Quads exercise
Barbell Back SquatHow to do it, with form in numbers
- Also works
- Adductors, Hamstrings, Lower back
- Equipment
- Barbell
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
How do you do the Barbell Back Squat?
- Rest the bar on your upper back, not your neck.
- Grip it a little wider than your shoulders and squeeze your shoulder blades.
- Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, toes turned out slightly.
- Push your hips back and bend your knees until your thighs are parallel or lower.
- Drive up through your whole foot until you stand tall.
Cues
- Chest up, eyes forward.
- Knees follow your toes.
- Hips and shoulders rise together.
Common mistakes
- Letting the knees cave inward.
- Lifting the heels or tipping onto the toes.
- Shooting the hips up first so the chest drops.
Form in detail
What does good form look like?
Starting position
High-bar position: the bar rests on the upper trapezius, below the bony bump at the base of the neck, not on the neck itself. Hands grip the bar a little wider than the shoulders, wrists straight, forearms roughly in line with the trunk, shoulder blades squeezed together. Heels about shoulder-width apart, toes forward or turned out a little. Whole foot flat, weight spread between heel and forefoot. Stand tall with the bar directly over the mid-foot. Chest up, head neutral, gaze straight ahead.
The movement
The hips break back and the knees bend forward at the same moment. The knees track over the 2nd and 3rd toes and may pass the toes a little. The bar travels in a vertical line over the mid-foot. The trunk leans forward only as far as the shins do, so seen from the side the back and shins stay roughly parallel. On the way up, shoulders and hips rise at the same rate.
End position
Bottom: the hip crease sits level with or just below the top of the kneecap, so the thighs are at or a little past parallel. Keeping the bar over the mid-foot with the load on the back puts the trunk at about 35–45° from vertical, close to the shin angle, as [3] asks.
Tempo
2 s down, 0.2 s pause at the bottom, 1.2 s up, about 1 s standing. The descent is about twice as long as the ascent, inside the 2:1 to 4:1 range in [3].
Form in numbers
What are the angles and distances?
| Measure | Target | Good range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stance, heel to heel | 1.0 × shoulder width | 0.9–1.2 × | [1][2][3] |
| Toe-out, each foot | 10° | 0–20° | [3][4] |
| Depth: hip crease vs top of knee | 2 cm below | 0–6 cm below | [1][2][3] |
| Trunk lean vs shin lean at the bottom | parallel | within 10° | [3] |
| Knee position, front view | over 2nd–3rd toe | inner knee never inside the inner ankle | [3][4] |
| Heel lift | 0 cm | 0 cm | [1] |
The targets our 3D demo was built to, from the references below. Bodies differ, so treat the ranges as a guide for your own build.
For coaches
Use this demo in your clients’ programs
The Barbell Back Squat is in Trainaq’s exercise library. Add it to a workout, and your client sees this demo in the free Trainaq app above the sets they log.
Sources
Sources
- ExRx, Barbell Squat
- ACE, Back Squat
- Myer et al. 2014, Strength Cond J, "The back squat: a proposed assessment of functional deficits and technical factors that limit performance"
- NASM, The NASM Guide to Squats and Deadlifts (PDF)
- Front Sports Act Living 2024, "Impact of the deep squat on articular knee joint structures" (scoping review)
