Benefits of the Goblet Squat

Benefits of the Goblet Squat
Primary Muscles:
Quads, Glutes (Posterior Chain), Core

Equipment needed:
Kettlebell or Dumbbell

Benefits:

• Total strengthening of the lower body in one exercise only with focus on the quads and glutes.
• Easy to learn, provides future grounding if needed for more advanced movements such as the barbell squat. The Goblet Squat is a common training movement of choice of top strength coaches around the world for developing the squat movement pattern.
• Low chance of injury even when pushing hard, does not overload your back, it is very important to pick movements that you can go hard on with low injury risk especially in high intensity fat loss training since you are going at a rapid pace.
• The counterbalance of the weight naturally sinks you down to the bottom of the squat, this unlocks the hip and ankle mobility, increased mobility is one of the main keys in injury prevention.
• The bottom position of a goblet squat is a natural position that many lack nowadays due to prolonged sitting. Tight hips, which causes excessive forward lean in squatting are things that hurt your joints, not squatting low.
• Engages the core, improving core strength due to frontal weight loading
• Improves cardiovascular fitness when done in high repetitions, you don’t have to struggle with tired legs and feeling out of breath on the stairs (If you use the stairs…)
• Improves squat form & depth, how low you can squat is a sign of lower body mobility health, issues such as back and hip pain are significantly more common with individuals that cannot sink to a low squat.

Keys to remember:

• Hold the weight in your hands, squat all the way down, you want to squat till your elbows drop passes your knee
• Keep your chest up to prevent the feeling of falling forward, think proud chest position
• Keep your core tight
• Grip the handles of the kettlebell hard if you are using one, this helps your whole body to be stronger, this is also known as the law of irradiation (Strength transfers around the body).
• Although individuals differ, you do want to turn your toes out slightly as if you want your feet to be pointed outward, not completely straight forward.
• Keep your elbows dropped by the side, do not flare them out, if you flare them out, your lats will not be engaged, especially as the weight increases. You will feel an unstable sensation since you cannot keep the weight locked in. Keep your elbows tucked in like a boxer.
• Push your knees out, it’s a common mistake to have the knees cave in, one of the benefits of the goblet squat position is that you can use your elbows to push on the inside of your knees to help achieve this, this is ok to do at the beginning, later on you can simply keep the elbows in.
• Pinch your glutes hard at the top of the squat, besides giving you a stronger training effect, this prevents you from falling backward and keeps your squat a lot more stable.