The squat rewards patience more than strength. Get the setup right and the movement almost teaches itself; rush it and every rep turns into a fight. Work through the checks below in order, on every set.
Set your stance and grip
Stand with feet about shoulder-width apart, toes turned out 15 to 30 degrees. The exact angle is personal: pick the one where your knees track over your toes without twisting. Spread your weight across the whole foot, heel included, and never up on the toes.
For a barbell squat, rest the bar on your upper back — across the traps or slightly lower on the rear delts — and pull your elbows down to create a stable shelf. For a goblet squat, hold the weight against your chest with elbows tucked underneath it.
Before the first rep, take a big breath into your belly, brace your abs like you are about to be nudged, and squeeze your shoulder blades together. Renew that brace on every rep, not just the first.
Start the descent by sitting back
Break at the hips and knees at the same time, as if sitting down onto a low stool behind you. Push your knees out so they track over your toes instead of caving inward.
Lower with control for two to three seconds. Keep your chest up and your spine neutral — the bar and your midfoot should stay stacked the whole way down. Go as low as you can while keeping that line, ideally until your hip crease passes the top of the knee.
Drive up through your whole foot
From the bottom, push the floor away through your midfoot and heels. Think about spreading the floor apart with your feet as you rise; that keeps the knees from drifting in.
Exhale as you pass the hardest part of the rep. Finish standing tall with hips and knees locked out together — no leaning back and no exaggerated arch at the top.
Fix the common mistakes
Knees caving in is the most frequent fault. Cue "knees out" on every rep and strengthen the glutes with goblet squats until the pattern sticks.
Rounding the lower back at the bottom usually means the weight or the depth arrived before the mobility did. Cut the depth a few degrees, keep the torso braced, and rebuild from there. Heels lifting off the floor points to stiff ankles or a too-narrow stance: widen your feet slightly, or rest small plates under your heels while you work on ankle mobility.
Progress with control, then load
Add reps before weight: hold your current load until every set reaches the same depth and tempo, then add 2.5 kg and rebuild the reps. Re-check your form on the first set after every jump. Film one set from the side every few weeks — the camera catches faults your eyes ignore.
Log depth, tempo, and how each set felt in Bulky. Watching your work sets climb week after week at the same depth is the clearest proof the technique is holding.