The squat

• Stand tall, feet a little wider than your hips
• Toes turned out slightly, wherever feels natural
• The weight held up against your chest in both hands, elbows tucked in underneath it

Sit down between your feet, hips going back and knees bending together, until you are as low as you can go with your back staying long. Then drive back up through the whole of both feet until you are standing tall again.

• Screw your feet out into the floor, so the knees track in line with the feet and never fall inward
• Chest up. The weight at the front is doing half that job for you
• Down as slowly as you come up. No dropping into the bottom

• Stand tall, then step one foot a good stride straight back, into a long split stance
• Front foot flat, back heel lifted
• Weight shared fairly evenly between the two feet, roughly fifty-fifty

Lower yourself straight down, thinking of dropping your back knee towards the floor rather than bending your front knee. Aim that back knee straight down and let the front leg bend to allow it. Go only as far as you can under control and without the knee complaining. Shallow is fine, especially to begin with, and the depth comes as the control does. Then drive back up through both feet to where you started, pushing up through the mid-foot and heel rather than the toes, and keeping the whole foot planted. Do all your reps in that stance, then swap your feet over.

• The front knee tracking in line with the foot as you lower and drive up, never caving inward
• Screw the front foot out into the floor, and you'll feel the hip take charge of holding the knee in line
• The whole of the front foot staying in contact with the floor, and the movement straight down and up