43 Squat Quotes - Shut Up and Squat!

1) "On the Internet, everyone squats. In real life, the squat rack is always empty. You figure out what this means." - Steve Shaw

2) "I've heard every excuse for not squatting to the proper depth and they're all bull, you just don't want everyone to see you with no weight on the bar." - Unknown

3) "Shut up and squat." - Unknown

Related: Squat Every Day Challenge and Workout

4) "There is simply no other exercise, and certainly no machine, that produces the level of central nervous system activity, improved balance and coordination, skeletal loading and bone density enhancement, muscular stimulation and growth, connective tissue stress and strength, psychological demand and toughness, and overall systemic conditioning than the correctly performed full squat." - Mark Rippetoe

5) "Don't have $100.00 shoes and a 10 cent Squat." - Louie Simmons

6) "I wouldn't tell somebody that they weren't a powerlifter because they only bench pressed, or they only bench pressed and deadlifted, but, what the hell is wrong with squatting? What are you, afraid? I thought powerlifters were supposed to be big, tough guys. Strap your **** on, leave your p*ssy at home, put a bar on your back and bend your knees!" - Kirk Karwoski

7) "Squat till you puke." - Unknown


8) "People who do not know how to squat do not have normal hip function, don't have normal leg functional. They can't jump, run, throw or punch correctly." - Greg Glassman

9) "I used to like putting a little space between plates on the bar. They'd jingle when I came up out of a squat, making a deep-throated roar. The old 45s were the best. The sound would pass through my spine and ears. It was like a car engine revving up. It would help me time my movement. A cue to go down for the next rep." - Tom Platz

10) "Just remember: somewhere, a little Chinese girl is warming up with your max." - Jim Conroy

11) "If you don't squat, you ain't squat." - Unknown

12) "Down the road, in a gym far away, A young man was heard to say: No matter what I do, my legs won't grow! He tried leg extensions, leg curls, leg presses too. Trying to cheat, these sissy workouts he'd do! From the corner of the gym where the big guy's train. Through a cloud of chalk and the midst of pain. Where the big iron rides high and threatens lives. Where the noise is made with big forty fives. A deep voice bellowed as he wrapped his knees. A very big man with legs like trees. Laughing as he snatched another plate from the stack, chalked his hands and monstrous back. Said: Boy, stop lying and don't say you've forgotten! The trouble with you is you ain't been SQUATTIN!" - Jeff MADDOG Madden

13) "Squat like Channing Tatum is watching." - Erin Weiss

14) "Once you can squat with 180 kilograms, your arms and shoulders will come along much more receptively... If you want big arms and shoulders, your first priority is to be sure that your leg/hip/back structure is growing and becoming powerful" - Stuart McRobert

15) "Drop it like a squat." - Unknown

16) "The full squat is a perfectly natural position for the leg to occupy. That's why there is a joint in the middle of it, and why humans have been occupying this position, both unloaded and loaded, for millions of years. Much longer, in fact, than quasi-intellectual morons have been telling us that it's 'bad' for the knees." - Mark Rippetoe


17) "Some people like to live without too much risk. They're satisfied leading a safe existence. This attitude of caution infiltrates into their goals. Every successful athlete - or businessperson - enjoys taking calculated risks. You have to. Especially in the gym when you're squatting 500 for reps and you can't get one more but grunt out ten. Your nose starts bleeding, you fall into the rack and that's set one." - Tom Platz

18) "Working chest, delts, tris, and biceps work approximately 10% of your overall lean body mass. Working hard on deadlifts (bent legged, Trap Bar, or sumo) or squatting (not necessarily at the same time) works more like 70% of your musculature at once and sends a strong message to your body to get better at growing now!" - Wesley Silveira

19) "Not only are squats not bad for the knees, every legitimate research study on this subject has shown that squats improve knee stability and therefore help reduce the risk of injuries." - Charles Poliquin

20) "If your family was captured and you were told you needed to put 100 pounds onto your max squat within two months or your family would be executed, would you squat once per week? Something tells me that you'd start squatting every day."  - John Broz

21) "I wish they had squats for boobs." - Unknown

22) "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but squats will make me a bada$$." - Unknown

