I worked out with Dakota Johnson’s personal trainer. He showed me what I’d learned about squats in years of weight lifting was wrong.

• I thought I couldn’t squat properly without raising my heels because I have long femurs.
• Personal trainer Luke Worthington showed me that’s not true, I just need to push my knees forward.
• Worthington said the common advice to sit back when squatting doesn’t suit many people.

Squats are widely considered one of the better and more efficient exercises a person can do but the common advice to relax when doing them is wrong for many people, celebrity personal trainer Lucas Worthington he told Insider. Instead, people like me need to push their knees forward, she said.

As they are compound exercises, squats engage multiple muscles in the body. They are also considered one of the best moves to build strength; and, along with the deadlift and bench press, they make up the three main tests of powerlifting.

Squats can be performed using just your body weight or while holding weights in a variety of ways.

Every balanced training program should include squats because they are one of the five key human movement patterns, along with hinges, lunges, push and pull, said Worthington, whose clients include Naomi Campbell, Dakota Johnson and Munroe Bergdorf.

However, many people are given the wrong signal of keeping their knees over their heels, while keeping their torso upright and concentrating their weight on their heels, as if they were sitting on a toilet, Worthington recently told me when I trained with him.

Squats are full-body exercises that work the glutes, quads, and core, among other muscles, so this pose is thought to help engage them properly. He had received this advice from other trainers, but this is only possible for people with certain proportions, such as those with longer bodies and shorter thighs, he said.

I thought I couldn’t squat properly without changing my posture, but Worthington, who is launching a strength-training app designed primarily for women in January 2023, showed me how.

I thought I couldn’t squat properly without lifting my heels.

Squats seem simple at first glance, but performing them correctly can be challenging, especially since everyone’s body is different.

As personal trainer Eugene Teo explained in a youtube video in July 2022, bodies of different proportions will require slightly different squats. If you have long femurs (thigh bones) and a shorter body, for example, you need to bend your body to keep the bar over the center of your feet, he said.

I have been lifting weights for over five years. and had come to the conclusion that because of my long femurs and lack of ankle mobility, I needed to lift my heels to perform a squat and not fully bend my torso.

I knew I had to keep my torso as upright as possible to avoid putting pressure on my lower back, but with my feet flat on the ground, I had to duck to avoid falling backwards. Raising my heels by placing small weights under it pushed my center of gravity forward and allowed me to maintain what I thought was better form.

A few months ago I squatted 100 kilograms (220 pounds) for the first time, with my heels raised. There’s nothing wrong with raising the heels, Tim said, it’s just a way of making the lower leg longer in relation to the upper leg, making it easier to keep the body more upright when changing the position. gravity center.

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Recently, I started to prefer front squats because having the weight further forward helped me keep my body upright.

However, when I recently asked Worthington to evaluate my technique, he showed me how I can do a back squat with a more upright torso and heels flat on the ground.

Pushing the knees forward in a squat can help keep the torso upright.

After training with me and conducting a mobility assessment, Worthington confidently told me that there was no problem with my ankle mobility and, apart from the long femurs, I can perform a squat, with a sufficiently upright torso, without raising my legs. heels.

I was skeptical but intrigued.

First, Worthington had me practice holding a kettlebell in a frontal position (holding it in front of my chest). The first thing he told me was for him to push his knees forward, which went against everything I’d been taught about squats before.

Worthington told me that contrary to popular belief, the knees have to go over the toes and that I should think about breaking the hips and knees at the same time.

Next, we try an empty bar. Before removing the bar from the squat rack, Worthington told me to engage my lats by pulling the bar down almost like I’m doing a pull-up, keeping my elbows pointing down.

By pushing my knees forward, I was able to squat down and up, keeping my center of gravity over my feet and my feet flat on the floor.

Tim echoes Worthington’s point, saying that the more a person can bend their ankle and push their knees over their toes, the more they can keep their body upright.

I couldn’t believe it: I really don’t have any problems with ankle mobility. I had simply been pushing my body weight too far back. After five years of lifting weights, I now know how to squat.