechanism for supporting your spine.

Purposely engaging your core is known as bracing, and you should keep your core braced during squats to keep your spine supported and protected.

But how do you brace your core?

After all, while most exercise instructions tell you to brace, very few explain what this actually means.

Let’s change that by providing you with a step-by-step guide to bracing your core!

1. Adopt your chosen squat stance.
2. Tense your midsection as if you were expecting to get hit in the stomach. Do NOT pull your abs in. Rather, contract them isometrically, i.e., in place.
3. Pull up your pelvic floor as if trying to halt the flow of urine and avoid passing wind – gross I know but also very necessary!
4. Next, inhale into your abdomen without allowing your abs to bow outward. You should feel the front, sides, and back of your midsection stiffen and feel more solid.
5. Perform your rep, exhaling slightly as you pass the halfway point of your ascent.
6. Reset your core, take another breath, and repeat.

Bracing should happen automatically whenever you are faced with a physically demanding task. However, prolonged sitting and general sedentarism mean that many of us have lost the ability to brace without thinking about it.

The good news is that bracing is relatively easy to relearn, and doing it will protect your spine from much of the stress that can cause lower back pain and injuries during squats.  

7. Look for Opportunities to Squat More Often  

Squats are more than just an exercise – they’re also a critical movement pattern that most people do multiple times a day. From picking up bags of groceries to getting out of a low chair to walking upstairs, squat-based movements are hard to avoid.

That said, a lot of people lose their ability to squat as they get older. This is usually the result of lost muscle mass, decreased mobility, and reduced balance. Consequently, tasks that should be easy become more challenging and even impossible.

While your regular workouts will help preserve your ability to squat, you’ll maintain it more easily and for longer if you find ways to incorporate more squats into your daily life. For example, squat down to tie your shoes, pick up litter, play with your kids or pets, or just rest in a deep so-called “Asian squat” instead of sitting in a chair.

As an added benefit, doing more squats outside of the gym will improve your squat performance in it. You’ll feel more mobile and comfortable, and your squat depth will naturally increase, making your workouts more effective.

8. Safety First for Heavy Squats

Heavy squats are one of the best ways to develop lower body strength and muscle mass. However, a failed rep can cause serious injury if you are unable to escape from under the weight.

For this reason, you should always do heavy squats in a suitable squat or power rack. Set the safety catches so that they will take the weight at the bottom of your rep and save you from being crushed beneath the bar.

This is not such an issue for exercises like front squats, goblet squats, and dumbbell squats where you can just release the weight if you are unable to complete your reps.

However, in my opinion, a squat rack is non-negotiable for heavy barbell back squats.

Having torn a quad while squatting and been unable to control my descent with more than 300 pounds on my back, I can say that, without a doubt, squatting in a power rack saved me from what would have otherwise been a very traumatic accident.

So, no squat rack, no heavy squats. It’s just not worth the risk.

Closing Thoughts

Squats are such an effective exercise that they deserve a place in almost every workout. They’re all but unbeatable for building muscle mass, strength, and endurance. Studies suggest that they’re good for your heart, lungs, and cardiovascular system, too (3).

That said, squats are so challenging that you’ll want them to be as effective as possible. After all, why waste your energy and sweat on an unproductive exercise?

These tips are based on more than 30 years of squatting experience, and I share them daily with my personal training clients. Use them to help ensure that every squat rep that you perform delivers the results you want.

Questions? Comments? Drop me a line below and I’ll get back to you ASAP!

References:

1 – Rojas-Jaramillo A, Cuervo-Arango DA, Quintero JD, Ascuntar-Viteri JD, Acosta-Arroyave N, Ribas-Serna J, González-Badillo JJ, Rodríguez-Rosell D. Impact of the deep squat on articular knee joint structures, friend or enemy? A scoping review. Front Sports Act Living. 2024 Nov 19;6:1477796. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2024.1477796. PMID: 39640505; PMCID: PMC11618833.

2 – Lu Z, Li X, Xuan R, Song Y, Bíró I, Liang M, Gu Y. Effect of Heel Lift Insoles on Lower Extremity Muscle Activation and Joint Work during Barbell Squats. Bioengineering (Basel). 2022 Jul 8;9(7):301. doi: 10.3390/bioengineering9070301. PMID: 35877352; PMCID: PMC9312299.

3 – Chukwuemeka UM, Benjamin CP, Uchenwoke CI, Okonkwo UP, Anakor AC, Ede SS, Fabunmi AA, Amaechi IA, Akobundu UN. Impact of squatting on selected cardiovascular parameters among college students. Sci Rep. 2024 Mar 7;14(1):5669. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-56186-z. PMID: 38454093; PMCID: PMC10920734.

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