What’s The Deal With All These Goblet Squats?
If you haven’t noticed, the last 3 weeks of our Performance program has really focused on moving better. Specifically we’ve spent a lion share of our time trying to improve your squatting. Today I’m going to touch on the use of the goblet squat and also give you some ideas around implementing them in your warm up warm-up (amirite?) so you can continue to improve this fundamental movement as we move on to more complex squatting variations.
Goblet Squats
I’ve fallen in love with the goblet squat. In my opinion the goblet squat works incredibly well for improving the squat because it has a built in feedback quality that you can’t find in your typical air squat. The front loaded weight naturally encourages an upright torso due to the decreased load placed on the shoulders and grip. Having the elbows inside the knees forces the athlete to drive the knees out to allow for the required space. Lastly, with the weight placed snugly against the chest, athletes“sink” into a deeper squatting position. Quite simply, it feels more natural and comfortable to go lower, which allows for the full range of motion to be reached at the hip and ankle joints. So why is all this important? Because we essentially have an exercise that can be performed with very little guidance while improving those oh so important squat mechanics. It’s like the self-checkout line of squatting.
How do we continue to progress?
Now that we’re all in agreement that goblet squats are the squatting secret sauce, how do we implement them outside of our regularly scheduled program? Simply do them every day you walk into the gym, a set of 15-20, 3-5 times a week will suffice. Be creative. Try different weights, different tempos, adding pauses and even alternating between a dumbbell and a kettlebell. Just make sure you split up your reps in a fashion that doesn’t encourage a lot of fatigue.
The reality is, dedicating two minutes per training session to helping your squatting mechanics and fundamentals will pay big dividends in the long run. So, grab a kettlebell or a dumbbell and get to squatting! You’ll thank me later!
–Wes Kimball