This article will analyze and compare squats with different loading positions to draw out practical applications for the personal trainer.

Exercise Technique: High Bar Back Squat

This article briefly explains different squat variations, as well as how they differ from a physics and biomechanics standpoint.

This article seeks to provide personal trainers with eight brief modifications that clients can benefit from if they suffer from both acute and chronic lower back pain (LBP).

This article provides the first academic history of the barbell back squat and its evolution from a bodyweight exercise in the 19th century to a loaded exercise used for a variety of purposes in the present age. In doing so, the article highlights three key drivers in the evolution of the back squat—changes in equipment, the diversification of strength sports, and scientific communication concerning the safety and efficacy of the movement. The goal of this article was not to provide a dry and irrelevant history but rather to stress the complexity of the squat’s prominence within fitness programs and the need to hold a nuanced view toward the “optimal” way to approach this movement. It examines how the movement evolved from being primarily done on the tips of one’s toes, to a loaded movement on tippy toes, to a flat-footed movement. By contextualizing the back squat’s history, this article challenges rigid notions of “correct” squatting technique and encourages a more nuanced understanding of exercise selection in strength and conditioning practice. It concludes by highlighting the importance of critically examining the social construction of knowledge in fitness and sport, and the value of historical perspective in informing contemporary training practices

This article demonstrates the benefits and limitations of the front squat and goblet squat in training for the abdominals.

The purpose of this article is to compare the effects of quarter, parallel, and full depth squats on muscle activity, joint stress, athletic abilities, and potential injury risks for the consideration of all strength and conditioning professionals.

This study examined the effects of visual kinematic feedback during the back squat exercise.

This infographic describes the type of muscle activation three exercises elicited and their relationship to maximal sprinting performance.

Squatting may be commonplace in the weight room, but proper execution of this great exercise is difficult. Strength and conditioning coaches will need to properly select exercises and cue their athletes in a way that not only allows for a proper stabilizing strategy to occur, but promotes it.