December 1, 2005

Squatting Your Way to a Better Butt

The controversy

In bodybuilding circles, it’s well known that legendary trainer Vince Gironda was dead set against his pupils doing squats. What most people don’t know, though, is that Gironda’s advice at the time he said it was directed toward men. For women, he was all for doing squats. So why the double standard? Ironically, it’s all for the exact same reason – and it has mostly to do with the glutes, better know as the "butt."

Traditional barbell squats not only build muscle on the legs, they also help build muscle on the lower back, the hips, and the glutes as well. And we’re not talking about just building these areas a little bit – it builds these areas a lot! It’s no surprise, then, that when you look at athletes who do a lot of barbell squats, they have not only well-developed thighs, they usually have well-developed lower backs, hips and glutes too. Heck, the squat even hits the hamstrings and calves to a degree. In fact, you could say that the squat hits pretty much everything below the waist, and a little bit above as well.

To Gironda’s way of thinking, ideally shaped men should have wide shoulders, strong chests, well-developed backs, and well-shaped legs. However, he felt that the midsection from the abs down through to the hips and glutes should be kept as small as possible in order to better accentuate the other body parts. Basically, Gironda was always going after the Greek-god-type ideal when sculpting men’s physiques. Therefore, he advised most of the men he trained to stay away from squats, favoring other exercises for the legs that would put more stress on the legs themselves and the least stress on the hips and glutes.

Women, though, are built differently from men and, without mincing words, their butts look better when fully developed. In fact, it’s an area that most women want to develop, and which most men don’t have any objection to their emphasizing. In fact, Vince Gironda was one of those men and he told me so when I had a chance to speak to him in the mid-‘80s. "You shouldn’t squat, but she can," he said, pointing to an attractive woman who was training in his gym. Hence, the misconception that arises from much of his teaching – Gironda was against squats for men, but he was all for them for women, and there wasn’t really any double-standard, since the rationale regarding the exercise was exactly the same.

The movement

Learning how to do the squat correctly isn’t really all that easy, because the nature of the movement means you need to have good balance and coordination or you could fall over and, quite possibly, hurt yourself. That’s why when I teach the movement I start people with almost no weight – no more weight than, say, a broomstick. The most important thing at the beginning is to get the form right – weight comes later.

The barbell squat is done by standing upright and placing the bar across the top part of the back and holding it in place with both hands. Where you place it on the top of the back, though, can vary up and down, even as much as a few inches. Generally, it’s held at shoulder height; however, I have seen some people place it lower and some higher. You’ll have to find what’s comfortable for you. Believe it or not, knowing where will come quite naturally.

With the barbell securely in place, the squatter simply bends her knees and descends to a low position. The key to this, though, is to descend in a slow and controlled manner so that the back doesn’t bend too far forward. Please notice that I said too far forward. The thing with the barbell squat is that the back will always go forward somewhat – it’s just the way your body works when you bend like this. What you don’t want to do is to bend all the way over. Doing so can be dangerous, and it defeats the purpose of the movement. In summary, your back should go forward just a little bit, but never to the point that the bar is pushing you over.

You should first try squatting with your feet flat on the floor; however, I’ve learned over time that some people just can’t descend properly with their feet flat on the floor without bending too far forward, no matter how good they try to keep their form. I’m one of those people – regardless of the weight I use and how careful I am, my body naturally "leans" too far forward as I descend, placing unnecessary stress on my lower back and putting me in a vulnerable situation when I lift heavy weights. So, if you’re like me, here’s a tip: raise your heels just a little bit (a half inch to one inch) with either some weight plates or a piece of wood. Raising the heels just a little bit makes a world of difference for my own form. In fact, raising my heels just half an inch off the floor allows me to descend fully and keep my back erect and completely out of danger.

How low you go can also vary. Some people believe that you should descend until your thighs are parallel with the floor. Some people, though, actually go lower, while others feel that going even to parallel is too low and doing so places undo stress on the knees. Frankly, this is something that you’ll have to experiment with yourself, since everybody is a little different.

As for myself, I believe parallel is desirable because it’s at this point that the butt and hips really come into play. You can actually feel it when you get there. I’ve gone to parallel, and even below parallel, for many years without incident and so, too, have many of the people I’ve trained. On the other hand, like the people I train, I have always squatted in an exceptionally controlled manner, with no bumping or bouncing in the low position. What’s important is that you train in a way that is safe for you, and what you feel comfortable with. If you can’t even go down to the parallel position safely, just don’t try to, at least not at first.

After you descend to the low position, you simply stand back up until you’re erect and at the starting position again. And just like when you’re descending, when you ascend you must take care to keep your back straight by never leaning too far forward. Also, don’t jar your knees at the top position. Remember, always take care of your back and knees when squatting – most squatting injuries involving the knees and back usually arise from carelessness, using too much weight, or poor execution of the movement. Done correctly, the squat is fairly safe (understand that no exercise is without some risk); done incorrectly, though, squatting can be downright dangerous.

Start	Descending
Midpoint (Low Position)	Finish

The routine

For someone who doesn’t train at all, just doing 8 to 12 squatting movements with a broomstick across the top of the back can yield results. After all, it’s not just the weight you use, but going through the motion itself which stretches and stresses the muscles. In fact, if you don’t weight train regularly and you tried this after you read it, you might find that you’re a little bit sore tomorrow.

Someone who has been training for some time will need to use a real barbell and some weight to get results. How much weight you use, though, varies per person. Surprisingly, most women get strong very fast. In fact, pound for pound, women are often able to out-squat men! Why? Women have tremendous strength in their lower bodies and it’s not surprising to see a woman squat her own bodyweight, or more, in quite a short time. For example, when I was training Chantal Dicaire for a national fitness championship, she was regularly squatting 245 pounds for 10 reps! And within two months of doing heavy squatting, Natalie Waples, a figure competitor whom I’m now training, has increased the weight she’s using to 185 pounds for 10 reps! Both of these women do full squats, meaning going down at least to the parallel position, and they both only weigh about 130 pounds!

But, as I said before, weight isn’t everything – the form you use and how you execute the movement is crucial too. Plus, Natalie and Chantal are quite advanced and they always train heavy like this, under strict supervision and with help, should they need it. So, before you think about piling the weight on, concentrate on perfecting your form first – I guarantee that if you get it right from the beginning you’ll be thankful when you start increasing the weight in the future. Chantal and Natalie could both squat 100 pounds perfectly before they even tried anything more.

You can even practice learning to squat properly when you do things around the house. For example, whenever you have to pick something up off the floor, squat to pick it up instead of bending over and trying to reach it. Doing this can help you learn stability as you descend into the low position, which is crucial to getting the movement right.

If you do decide to incorporate squats into your workout routine, do it in a squat rack that has safety pins near the bottom (in case you can’t get up, these pins allow you to just release the weight onto the rack), or in a power rack that allows you to set a low point for the bar (again, so you can just release the weight). And when you do start getting stronger in the squat, remember that more weight is not necessarily better. The women I help often build up to performing three good sets of 8 to 12 reps done in a very controlled and deliberate fashion before they think of adding more weight on.

The conclusion

The barbell squat is one of the best exercises for building your backside. In fact, if I was forced to pick just one exercise for someone to do to build the butt, the squat would be it – not something I just say, it’s something I live by, too.

The women whom I’ve trained over the years all do this exercise and they all end up building quite incredible back ends that I know Vince Gironda, as cantankerous and irascible as he sometimes was, would have surely approved of. Now, maybe, it’s time for yours!

...Doug Schneider
das@seriousaboutfitness.com

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