a) You’re leaning from the hips, not the waist
b) Your chest comes up first when you ascend, not your hips

I don’t recommend stopping at 90 degrees. Better to learn to do a full range squat with less resistance. Warm up your knees well and squat unweighted for high reps till you build the joint stability, technique, and balance required.

http://stronglifts.com/shoulders-dislocations/
http://www.exrx.net/Lists/ExList/ShouldWt.html#anchor166631 (see stretches)

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/Quadriceps/DBSingleLegSplitSquat.html

I guess there are a whole bunch of different ways of doing things… The crossfit people seem to sit back rather than straight down, for instance.

When I first learned to squat the gym guy got me squatting facing a wall so I learned to ’sit back’ and keep the weight on my heels. In order to get the depth I needed to have a really wide stance, though, and it was hell on my hips. When I mentioned that to him he said he didn’t mean for me to squat so low…

I’ve had a clicky / arthritic hips for as long as I can remember. Doing the bodyweight squat progressions that you suggested here have resulted in it not clicking anymore! Took months to get ATG painfree, but my hips now feel the best I ever remember them feeling. They still feel a little loose in the sockets, though. I guess I was worried that I’d misunderstood the ’sitting down’ thing and that doing that with weight would aggravate my hips. I guess I can stop doing it if it hurts, though. And take it slow and be sure not to descend too fast.

Thanks so much for the site. I first started exercising / weight training about 9 months ago after a life of being sedentary. Not long after I joined the gym I discovered this site. Thanks so much for rescuing me from boring cardio (that I was getting close to quitting) and inspiring me to weight train seriously! I’m very close to a chin-up and can military press 1/3 my bodyweight. Yay me :-) You have been a real inspiration to me. Thanks a bunch.

I’m in the fairly early stages of learning to squat (holding up to a 10kg dumbbell where the bar will go to help me learn to balance the weight) and I’m having some difficulty figuring out what I’m supposed to be doing in the front squat.

It took me a while to get the hang of ’sitting back’ into the back squat. I do them (well below parallel) on a stack of gym mats to really encourage me to reach back with my butt. I certainly can’t get ATG before my butt starts to wink, though.

I saw a youtube clip where Dan John was teaching the front squat and he said to sit straight down between the legs by opening up the hips on descent to make space for your torso. I can get properly ATG in doing this. I’m not rounding my back forwards and I certainly feel things in my abs and obliques. I can get some kind of stretch reflex bounce out of the hole (not calves impacting hamstrings) so I guess something is holding the tension – but it surely doesn’t feel anywhere near as ‘loaded’ as the back squat. Does this sound kind of okay to you – or should I be ’sitting back’ rather than straight down on the front squat? I’m hoping to incorporate the movement into a clean one day :-)

I have been very inspired by your website and have been working on transistioning from ‘bum dips’ to big girl squats for the last month or so. I have found a mediumly wide stance that allows me to squat without falling over backwards, and decided to try adding a little weight yesterday.

After one set, I noticed discomfort/pain in the back of my left knee. I realised that I had felt this discomfort before when squatting, but to a much lesser extent (I finished my squats un-weighted). I believe you when you say that squats don’t hurt your knees, so there must be something wrong with my technique.

I sprained my knee last year (MC ligament) and although it is healed, there may be a bit more play in my knee joint that there should be.

Have you come across this before? Do you have any ideas on where I may be going wrong?

Also try some foam rolling or using a rolling pin on your IT band (roll along top/outside of quads). Sometimes a tight IT band will yank on the hips.