Lots of people discuss what the king of all physical exercises is. A lot of fitness professionals will likely agree that the squat is one of the best exercise movements for building muscle not just on your hip and legs, but on your entire body. There is no doubt that lifting heavy weight in this exercise will turbo charge your results, but first you will need to learn how to competently perform the movement.

Begin by putting your legs shoulder width apart. There are many variations of the barbell squat. You can execute the exercise with your hip and legs spread like a sumo wrestler, thereby putting more stress on your hamstrings and lower back, or you can squat with a very narrow stance to put more focus on your quadriceps. Utilizing a shoulder width stance will groom you for any variation of the movement.

Before you step under the barbell, you must arch your back as firmly as you can. Using a firm back arch through the entire motion will help to prevent injury to your lower back. Now position your hands somewhat wider than shoulder width on the bar and then step under the barbell so that it is sitting on your trapezoid muscles.

Grasp the barbell as firmly as you can, and think about arching the bar out of the rack. After the bar is out of the stands you should think about sitting back with it and not actually squatting down with it. This sitting back motion will activate your hamstrings and also take most of the weight off of your knees and put it on the more sturdy hip joints. You might have to lean forward somewhat to preserve your balance, but as long as you keep a firm back arch a tiny bit of leaning will not hurt you.

Proceed to sit back up to the point your thighs are parallel with the ground and then push hard into the floor with your feet until you are standing fully vertical. Be sure you keep your entire body tight for the duration of the exercise. This can easily be accomplished by just gripping the barbell as hard as possible and maintaining a hard back arch for every repetition. A tight stomach and arched back muscles, will help to stop injury.

The squat can be executed with heavy weight for minimal reps to develop power or lighter with increased reps to boost your fitness level and conditioning. Always remember to loosen up before you set about to lift heavy weights, and for the sake of your safety it is preferred to use a minimum of one spotter when you execute the movement.