Tip: The Wall Squat

Use this movement blocking drill to clean up your squat form.

The movement blocking method helps people fix their squat form. Example: the wall squat.

  • Bring your feet a few inches from the wall with your toes pointing straight.
  • Place yours arms in at your sides and keep your eyes forward.
  • Squat with a slow tempo and watch your hips hinge and entire spine naturally align into proper position as you do so.

The wall squat works beautifully. It almost instantaneously corrects nearly every joint position from head to toe. The only way you can do it wrong is by looking up and hyper-extending at the cervical spine, falling backwards, or crashing face first into the wall. (Try to avoid that.)

The neck issue is a quick fix. Just keep your neck neutral and eyes directly forward.

Correcting the falling issue requires both a proper hip hinge function and strength production from the weak dorsiflexors at the foot.

Travis Hansen specializes in human-performance enhancement for athletes at all levels. He is also the leading authority on speed development for the International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA). Follow at www.resultsbyscience.com