What are Squats?

Answer:
Squats are an exercise in weight training that

works primarily the upper legs and lower back. Squats are considered a power lift and are one of the competitive lifts.

Without a doubt, squats are the granddaddy of all leg exercises. The stress that a well performed set of squats puts on the body not only puts a great inroad into your muscles, but will also increase testosterone. Squats tend to increase overall body strength.

Squats start with a barbell loaded and on a rack at chest level. While grasping the bar, drop your head and shoulders under and in front of the bar. With the bar resting on the upper traps and a solid, shoulder width stance, lift the bar free of the rack and step back one pace, and take a stance with your feet anywhere from shoulder width to double shoulder width apart.

While keeping the chin up, and keeping your back straight, squat your butt toward the floor as if sitting in a chair. Continue downward until your quads are parallel with the floor. Take a slight pause and then press the weight up to the standing position. Continue these reps until you have reached a point of failure.

It helps to have a training partner handy to spot you if you get stuck. It is also a good idea to set two pins in the rack at just bellow the point of parallel. This way, if you get stuck, you can set the weight down on the pins.