Squats are a fundamental exercise for warming up and strengthening the legs, although they are not an exclusive movement for this part of the body. Many think that only the quadriceps muscles are activated, but since it is a compound (multi-joint) exercise, several muscles are worked at the same time.
It is interesting to know the different muscle groups that are activated with this exercise in order to progress in the long term. In addition, it can help identify muscle imbalances or possible ailments.
Muscle groups that are worked in squats
Below you will discover all the squat muscles that are strengthened in this exercise. Many of them tend to go unnoticed, despite the fact that it is a compound exercise.
Quadriceps and abductors
The quadriceps are the main muscles used to extend the knee. In the deeper range of the squat, the quads will work harder to extend the knees out of the bottom. Also, the knees will move forward of the line of force as you lower into the squat position. The further the knees go, the stronger the quadriceps need to be.
So the deeper you go and the more forward knee flexion you have, the more you can expect these muscles to work. If your quads are too sore from squatting, see a doctor.
It will depend a bit on the position you adopt to squat, but when the legs are bent it is important that you keep the knees pushing out. The more closed the distance between the legs, the greater the work of the quadriceps to raise the weight. In the exercises in the multipower you can perfectly notice this distinction. It is true that all the muscles are involved when it comes to maintaining the tension while you go down and come back up, but it will depend to a large extent on the position you acquire.
In addition, the abductors also make enough force to hold the descent and start the momentum of the ascent.
Buttocks
The buttocks are made up of three muscles: gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus. For the purposes of the squat, the gluteus maximus and medius are important. The gluteus maximus is the "meaty" part of the gluteus that you sit on. The gluteus maximus is used to extend the hips, which is important for the squat lockout.
In this exercise, the hips will travel behind the line of force as you lower into the squat position. As you step back, the hips should lift and move forward to realign with the line of force. Therefore, the gluteus mayor plays an important role in the upper range of the squat to bring the hips to full extension.
Furthermore, the gluteus medius used to abduct the hip. In other words, take the leg out to the side as a "side step." In the squat, keeping the hip abducted will ensure that the knees correctly pass over the toes. Without a strong gluteus medius, your knees could give out during the squat, increasing the amount of shear force on the knee joint.
The main objective of the gluteus maximus is to stabilize and prevent you from carrying your torso forward. So it becomes one of the main muscles in the squat. In addition to working it intensely in this exercise, it is interesting that you also train it in isolation to improve your performance in compound exercises.
It will act as a stabilizer muscle, not only in the squat but also in your day to day.
spinal erectors
The erectors are the muscles that run along the outside of the spine. They attach to the upper part of the pelvis, ribs, and spine. They have the function of keeping the spine rigid and extended throughout the squat. Basically, they prevent the back from bending forward.
This is an important function because if the back is rounded while we are in the squat, it will increase the tension at the level of the vertebrae. The spine must remain rigid to effectively transfer force from the knees and hips to the bar.
When we bend forward in the squat, we will have a natural lean of the torso in the squat based on the individual levers. If you are someone who has longer legs and a shorter torso, you will experience more forward lean than someone who has shorter legs and a longer torso.
The more you lean your torso forward in the squat, the harder your erector spinae have to work to keep your back rigid. This is not a bad thing. This just means that the erectors will need to be much stronger if you have a more forward-leaning torso. We will also need to have strong erectors if we want to prevent the back from rounding in the squat.
Isquiotibiales
Although many think that the hamstring is only worked in extensions or deadlifts, during the squat, the hamstrings are the muscle that bears the pressure. It is true that it is activated in a less direct way than the quadriceps and glutes, but without them we could not do them.
The hamstring has two functions in the squat.
First, the hamstring acts as a synergist to support the glutes in hip extension. As the knees straighten, the hamstrings contract more to bring the hips into the bar. However, the hamstrings only contract a small amount here and the main driver of hip extension is still the glutes.
Second, the hamstring acts as a stabilizer muscle to support the knee joint. When the knees are in greatest flexion at the bottom of the squat, hamstring tension helps stabilize the knee joint by counteracting the forces of the quadriceps to extend the leg.
Twins
At the bottom of the squat, the knees are slightly bent out and forward; in addition to having the shins almost parallel to the ground. When we go up, the shins return to their original position, so you must take into account that the flexion of the ankles also activates the calf muscles.
This is not to say that we don't have to train the calves separately. But it can help a lot to have strong calves to support a greater weight on the bar.
Lumbar area
Gravity is present in all exercises, but in squats it is especially noticeable when we feel that the weight is pushing us down. The lower back (lumbar) should maintain adequate tension to hold the spine in a safe, neutral position. This favors the muscles that surround the spine to strengthen and protect the area.
