Starting Strength

stretch. Again, heels should be about shoulder width apart, with toes pointed out about 30 degrees. Most people will change the stance at this point, rotating the toes back in. Make sure you are using the same stance you previously used during the unweighted part of this teaching method.
    At this point, you are ready to squat with the empty bar. THE EMPTY BAR. All of the groundwork has been laid, the correct bottom position is fresh in your mind, and you are now in the correct starting position. Everything you are about to do is the same as you did during the stretch. Only two things are different: one, you don’t have your elbows available to help push your knees out, so you need to do this with your brain. And two, don’t stop at the bottom. Just go down and immediately come back up, driving your butt straight up, not forward, out of the bottom. Now, take a big breath and hold it, look down at a spot on the floor about 4–5 feet in front of you, and squat.
    You should be in good balance at the bottom of the squat, having already been there when you stretched. Your weight should stay evenly balanced over the middle of your feet.

    Figure 2-22. The back angle during the drive up from the bottom is critical to the correct use of the hips. The correct angle is produced when the bar is just below the spine of the scapula and directly over the middle of the foot, the back is held tight in lumbar and thoracic extension, the knees are parallel to the correctly placed feet, and the correct depth is reached. Flopping forward allows the bar to drop forward of the mid-foot.

The reference point your eyes have on the floor should help you maintain position all the way down and all the way up. Balance problems usually indicate a back angle that is too vertical, so make sure you’re sitting back and leaning forward enough. Most people have a picture in their minds of a vertical torso during the squat. Remember that the back angle will not be vertical at all; sit back, lean forward, and shove your knees out.
    Get someone to verify that your depth is good, and DO NOT accept anything less than full depth, ever, from this point on. If your impartial critic tells you that you’re high, check your stance to make sure that it’s wide enough but not too wide, that your toes are out enough, and that your knees are tracking parallel to your feet. While he’s being helpful, get him to check your eye gaze direction and to remind you to look down every rep. If you’re sure the form is fairly good, do a set of five and rack the bar. If the form is good except for the depth, the squat itself will act as a stretch IF YOUR KNEES ARE OUT. And most of the time, if you are high, it is because your knees are not out. Most people who have problems with the squat – at this rank novice level as well as later on – do not shove their knees out enough. If the squat is crazy bad, rack the bar and repeat the pre-squat procedure, focusing on the knees-out part.
    To rack the bar safely and easily, walk forward until it touches the vertical parts of the rack. Find the uprights, not the hooks. You can’t miss the uprights, and if you touch them, you’ll be over the hooks. If you try to set the bar directly down on the hooks, you can and will eventually miss it on one side. Big wreck.
    The general plan is to do a couple more sets of five reps with the empty bar to nail down the form, and then add weight, do another set of five, and keep increasing in even increments until the next increase would compromise the form. Sets of five are a good number to learn with – not so many that fatigue affects form during the last reps, but enough to establish and practice the technique while handling enough weight to get strong. Increments for increasing the weight between sets will vary with the trainee. Lightweight, unconditioned kids need to go up in 10–15 lb or 5–7.5 kg jumps. Older or stronger trainees can use 20–30 lb or 10–15 kg increments. Decide which jumps best fit your situation, being conservative since it is your first day. Most people will try to increase the weight by increments that are too large for this point in the teaching method. Go on up in weight, practicing good form and making sure to keep good depth, until you can tell that the next jump up would alter your form. Then do two more sets at the current weight, for a total of three sets across with the heaviest weight. And that is the first squat workout.

    Figure 2-23. The