Barbell Squat Pre-Lift Checklist: Expert Setup Tips for Safe, Powerful Squats

When you’re getting ready to perform a barbell squat, you want to be locked in. Anything less means sloppy reps, or worse yet, an injury. Having a simple, repeatable system you can use when the pressure is on will save you energy and a lot of heartache.

That’s precisely what this Pre-Lift Checklist is for: to give you a bulletproof, repeatable setup that primes you for performance—not chaos. Yes, running through the checklist below will take extra time at first. But that time isn’t wasted—it’s investing in consistency. With enough time under the bar, the process becomes automatic.

You might think the lift begins when you start the rep, but you’re mistaken. It starts the moment you approach the bar. Here is your barbell squat pre-lift checklist with help from Greg Nuckols, a three-time world champion powerlifter and the head at Stronger By Science.

Body Cues You Should Pay Attention To

You’ll notice that many of the body cues below are internal.

They ask you to feel your body: breathe into your belly, brace your core, root your feet. Internal cues can help boost body awareness, especially as you build that “mind-muscle” connection. However, research shows that external cues—those that direct attention outward, such as “push the ground away” or “break the bar over your back” outperform internal cues in promoting efficient, effective motor performance and learning.

But for those without the benefit of a trainer or lifting partner, the key is to use the right cue at the right moment. Internal cues help stabilize you during setup, but providing an external cue — something you can see or feel outside your body—can boost your performance. Both are great, and both will give you a significant boost.

Squat Pre-Lift Checklist

Before we get into the squat checklist, here’s the main point: don’t rush it. Setting up for a heavy lift isn’t about speed; it’s about safety. At first, walking through each step will feel slow, but that’s the goal. Over time, these cues become automatic, helping you establish a consistent setup that locks you in every single rep. Let’s get to it.

Step 1: The Unracking and Walk Back

Before you can even think of squatting, you need to lock in on getting the bar off the rack and into position. Improper setup is where a loss of tension can happen, and then everything downstream falls apart.

1. Approach the bar with confidence.
2. Grip the bar evenly, set your hands where you’ll squat, and pull yourself under it.
3. Squeeze your upper back tight, engage your lats, and set your traps firmly under the bar.
4. Inhale deeply and brace before you unrack. Research indicates that pre-tensioning the lats and upper back during setup enhances bar stability and reduces spinal movement under load.

Once the bar is racked securely on your back:

1. Take a small step straight back with one foot.
2. Bring the other foot back to meet it.
3. Adjust both feet outward into your squat stance.

That’s it: No pacing, no wandering, no wasted motion. The shorter the walkout, the faster you lock into position and conserve energy for the lift itself.

Greg’s Tip: If you’re still shuffling your feet after the third step, you haven’t set your stance correctly. Reset or rerack before squatting.

Step 2: Establish Your Base

Your squat starts from the ground up. Before you even think about moving, lock in your foundation. Plant your feet in your preferred squat with your toes slightly out, then “screw” your feet into the floor by externally rotating through your hips. You should feel your arches rise and your glutes engage before the bar even moves. A stable base improves balance, optimizes force transfer, and helps your knees track properly, protecting your hips and lower back.

Internal cue: “Feel your arches grip the floor.” External cue: “Push the ground away from you.”

Step 3: Grip and Bar Position

Your grip and bar placement set the tone, and rushing through these, and you’ll spend the rest of the lift fighting instability instead of squatting efficiently. Get them right, and everything from your upper-back tension to bar path improves.

Set Your Hands

1. Choose a high-bar (bar sits on the traps) or low-bar (rests across the rear delts) depending on your mobility, limb length, and training style.
2. Once you set your hands, squeeze the bar like you mean it—this fires up the forearms and lats, locking the upper body into position.

Internal cue: “Crush the bar in your hands.” External cue: “Break the bar over your back.”

Greg’s Tip: Your hands should be as close as you can comfortably get them. If you can get them closer without pain in your wrists, shoulders, or elbows, or just feeling super uncomfortable, then it’s easier to create upper back tension.

Engage Your Lats and Upper Back

A strong upper back acts like a shelf for the bar. Pull your shoulder blades together and slightly down, creating tension across your traps and lat muscles. This action prevents the bar from rolling, prevents excessive forward lean, and maintains neutral spine under load.

Internal cue: “Shoulder blades into back pockets.” External cue: “Pin the bar into your traps.”

Set Elbow and Wrist Position

• Try to keep wrists neutral to avoid unnecessary strain.
• Drop elbows slightly down and toward your ribs to engage the lats.
• Avoid flaring elbows excessively, which can pull you forward.

Greg’s Tip: If you have trouble getting your wrist into a neutral position, widening your grip makes it easier to externally rotate your shoulders enough to get your hands behind the bar with your wrists straight. I like to use the cue, “scratch your rib cage with your elbows.” This cue will help create lat tension to aid in torso rigidity and upper back tightness.

Step 4: Breath and Brace

Proper breathing and bracing form the base of spinal stability, bar control, and force transfer. Before descending, take a deep belly breath—not into your chest, but around your entire torso. Your diaphragm should press down, your ribs expand laterally, and your lower back should fill with air. This intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) acts like an internal weight belt, stabilizing the spine and reducing shear forces on the lower back.

Internal cue: “Fill your belly with air.” External cue: “Push your ribs into your belt.”

Taking a deep breath isn’t enough—you have to brace to lock your torso in place:

• Imagine someone’s about to punch you in the stomach and tighten accordingly.
• Hold your brace until you pass the sticking point on the way up, then reset if needed.

Internal cue: “Lock your ribs to your pelvis.” External cue: “Push your abs into your belt.”

Greg’s Tip: The harder your abs contract, the harder it is for your spinal erectors to keep the spine from flexing. Which is particularly handy when you have a heavy barbell on your spine.

Step 5: The Green Light Checklist

This checklist is the last stop before you squat. Think of it as your final systems check—a quick review of your setup cues to make sure everything’s dialed in. Take a breath, lock in, and scan these points:

1. Feet Rooted: Arches engaged, toes slightly out, and full-foot contact.
2. Bar Locked In with Upper Body Tension: Upper back tight, lats engaged, bar pulled into your traps.
3. Breath and Brace: 360-degree expansion with controlled intra-abdominal pressure.
4. Eyes Set: Fix your gaze on a neutral point—don’t crank your neck up or stare at the floor.

This checklist should only take three to four seconds once you’ve practiced it enough. However, take your time early on. Precision here builds consistency, and consistency builds strength.

Enough talk. Now get to squatting.