What Is A Squat

A squat movement, of which there are many variations is when there is a bend in the knee and the hips travel towards the floor as knee flexion continues. In all squat variations the feet remain flat on the floor and the back remains neutral.

What Does Work Mean

To answer this question, we need to have a clear idea of what we mean when we say work. For me, work means that it is a prime mover, it is one of the key muscle groups that the exercise is trying to train. Work does not mean that it plays a supporting role in the movement. If by work, you mean to says it plays some form of role in the movement, then the answer is yes, the lower back does play a key role in the squat but is not a prime mover.

What Role Does The Lower Back Play In The Squat

The traditional back squat or goblet squat does not train / work the lower back per say, the lower back needs to be strong enough to support the load so the muscles of legs can do the work. If the lower back is far weaker than the legs, which can be the case, then the squat can train the lower back. This however should not be the goal of a squat, the squat, in my opinion, for both general populations and sports performance should be all about making the muscles of the legs stronger. If your lower back is your weak link, I would suggest building a strong lower back through appropriate hinge variations and not aiming to get your lower back strong from performing squats.

If your lower back is far weaker than your legs, you might consider using other variations to strengthen the legs like lunges and or belt squats. In conjunction with this you can use hinge variations to strengthen the lower back.

What Are The Different Styles of Squat

It is important to distinguish between two styles of barbell squats for the sake of this article as one will put far more load on the lower back than the other. When squatting with a barbell we can perform the traditional style of squat, the back squat, where the barbell is placed just below the neck in a comfortable position and the torso is kept as upright as possible during the squat. There is however a second variation that was popularised by the powerlifting scene, especially when they would wear squat suits. This squat variation is called the low bar squat, it involves placing the bar lower down the back and leaning further forward when squatting. This looks very different from a traditional squat. As the low bar back squat doesn’t play much of a role in training for health and wellness we did not include it in our movement library, here is a youtube video to check out if you would like to see it in action along with a detailed comparison to the high bar squat.

This is an important distinction to answer this question. In the low bar back squat the lower back does play much more of a role and if you are low bar back squatting then the lower back will be doing a lot more work. There is nothing wrong with low bar back squatting, however I would usually suggest having a good reason to do it and at very minimum being aware that you are doing this specific style of squat.