Knees Caving In (Valgus Collapse): One of the most common and dangerous mistakes is allowing the knees to cave inward during the squat. This can put excessive strain on the knee ligaments, particularly the ACL (anterior cruciate ligament), and increase the risk of injury.
Turning your Knees Inward. Try to avoid turning your knees inward as you lower your body because that will put way more stress on your knees than they can handle. This mistake will lead to long-term joint damage. The perfect way to avoid this is to point your knees outward while squatting.
Avoid letting your knees get close together when you squat. Your knees should move out in a 30-degree angle following the line of your feet. This position will give you more leverage to push up from your heels. Not doing this will put excess strain on hips and knees.
An incorrect stance is often the culprit behind the inability to achieve proper squat depth. Your stance should not be too wide or too narrow, and your toes should be angled about 30 degrees outward.
Bad squat form is rarely about laziness—it's often a combination of: Poor Warm-Up: Jumping straight into squats without preparing your joints and muscles. Mobility Issues: Stiff ankles, hips, or shoulders can make proper form nearly impossible.
With a front squat, set the safety bars properly. If you need to bail, release the bar from your shoulders and let it fall forward onto the safeties while stepping back to avoid contact. Practice these movements with lighter weights to get comfortable with the process.
Your knees cave inwards
This is one of the most common squatting mistakes. Your knees can cave inwards during any part of a squat, but for most people this tends to happen when you're pushing up out of the squat back to standing position.
Safety tips
Tips to reduce the risk of injuries while squatting include: warming up properly to prevent muscle injuries. keeping the back straight at all times. ensuring that the knees stay in line with the feet.
Key Muscles Used In Squats
Weak quadriceps may be the culprit for a poor squat, causing issues with weight progression. Or you could be faced with issues in the glutes, hamstrings, hips, or knees, which could also be affecting your squats, causing you to hit a wall and plateau.
Lifting too quickly.
Using poor form, lifting too quickly and using momentum won't help you get the desired results. “It's important to go slower and give the muscle time under tension,” Hardwick says.
Most people will find it harder to balance while looking up. Having your eyes fixed on the floor close to you gives you proprioceptive feedback for your body's position, which helps you better stay in balance, which in turn helps you to more effectively squat a heavy barbell.
A deep squat requires hip flexion. Tight and weak hips inhibit clients from squatting low and cause compensation which leads to improper technique. The same principle applies to ankle mobility. If a client is unable to sit low into a squat and has poor ankle mobility, their knees will not track forward.
Tight hips, ankles and calves, your limb and torso length, the arches of your feet, limb asymmetries, and weak glutes are all possible reasons that you may have trouble squatting with “textbook” form. Any combination of these factors would make it difficult for anyone to squat properly.
Sometimes it simply comes down to your anatomy. If you have long legs and a short torso then it's going to be tougher for you to squat well, same goes for being taller, conversely if you have a long torso and shorter legs you will find it easier same goes for being short.
When you do squats, you're supposed to feel the strain in your legs. If you're feeling pain in the lower back, you're probably doing it wrong. This means that you are putting the weight and work into your lower back muscles instead of your glutes and quadriceps. Pay attention when you squat.