Squat Press – Side
Name: Squat Press
Also known as: Thrusters
Main muscles used: Legs, bum, shoulders, triceps, heart.
Other muscles used: Stomach, back.
Top tips:
- The lower half of your body is doing a low squat.
- The upper half of your body is doing a high shoulder press.
- Keep the bar close to the centreline of your body at all times.
- Keep the move as big as your flexibility will allow.
- Burst out of the bottom of the squat explosively, building momentum to help your arms push the bar over your head.
- Push your chest out at the bottom of the move.
Squat Press – Front
Common mistakes:
- The same mistakes as the Squat.
- The same mistakes as the Shoulder Press.
- Letting your spine collapse and your back hunch forwards at the bottom.
- Doing the arm and leg moves out of synch with each other.
- Cutting the move short by not going as low or as tall as your flexibility will allow.
Comments: This a fairly technical move to get right. You need to concentrate on all the points for both the Squat and Shoulder Press, while also thinking about coordination and balance. So take time to practice the move at an easy, light pace. But once you can do it almost automatically, increase the weight and you have an outstanding full body exercise that uses most of the muscles of your body and gets your heart racing.