There are no good sources of info on functional fitness in Chinese. So we’re introducing what we do to the public in a series of videos starting with one of the most important exercises you can do — the barbell squat.

No matter what language you speak, I think the video shows the most important points pretty clearly. We wanted to hit the highlights in a short video so folks could take those immediately into their training.

The first thing that should be said is that we do strength training at Formosa Fitness. We aren’t powerlifters or bodybuilders, although those are options after folks get strong. So the method we show in our videos are what I chose to get folks strong — not necessarily what bodybuilders or powerlifters are trying to do.

Bodybuilders object to our form many times because what they’re doing is different. Take our version of the popular barbell bench, for example:

I’ve been told more times than I can count in Taiwan to put my feet up on the bench for a “correct” bench press but that’s one way, not THE way, of doing that. Putting your feet on the bench makes you very unstable and greatly limits your ability to press more weight. It also disengages your entire lower body from the lift, turning a whole body exercise (our version) into an upper body only exercise. Bodybuilders do that because they isolate muscle groups — exactly the reason we don’t do it their way. We want to build whole body strength and power, not just build your “chest.”

Same holds for the squat. We don’t adopt a narrow stance or do quarter squats because our squat is a whole body exercise — not just a quad builder. After all my years of working out here, i can count the number of times I’ve seen a heavy, full range squat in a mainstream gym on a barbell on one hand. I have, however, many times seen a guy stick 200kg on a Smith Machine and do quarter squats like he was actually doing something.

On the squat, the main thing is to initiate the movement with the hips and squat down until your hip goes just below the knee joint. That’s a parallel squat. The problem is, when you’ve got a heavy weight on your back, your body lies to you about how low you think you’re going because of the heavy weight. Hence the shallow knee bends called “squats.”

Hope you find these useful.