As a continuation of this morning’s post, I thought I’d get into how I like to teach the squat when an athlete is ready to handle the load of a barbell. I use a series of cues espoused by Dr. Stuart McGill with an additional cue.

1. Grab the floor with your feet.
2. Initiate the movement by pushing your hips back.
3. Externally rotate and abduct the legs (“spread the floor”)
4. Activate the lats to assist in stiffening the core.

If an athlete possesses the requisite mobility, strength, and motor patterns this is a great way to teach the loaded squat while keeping the athlete away from injury.

Train hard, train smart,
Carson Boddicker