Stretching Before Squats

BklynFitGuy

Looking for some good stretches to do before squatting. Really feeling it in my thighs and hips and think I need a better stretch beforehand.

pmyn29

Third world squats, holding onto something if you need to. I usually do these and hold in between sets as well.

rybo

Foam rolling your quads helps too

cwolfman13

warmup squats with the bar or little weight. I often do overhead squats to warm up. static stretching isn't a particularly good idea.

Penthesilea514

rybo wrote: »

Foam rolling your quads helps too

I had always kind of discounted foam rolling until I started doing it regularly- holy smokes, it has helped my recovery so much. I watched a few videos on how to foam roll and it has been amazing.

cwolfman13 wrote: »

warmup squats with the bar or little weight. I often do overhead squats to warm up. static stretching isn't a particularly good idea.

I do a warm-up squat set before moving into my working set too.

BklynFitGuy

Thanks all. Definitely going to look into foam rolling. I do some warmup with the bar but maybe I need to do more.

SonyaCele

i use the trx to help loosen things up a bit, and i do some hip openers , and then a walk around funny with this band around my knees to warm my hips up.

sardelsa

I do glute activation - bodyweight squats, hip thrusts and kickbacks with bands

jemhh

I do some general moving around (ride the Airdyne, walk a bit, or empty the dishwasher) for about 10 minutes and then do the much booed static stretching and then do some bodyweight glute bridges and squats.

ttippie2000

I stretch in the rest intervals between sets. Beforehand, I warm the muscle up carefully with the same exercise but lighter weight. The idea is to do at least half of your overall lifting volume during the warmups before you get to your work sets. The warmup sets start with the bar and higher reps and reduce reps as weight is incremented. This isn't at all original thinking. The Russian sports physiologist, Simolenov (sp?) came up with this about 35 years ago by having athletes workout and cutting little bits of muscle out of their bodies. His work got translated in the 1990s and is pretty standard warmup methodology for powerlifters these days. I'm glad somebody else helped him collect the data, not me.

QuikDogs

The man himself, Greg Everett, has a great video on warm-ups. It's for weightlifting, but WL is pretty much a lot of squats. As he says, use what you need here and discard the rest.
http://www.catalystathletics.com/video/74/Catalyst-Athletics-Standard-Warm-up/

Willbenchforcupcakes

Just banded hip flexor distraction for me. Then a slow easy warmup to my workin weight.

jessiferrrb

i do sun salutations and pigeon pose before my warm up sets.

ninerbuff

For me, it's leg extensions and light kettlebell swings.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

BigNate17

Search up Matt Ogus lower body mobility/warm-up on YouTube.
Best one I've seen so far.

canadianlbs

BklynFitGuy wrote: »

Thanks all. Definitely going to look into foam rolling. I do some warmup with the bar but maybe I need to do more.

i used to/sometimes do the agile 8 warmup from joey defranco, but my own experience is that i don't always need exactly the same stretches/mobility work every day, so just generically stretching isn't always the most productive approach for me. warmup sets are good for showing me what's tight and what isn't.

CarlKRobbo

Leg Swings, 3rd World squat, ankle Mobility and Band Walks (Band around knees, walk in a square for 30 seconds).
Been doing that for the last 4 years. Squat Depth\Mobility has never been an issue.

ijsantos2005

2 sets with the empty bar.