However, it is essential to have a good technique of the exercise to avoid injuries in the lower part of the sword. This involves avoiding hyperlordosis and squeezing the abdomen when going down and up.
abdominal
Believe it or not, the abdominal muscles are very present in the movement of the squat. Keep in mind that they work as a stabilizer for the hip, making sure that the lower back is always in a neutral position. Logically, this is achieved when good movement technique is maintained.
The abdominals and obliques are what are called "opposing stabilizers" in the squat. An "antagonist stabilizer" will help maintain postural alignment of specific joints. In the squat, this means that the abdominals and obliques help stabilize the spine and pelvis. They do this by preventing the erectors from pulling the spine into hyperextension.
The job of the erectors is to prevent the spine from flexing (rounding). The abdominals and obliques prevent the spine from extending (arching the back) or twisting. With weak abs and obliques, the erectors don't hold as much tension potential as they otherwise would.
Arms
Although to a lesser extent, and on rare occasions, the arms are also involved. When we hold a bar behind the neck or keep a plate elevated above the head, the arms are working in an isometric way. This is not to say that your upper body training can be replaced by this exercise.
However, everything is related. The more trained you are, the more ability you will have to support the weight with your arms when lowering into the squat.
Heart
Had anyone fallen for this main muscle? We cannot forget that when we do some physical exercise, we are demanding heart activity. But it is much more noticeable when we train the lower body, since a greater amount of blood is required, and the heart is "forced" to pump faster. That's why you usually sweat more in leg workouts than in your arms.
Also, if you add some overhead movement, such as a pressing squat, your heart will work harder and burn more calories.
Muscles used according to the type of squat
As part of the programming of the training routine, we must select squat variations that target specific muscle groups that allow us to concentrate on different areas. We can put more emphasis on the knee or hip extensors depending on where you are missing in the squat or if we notice the movement breaking down.
low bar squat
The low bar squat is considered a hip dominant movement and we will be using more posterior chain muscles such as the hamstrings. erectors of the column and buttocks.
We will place the bar a few centimeters lower on the back. So instead of resting the bar on the upper traps, we'll place the bar on top of the rear deltoids. With a low bar squat, we will have a slightly more forward leaning torso. In this position, we will lean more towards the hips and bend the knees less.
This is not to say that the quads are not working at the bottom of the squat. They probably aren't working as hard as other squat variations that require more forward knee bend.
High bar squat
The high bar squat is considered a knee dominant movement and will require the quadriceps work much more. In the high bar squat, we'll place the bar on your upper traps just below the large bone on your lower neck.
With a high bar squat, we'll be a little more upright. We will not move less from the hips and we will bend the knees forward more. When doing a high bar squat, you'll want to think about actively pushing your knees forward as you hit the bottom range. This will require us to use a lot more of the quadriceps to come up due to the greater angle in the knee joint.
However, the more we lean forward with the knees, the greater the mobility of the ankle should be. So if we have any ankle restrictions, it might be more difficult to drop the hips below. If this is the case, we probably won't get the quadruple activation we're looking for doing the high bar squat.
pause squat
The pause squat is considered a variation of the deep squat where you will pause for 1-3 seconds at the bottom of the stroke. This will increase cargo demand in the quadriceps because we will spend more time under tension with the knees bent forward at the bottom of the squat.
If we can't maintain muscle tension or lead from the pause by extending from the knees first, the load is likely too heavy and we won't get the benefit of maximally activating the quads. We can perform the squat pause in a high or low bar position. But, if we want even more quad activation, it is recommended to choose the high bar position.
Wide stance squat
The wide stance squat is considered a hip-dominant movement in which you will use more musculature than buttocks. A normal stance width for most people will be slightly outside the shoulder width distance.
No matter which posture we choose, we will get the same level of quadruple activation; however, the wide stance squat will allow you to apply even more load to the glutes. If we find ourselves squatting in a fairly narrow stance, we may consider implementing wide stance squats as an exercise variation to the routine to get more glute activation. This would be important if we had a medium or high weakness in the squat.
Front squat
The front squat is considered a knee dominant movement and will require the quadriceps work much more. We will place the bar in the front part of the shoulders. This position will force you to maintain an upright torso, even more than what we described above for the high bar squat. As such, the quads will be working much harder because the knees will be brought forward more to get the required squat depth.
Unsurprisingly, this lower position requires the most mobility in the knees, ankles, and wrists compared to other squat variations. For these reasons, it is a more complex movement to learn. But it's something worth improving on if we want to work the quads in a squat variation.
An additional benefit of the front squat is also getting a lot of more muscle recruitment in the upper back. This is because to prevent your elbows from falling forward and the bar from falling off your shoulders, you need to stabilize your upper back muscles.