Hands, an integral part of squats – or NOT?
- Squat 101 again.

In my writings, teachings, all of them – books, courses, coaching, everything … I’ve said one thing from the get go, or rather two.

First, train the entire body as an unit, not isolated parts, even if those are “big parts”. This then mean that you train the legs with the entire body – such as squatting, or hiking – or you do PULL-ups, which train the back with the entire body, even legs if you do it right (yes, check out the advanced book on pull-ups for that) – or pushups, again, do it right, full body exercise.

That is how your body was meant to function – look at animals in the wild, look at how you MOVE – when you walk, do yo ujust your legs, when you pull, do you just use your arms (and if you do, you shouldn’t do it that way) – and so forth.

Any other way of training leads to disaster ultimately.

Preening, posing, buffing, the lot of it.

Enough said and preached there, hehe. I’m sweating too hard to preach too much to the choir – or fools – on that one. (you choose which category you land in!).

And second?

Well, when you do squats, either bodyweight (an excellent exercise about which I Cannot write enough) or Hindu (ditto, except I HAVE written on them a lot) – you use the hands for BALANCE.

And to really bring the upper body and breathing into it.

The circular motion you make with your hands, or the “collecting earth” motion (hindus and regular squats respectively) really get the breathing and RYTHM going, which is the entire point of exercise in the first place.

Up and down, up and down – slow and meditative, while being QUICK and focused – is the key. Ditto for squats, which if there was one exercise I could do – I’d say do squats.

I said pushups are the big dog of fitness, yes.

But squats are the granddaddy of fitness, my friend.

Work the legs and back heavily, you need nothing else (well, other than grip).

And while the hands can and should be brought into squats, once you get to an advanced or semi advanced level, try taking a LEG away when doing squats.

After years of trying to master those – then do this.

Take BOTH hands away.

Or, keep one hand in front of you when squatting, the other behind.

And so on and so forth.

Believe me, squatting without your hands involved for balance will IMMEDIATELY make you feel it.

Those of you used to 500 at a go, well, you will feel it too. I am right now!

And I’ve done just 200.

Squats, my friend deserve a book all unto themselves.

And maybe squatting 101 will be the next book out.

It might well could be. We’ll see!

For now, back to it.

And thats an useful tip right there for you ; implement, let me know how you do!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

PS – Pick up Fitness 101 right HERE.

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