How to Do a Proper Squat

The squat is the move people most want to do well and most often quietly butcher. It's the foundation of nearly everything in the gym, and it's also just a human movement — you've been squatting to sit and stand your whole life. The goal here isn't to invent a new skill. It's to clean up one you already have.

We're going to do this with no weight at all. The bodyweight squat is where every strong squat is born, and it deserves your full attention before a single plate enters the picture. Let's break it down.

Set Up Before You Move#

Most squat problems are decided before you bend a single joint. Your setup is the squat.

Stand with your feet roughly shoulder-width apart. Turn your toes out slightly — somewhere around fifteen to thirty degrees feels natural for most people, though the exact angle varies by body. Spread your weight across your whole foot: a tripod of the heel, the base of the big toe, and the base of the little toe. You want to feel grounded, not perched on your toes or rocked onto your heels.

Stand tall. Take a breath into your belly and brace your midsection gently, as if you were about to be lightly poked in the stomach. That brace protects your spine and gives the rest of your body something stable to move around. Now you're ready.

The Descent#

Begin by sending your hips back and down at the same time, as if you were reaching your backside toward a chair just behind you. This hip-led motion is the single most important cue I give. It keeps the movement balanced and takes pressure off the knees.

As you lower, let your knees bend and travel forward naturally — that's fine and normal. What matters is that they track in the same direction as your toes. Picture your kneecaps pointing toward your second and third toes the whole way down. Keep your chest proud and your spine in its natural neutral position, neither rounded nor aggressively arched.

Go down at a controlled speed. There's no prize for dropping fast. Lower yourself slowly enough that you could pause at any point.

How Deep Should You Go?#

The honest answer: as deep as you can while keeping good form, and no deeper. A common target is thighs roughly parallel to the floor, but depth is individual. Hip structure, ankle mobility, and current flexibility all play a part, and forcing depth your body isn't ready for is how form breaks down.

If your lower back rounds under your hips at the bottom — what lifters call a "buttwink" — you've gone past your current usable range. Stop just above that point and work on mobility over time. A shallower clean squat beats a deep sloppy one every single day.

The Stand-Up and the Faults to Watch#

To come up, drive through your whole foot and think about pushing the floor away from you. Lead with your chest and hips rising together, squeeze your glutes near the top, and finish tall. Exhale as you push up if that feels natural.

Now, the faults. These are the usual suspects, and naming them helps you feel for them.

• Knees caving inward. The most common one. Cue yourself to spread the floor — gently press your knees out so they track over your toes.
• Heels lifting. Often an ankle mobility issue. Don't force it; work on mobility, and never put a wobbly object under your heels.
• Rounding the lower back. Usually too much depth or a weak brace. Cut the depth and re-brace.
• Falling forward. Often a sign you led with the knees instead of the hips. Reset and sit back first.

The bodyweight squat is not a warm-up for the real thing. It is the real thing. Master it here, with nothing on your back, and everything you load on later will be safer and stronger.

A great way to learn your own faults is to film yourself from the side and from the front. The camera shows you what your body can't feel yet. Better still, have a qualified coach watch you. A single form check can fix a habit that years of solo practice would only reinforce. This is exactly the kind of fundamental I'd want you to nail early — it's a cornerstone of strength training for beginners.

Earn the Right to Add Load#

Here's where ego likes to jump the line. You feel decent doing bodyweight squats, so you want to throw a loaded barbell across your back and call it progress. Slow down.

Adding weight magnifies everything — including your faults. A small knee cave under bodyweight becomes a real injury risk under a heavy bar. So before you load up, make sure you can do a set of bodyweight squats that look the same from the first rep to the last: controlled, knees tracking, back neutral, depth consistent. When that's solid and pain-free, you progress gradually, the way I describe in progressive overload.

And please respect pain. The squat should feel like effort in your muscles, not sharpness in your joints or back. Sharp pain, a pinch in the knee, or any radiating discomfort means stop and, if it persists, see a physio. Dizziness or chest pain means end the session and seek help. This is general guidance, not a substitute for a professional looking at your specific body.

Spend real time here. The squat you build patiently, with no weight and no audience, is the one that will carry you — literally — for decades. Lifting is for everyone, and it starts with movements done well, not movements done heavy.