How to Keep Your Back Straight During Squats

Exercises are essential to human well-being and healthy living. It can completely transform one’s life and increase one’s confidence and life expectancy. However, it is vital that you perform these exercises with proper form to prevent injuries. As a result, this article will discuss how to avoid injuries by keeping your back straight during squats. 

Squats are a popular exercise that primarily targets the muscles in the legs. However, an excellent squat also targets the lower back and core muscles. Squats also help people develop their muscles and burn fat. 

A common mistake many weightlifters make when squatting is keeping the back arched and bent during the set. This is bad for your body as it places the weight’s load on your back rather than your legs. While this robs you of the necessary gains you otherwise would have gotten in your lower body, it also puts considerable stress on your back, leading to back pain and injuries. 

Keeping your back straight

To explain how to fix rounded backs, it is essential to first learn the possible reasons why it may be difficult for you to keep your back straight.

Rounded backs caused by hamstring tightness

The primary reason for a rounded back while squatting is a lack of flexibility in your hamstrings and glutes. This lack of flexibility is most obvious at the top of the hamstrings, where the muscles link to your butt cheek’s bottom. This tightness brings your hips forward, pulling your butt down and rounding your lower back.

In this case, the best way to address this tightness in the hamstrings and glutes is by stretching them until the tightness loosens. You can incorporate stretches into your workout routine or set aside a particular time for stretching your hamstrings and glutes. Consistent stretches will loosen your hamstrings, allowing you to keep your back straight during squats. 

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Postural imbalance

Postural imbalance or shift occurs when your body moves off its center of gravity. As a result, while your feet remain flat on the ground, your weight keeps shifting back and forth. Your back rounds during the squat as a natural response to feeling like falling when your weight shifts to the front  

One method to improve your balance and ensure a straighter back while squatting is to keep your feet firmly on the floor. You can think of it as clawing your big and pinky toes into the floor while also feeling pressure on your heels. You can also record your squats from the side to determine where you are placing most of the weight. This helps you adjust and place the weight directly above your midfoot to maintain balance. As a result, you are able to keep your back straight during squats.

General tips for keeping a straight back

Besides the above tips, you can also improve your squatting posture and keep your back straight during squats by lifting lower weights while you work on your form. Getting used to squatting with a straight back may be challenging if you lift heavy weights. Using comfortable barbells like the Titan series cerakote Olympic barbell can also help you remain focused on keeping your back straight during the rep.

How to perform squats properly.

There are multiple kinds of squats you can perform, with varying benefits. Nevertheless, you can perform a regular weightless squat following these steps:

• Stand straight up and keep your feet spread apart below your shoulders. Point your toes slightly away from your body. Likewise, You should also keep your arms in front and straight. 
• Push your hips backward to bend your knees and descend. Ensure your torso remains upright while keeping your back straight. 
• After getting low enough, push back up through your feet, straightening  the legs

.Unlike barbell squats where the barbell provides resistance, your upper body creates the resistance during traditional squats. However, developing your muscles requires that you progressively increase the resistance you face, so you may need to incorporate a few KGs down the line.

Other exercises that can develop your legs

Lunges

Lunges are excellent for targeting several different muscle groups in your lower body at once. It is a common leg-strengthening exercise with several variations to add variety to your workout. The exercise typically works your glutes, hamstring, quadriceps, calves, and obliques. Because of the force on the legs while lunging, it is advisable to use proper workout shoes. We recommend the Nobull Crossfit Trainer+ as it is comfortable and will protect your feet.

Lunges have several benefits, one of which is that they simultaneously exercise several muscle groups of the lower body. As a result, they are essential in many injury preventions and leg strengthening programs. An example is the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury prevention.

Leg press

Leg presses are seated exercises that you perform on a leg press machine. It is the machine equivalent of squats and allows you to focus on your leg muscles as the machine supports your back and hands. Leg presses target muscle groups across your lower body, including your hamstrings, quadriceps, and glutes. Using the leg press machine naturally means your stabilizer muscles are limited as the machine supports you.

Leg extension

Leg extensions are isolation exercises commonly done with a cable or weighted lever machine. The exercise generally works your quadriceps and is essential to developing a bigger lower body. The Reflex Leg Curl/Leg Extension machine should be your go-to pick as it is relatively affordable and easy to use.

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