This squat video by the American Council on Exercise shows proper form and technique for the squat. They’re doing body weight squats in this video, to show form and function, but it’s also a good idea to progress to a point where you’re using weights.

Adding weight to your squat can come in the form of a barbell across the shoulders, dumbbells in each hand, a kettlebell in one or both hands or even a dumbbell in one or both hands.

Body Weight Exercises

Bodyweight exercise is fantastic. Push-ups can be done anywhere you have a floor and they’re one of the perfect vacation exercises. Squats are just as easy to perform anywhere you have a floor. If you’re using body weight, you can begin with one or two if you’re quite large, then progress as you get stronger. If you’re already quite strong, do a massive set of 50 or 100 squats.

Jeff Anderson the Muscle Nerd uses a combination of many different types of bodyweight exercises plus gym tools in his Combat The Fat Workout program. I’ve used the Combat The Fat Workout as my primary training routine when I was getting in shape to climb to Mt Everest Base Camp in Oct of 2008. I needed endurance and lung capacity to be able to handle the 9 hour days of climbing and Jeff’s program did the trick.

I’ve recently added a squat challenge to my body weight challenge section in my “other” forum. Challenge yourself, see how many squats you can do in 2 minutes or try another one and see how many long it takes you to do 100 squats.

Watch the squat video, make sure you’re using proper form, because when it comes right down to any training you do, it’s all about form, not the weight.