23) "I was built to squat." - Tom Platz

24) "There is never an absolute answer to everything, except of course that you have to do your squats." - Mark Rippetoe

25) "When life hands you lemons - SQUAT! Squats make everything better. And if squats don't, bacon will." - Anna Lee

26) "You get as big as possible from becoming as strong as possible. When I started lifting I went into the gym with that how much can I bench, curl, squat, and deadlift attitude. That's when I discovered how fast my strength could increase, and it made me crazy intense to get even stronger." - Kevin Levrone

27) "On resting in between reps: It varies with the length of the set. 5's or fewer get a breath to reset. Longer sets might take 2 breaths. During the last few reps of a true 20RM squat, just do what Jesus tells you. Trust me, if you do an honest 20 rep program, at some point Jesus will talk to you. On the last day of the program, he asked if he could work in." - Mark Rippetoe

28) "I only judge people by the depth of their squat." - Dan John

29) "For Westside athletes to continually hit new max lifts and progress towards bigger goals, they take the one-step approach with tiny increments of improvement. That might mean adding another 2.5 pounds to a certain squat or deadlift variation. It's this type of incremental progress that eventually adds up to truly gargantuan totals." - Louie Simmons

30) "The bands won't make you squat big; check between your legs before you change anything. It takes more than a band to make you squat." - Chuck Vogelpohl

31) "A squat cannot be performed on a Smith machine any more than it can be performed in a small closet with a hamster." - Mark Rippetoe

32) "If you find yourself down in the bottom of the squat and you're just kinda chilling, you're probably not squatting right." - Greg Glassman

33) "I have thought about training sessions weeks in advance. For instance, if a big squat workout is scheduled for the middle of next month, I am aware of it as the days pass by. One-week prior I'll make sure not to walk too much or engage in any unnecessary activity. I used to plan my classes in college with a minimum walking distance between them." - Tom Platz

34) "I wanna hold it, I wanna hold it." - Kirk Karwoski after squatting 1000 for two reps.

35) "Experiencing this pain in my muscles and aching and going on and on is my challenge. The last three or four reps is what makes the muscles grow. This area of pain divides a champion from someone who is not a champion. That's what most people lack, having the guts to go on and just say they'll go through the pain no matter what happens. I have no fear of fainting. I do squats until I fall over and pass out. So what? it's not going to kill me. I wake up five minutes later and I'm OK. A lot of other athletes are afraid of this. So they don't pass out. They don't go on." - Arnold Schwarzenegger


36) "The squat is the perfect analogy for life. it's about standing back up after something heavy takes you down." - Unknown

37) "The squat is the most complicated, simplest, and most important lift there is. it's complicated in the fact that there is a lot going on in a squat, and if you are doing it incorrectly you can injure yourself quite easily. It's simple in the fact that you are just putting weight on your back, squatting, and standing back up. Take your time when it comes to the squat. Learn how to do it and learn how to do it perfectly." - Jerred Moon

38) "Most people should squat. Do you want bigger legs? you'd be hard-pressed to find a better exercise than the squat. Do you want to become more athletic while decreasing your injury risk on the field or the court? Squats should probably be at the core of your training program." - Greg Nuckols

39) "Squats work your whole body. Your legs bend and straighten to move the weight. Your abs and lower back muscles stabilize your trunk while your legs move. Your upper-back, shoulders and arms balance the bar on your back. Many muscles work at the same time, not just your legs." - Mehdi

40) "I can teach idiots to squat in ten minutes." - Mark Rippetoe

41) "Athlete comfort will dictate the stance that puts their hip in a better body position. There are narrow squatters and there are wide squatters. That may have nothing to do with tight muscles or tight joint capsules and have more to do with bony hip anatomy." - Ryan Debell

42) "Performing a proper squat requires significant mobility throughout the body, but the ability to move all the involved joints through their available ranges of motion does not necessarily ensure a perfect squat." - Zachary Long

43) "Squat plateaus have caused many strong lifters to stop competing, or quit powerlifting entirely. After all, you can still build a powerful looking body without ever entering a power rack. But you'll never really be strong, stronger than the average guy, sure, but not the type of strength you dreamed of becoming when you first set foot in a gym. For that kind of strength, you need a heavy bar on your back. There's just no way around it." - Dave Tate