How To Increase Squat By 100 Pounds

The meatheads here at Gunsmith Fitness dearest to go on things simple, and not only because we're all a bit irksome in the caput.  Our general philosophy has always been Keep Information technology Simple, Stupid, or K.I.South.Southward. for short.

For that reason, and many others, we love our big compound lifts.  Bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses, and fifty-fifty the occasional olympic lift like the clean and jerk.  While these all rank high on our list of most beloved exercises, the one that really holds a special place in our hearts is the squat.

Y'all've probably heard before, especially if you frequent this web log, that the squat is the King of Lifts, or Male monarch of Exercises.  This isn't only something we've made up, it'due south adequately conventional wisdom in weightlifting, bodybuilding and powerlifting circles.

You see, many people think the squat is simply a leg exercise, and that's simply not true.  The squat could more accurately be seen as a full-body exercises, with a focus on the lower body.

Considering of all this, nosotros admittedly love squats.  Many lifters detest them, and role of the reason is considering they're not good at them.  If you could learn some simple, effective ways to ameliorate your squat force, you lot would probably enjoy squatting more.

Benefits of Squats

Before we get into the meat of this article, which is actually improving your squat force, we should go over some of the general benefits yous can expect to see from squatting regularly.  If you knew all of the ways in which squatting could improve your life, y'all'd probably be a lot more than motivated to add together them to your routine.

Bigger, Stronger Legs

This is probably the about obvious ane, being that the squat tends to focus on the leg muscles.  The squat works the glutes, quads, hamstrings and calves, which pretty much covers all of the muscles in your legs.

Are you lot tired of having skinny little chicken legs showing when y'all wear shorts in the summer?  There'southward no improve way of bulking your legs upwards than calculation in some squats one time or twice a week.

Increased Cadre Strength

When nosotros talk about the core, we're non merely talking about abs.  This is a common fault, and can actually lead to muscular imbalances if lifters only focus on working their abdominals, while neglecting the balance of their core, which too includes the obliques and back muscles.

When you stack a barbell on your dorsum and and then move it up and down, you're engaging all of your core muscles besides, which leads to a stronger core and ultimately a stronger, healthier body which is less prone to injury.

Increased Vertical Jump

For bodybuilders and powerlifters, this isn't such a big deal.  But for athletes and fitness-minded people in general, having a high vertical jump is important and often a point of pride.

Increased Mobility

Having increased mobility doesn't simply mean y'all're flexible.  It also is a measurement of how effective you lot are along that range of motility.  Practicing the deep squat move with weight, where y'all at least interruption parallel with your knees, is great for training your muscles, joints and ligaments to have power throughout the full range of motion of your knees, hips and dorsum.

Fire More Fat (Like, a lot)

It'south fairly common cognition that the more muscle a person has, the more than calories they'll fire throughout the day.  Because the squat builds and strengthens a group of the largest muscles in your body, not only will you burn more calories while squatting, but that fat-burning effect will carry over to your day-to-mean solar day activities as your muscles grow.

Injury Prevention

Now we won't flat-out say that lifting weights, or squatting in particular, can foreclose injuries, but they can definitely help make you less likely to be injured during daily activities.  Think about information technology: most injuries are acquired by people doing something their body isn't used to doing.

Because the squat improves fully body strength, hip stability, knee joint forcefulness and mobility, you're mode less probable to experience an injury doing other activities.  More than likely, your squat routine is the toughest thing y'all'll experience all week.

Improved Posture

This is a big benefit for anyone that works primarily at a desk with a computer or laptop.  Our bodies weren't made to be sitting hunched over in front of a computer monitor all day, and that takes a big toll on our dorsum and neck.  You'll often see this in people that slouch or have forrard-rolling shoulders.

Squatting can help correct these imbalances, because it forces y'all to accept perfect posture.  Once you lot take been squatting for a few months, and your muscles have grown, it volition feel much more natural to y'all to maintain practiced posture.

Boost Your Hormones

While this may sound like Bro-Scientific discipline, it'due south actually 100% legit: squatting helps promote natural hormone production, such as testosterone and growth hormone.  Merely run a quick Google search, and you'll find countless manufactures linking squats with greater hormone levels.

How To Improve Squats

With some of the main benefits of squatting out of the way, nosotros hope to have convinced you to add together the squat into your conditioning routine, at to the lowest degree once or twice per month.  Now nosotros can move on to how to really meliorate your squat and so you're making the nearly out of your workout.

Squat Twice A Week

Yes you heard (read) that right.  If yous really desire to get ameliorate at something, information technology always helps to do it more than oftentimes.  More repetitions and more practise equals proficiency and, eventually, mastery.

