The squat is one of the foundational movements. In the squat, I like to use the cues heels, hips, and hands. 

I’m going to go through a squat with you. We’re going to take it nice and slow and then we’ll do some full speed squats. Starting with the heels, they are shoulder-width apart. Notice I said heels and not toes. Ensure that it’s the heels you’re looking at when you look down and it’s shoulder-width apart. The hips are completely open. The hands - you want to place it to start out with just in front of the hips. 

When we start the squat, the first thing that we are going to do is push the hips back a little bit. Pushing the hips back is the same thing you’re going to do if you’re going to sit down on a chair. The hands are going to come up right in front of the bellybutton. As we start to bend the knees, the weight is going to transition down under the heels so that you can actually tap your toes if you wanted to. The hips are below the plane of the knees, the hands are all the way up in front of the face, so that you are chest-face high. All the way up. Do it again. We are going to do hips back, hands coming up, all the way down until you break that parallel plane and back up. Hips back, hands up, now we’re staying on the heels. 

Now let’s run through about five squats, five to ten squats at full speed. 

Remember, when doing any exercise, technique is more important than intensity. So truly maintain those cues heels, hips, and hands.