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What to do?

Even when squatting without weight, I just feel like the quads are doing 99.8% of the work. Lately I've been having some discomfort while squatting with higher weights. Is there a way to target specifically those muscles?

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  • Are you squatting high bar or low bar? Low bar will have a lot more glute/ham activation. Mar 3, 2014 at 19:06
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    Not many people are native English speakers including me. Can you please indicate which muscles are 'those muscles'? Quads or glutes & hamstring?
    – Freakyuser
    Mar 11, 2014 at 5:47

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There are several things you can do, just know that in a raw squat (no squat suit or compression briefs) the glute involvement is primarily at the bottom, and the hamstrings are only moderately used. With a squat suit, the leverages change and loading the hamstrings is more important. That said, the glute and hamstring activity is still important--particularly for deadlifts.

Hamstring Exercises

Glute Exercises

Also, I recommend doing deadlifts if you don't already. It is the ultimate posterior chain movement.

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