While it may seem excessive, there are a lot of practice programs that recommend squatting twice, and even 3 times per week!  This is more achievable when you're still squatting a relatively low amount of weight.

If you lot've been hitting the squats for a few years already, this may not assist yous out.  But if you're still able to make weekly or semi-weekly progress in the corporeality of weight yous squat, then bumping up the frequency could assist you out.

Increase The Weight Slowly

Milo of Croton was an Ancient Greek wrestler, who is best known for training by carrying a bull calf from the 24-hour interval it was born, all the way up to maturity. Considering the dogie simply grew by a small-scale corporeality per twenty-four hour period, Milo's torso was able to conform to the increase in weight and become stronger.

We all desire to get stronger, and we want it washed yesterday, but the hugger-mugger to salubrious, long-lasting progress is to take it boring.  With squats, and most large lifts in general, it's best to increase the weight by about five lbs per week.  This means using the micro plates, which are 2.5lbs each.

By increasing the weight in smaller increments, over time we can get to the point where we're putting up serious numbers.

Try Front Squats

When trying to increase your weight in a specific lift, the best thing to practice is practice that specific lift more often.  The second all-time thing to do is to practice an ancillary lift.

For example, if yous were trying to meliorate your bench printing and found that your shoulders and triceps were strong enough, merely that your pecs were underdeveloped, y'all may decide to focus instead on heavy dumbbell flys.  This would put all the weight on your chest, instead of relying on supporting muscles.

If you're trying to ameliorate your back squat, try throwing in a couple of other leg exercises.  A good one is the front squat, every bit information technology works all of the same muscles every bit the traditional squat, but stresses the muscles differently.

If you've merely ever washed back squats, adding front squats to your routine will work your core and legs like you wouldn't believe.

Prioritize Squats

In that location's a proficient principle in life that states that every mean solar day, you should prioritize what needs to get done, and and then do the important things showtime.  If we apply this principle to the gym and lifting weights, we'll see that nosotros desire to prioritize certain lifts, then practise those commencement thing when entering the gym.

In this instance, if yous're trying to go to the point where you're squatting big weights, you'll desire to do your squats first, right after your warm-upward.  This ensures that you're fresh and take plenty of energy for the important lift.

Build More Hip Strength

In modern cultures, the hips are some of the most neglected muscle groups out there.  Because we sit down for and then long each day, and because so many of us don't exercise active stretching, our hips terminate up being also tight and underdeveloped. This can cause all kinds of problems, from sore knees to dorsum pain, and can definitely slow your progress in the gym.

Even if you're squatting regularly, your hips tin even so be the weak point in your musculus chain, and so if yous're finding you lot're having a hard time increasing your squat, attempt focusing on strengthening and stretching your hip muscles.

While y'all may feel a bit cocky-witting, nobody is going to care that you're using the girly hip-stretcher machine, specially once they see you lot squatting 3 plates for reps.

Build Upper Back Force

Yep, we tin can hear your objections already.  "Why would I focus on my UPPER back if I'thousand trying to improve my squat?"

Well the reply is, the squat really is a full-body practise.  Let'due south say you're trying to squat 225 lbs, which is more weight than most people will ever lift in their lives.  Where is the weight sitting while you're squatting?  Information technology'south on your upper back, and most of those muscles are going to be recruited in stabilizing the weight while you lift.

Then fifty-fifty though information technology may seem counterintuitive, improving your upper back strength through exercises such as rows and pull-ups tin help with your squat.

Improve Your Core Stability

Squats are, without a doubt, primarily a lower body practise, but they are also heavily dependent on other muscle chains. Your core muscles play a huge role in stabilizing your body while squatting, past creating intra abdominal pressure which helps to go on your spine straight.

If your core muscles are lacking, you may find your hips rising before the rest of your body. Not only is this highly inefficient movement, but as well potentially unsafe. Bad form is the leading cause of injury while squatting.

While wearing a weightlifting chugalug can assistance improve intra intestinal force per unit area, you lot should as well perform core exercises to strengthen the muscles in your abs, obliques and lower back.

Determination and Final Thoughts

Are squats an absolute necessity? Of course not, but neither is lifting weights in general. Squats have an incredible number of benefits and will assist to raise your overall level of health and fettle to the next level.

By adding squats into your routine, you tin can build muscle, accept a greater aesthetic look and likewise exist functionally more fit and stronger. Need some support during squats? Check out our belt range

Source: https://gunsmithfitness.com/en-au/blogs/news/how-can-i-improve-my-squat-strength-7-tips-to-successfully-squat-more-weight

Share this post