Doing a Goblet Squat Lower Body Exercise

"Hi, I'm Dr. Garrett Smith for Expert Village and we're going to go over the 'goblet squat' now. A great teaching squat exercise that I learned from Dan John, a really incredible strength coach on the Internet, and he teaches high school kids how to do their squats with the 'goblet squat'. First thing, we're going to hold the dumbbell like a goblet, with both hands around the top of the cup, if you will. We do all the normal things for squat position that we went over in the 'air squat'. Feet about shoulder width, toes turned slightly out, knees go over the feet, lumbar curve is maintained, thoracic spine is lifted, eyes looking straight ahead or slightly up. We're going to be holding weight in front, here, which will help with our counter balance so that we can stay straighter up as we go down. Again, a 'goblet squat' doesn't look really any different from the 'air squat' other than where our hands are. Remember, your weight's on your heels. 'Goblen squats' help you keep your weight a little more on your heels. Again, if you'll notice the difference between this and the 'air squat' is that I can stay a little more straight up and down with a little less effort. Great teaching exercise. Don't use too much weight on these. If you want to do squats for repetitions and for a work out, really, you want to be moving towards the 'air squats'. The 'goblet squats' are just a teaching tool to give you the right physical cues so that you can go and re-create that with 'air squats'. In the goblet position, your both hands are on the underside of one end of the dumbbell. You want to keep it hugged relatively close to you. It doesn't have to be touching you, just right up close to you. Holding it away from the body is going to defeat the purpose of doing these. Keep it close, let it sit relaxed in your hands, right about clavicle on the top of the chest level."