18 Mar 3 Ways You’re Killing Your Squat (And Don’t Even Know It)
Article Rundown
- Chasing weight without respecting load tolerance will catch up to you
- Poor bracing—too loose or too stiff—kills stability and performance
- Refusing to adapt your squat as your body changes leads to breakdown
- A weak or improperly trained core limits force transfer and longevity
3 Ways You’re Killing Your Squat
Let me be clear right out of the gate—most people don’t fail at the squat because they’re weak. They fail because they’ve been doing a few key things wrong for years, and they don’t realize it until pain, regression, or injury forces them to pay attention.
I’ve squatted over 1,300 pounds and held all-time world records across three decades, but I’ve also paid the price with injuries and setbacks. What I’m about to lay out isn’t theory. It’s what I’ve seen over and over again in lifters—from beginners to elite—both in my own career and working as a McGill Method Master clinician.
Mistake #1: Chasing Load While Ignoring Load Tolerance
The biggest mistake I see is lifters obsessing over the weight on the bar while completely ignoring what their body can actually tolerate. Strength isn’t just about how much you can lift once—it’s about how much load your body can handle repeatedly without breaking down.
Muscles adapt quickly, but your spine, discs, and connective tissues adapt much slower, and they don’t care about your program or your ego. I see lifters adding weight every week, hitting PRs while in pain, and convincing themselves it’s fine because it “doesn’t hurt that bad yet.” That’s borrowed time.
Eventually, compression and shear accumulate, and what used to feel easy suddenly doesn’t. That’s not bad luck—that’s ignored load tolerance catching up to you. This is exactly why structured deloads matter. If your squat can’t progress without pain, flare-ups, or constant resets, your plan isn’t working—it’s just delaying the inevitable.
Mistake #2: Bracing Wrong—Too Little or Too Much
Bracing is one of the most misunderstood aspects of squatting, and I see lifters get it wrong in both directions. On one end, you have under-bracing—lifters who don’t create enough intra-abdominal pressure, lose tension at the bottom, and end up relying on passive structures like discs and ligaments to hold them together.
That’s where instability and injury start. On the other end, you have over-bracing, which tends to show up in more experienced lifters. These are the people who crank their core to max intensity on every single rep, even with lighter weights.
Over time, that constant excessive stiffness creates unnecessary compression and fatigue, and eventually the back starts to push back. Proper bracing isn’t all-or-nothing—it’s tuned stiffness. It’s a dimmer switch, not an on/off switch. The amount of tension you create should match the load.
Mistake #3: Squatting the Same Way Forever
Another major issue is lifters refusing to adapt. They stick with the same stance, the same setup, the same technique they learned years ago, even when their body has clearly changed.
Your leverages change when you gain or lose weight. Your joints change as you age. Your tolerance to load shifts based on your training history and injury background. Yet most lifters keep forcing the same squat pattern long after it’s stopped working for them.
That’s not discipline—that’s stubbornness. I had to completely rebuild my squat after injury, starting with basic movement patterns and relearning how to brace and move without pain. It didn’t feel natural right away, and it’s not supposed to.
Bonus: You’re Not Training Your Core Properly
Most lifters think they train their core, but they’re not training it in a way that actually carries over to the squat. Sit-ups, Russian twists, and side bends aren’t building the kind of core you need under a heavy bar.
Your core’s job is to resist movement and transfer force, which means you need stiffness and endurance, not motion. That comes from things like planks and anti-movement work that tie the entire torso together.
If you don’t have that, you’re a slinky under load. You can’t transfer force efficiently, and your squat will either stall or start breaking down.
Final Takeaway
If you want a squat that lasts, you have to start thinking beyond just adding weight to the bar. Respect your load tolerance, learn how to properly tune your brace, adapt your squat as your body evolves, and build a core that can actually support what you’re trying to do.
That’s how you create strength that doesn’t just peak for a moment, but holds up over time. If you want the full breakdown and to see how these mistakes play out in real time, watch the full video.
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