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The Importance of the Squat


   

 When Brian was remodeling, he frequently entered a home bathroom to find holes in the wall-holes that showed where a handrail once lived. In the recent past, someone had applied so much pressure on the handle to help themselves up that it ripped out of the wall, leaving the gaping holes. Sheepishly these owners brought him in to repair the damage and add more secure hardware. However, the real root to this problem is poor leg strength and an inability to squat well.  Whether you are 5 or 85, you should be able to sit down and stand up. This is one of the basic functions of the body. Besides, let’s face it, no one wants to rip the handrail out of their wall. Or even have a handrail to begin with. 

  It makes sense to be able to stand up, get out of the car, crouch down to pick something off the floor. In fact, our bodies were made to move that way, but our culture does not require us to squat low. We have chairs, car seats, toilet seat lifters and even grabbers to pick things up when we can’t or don’t want to get down. Millions are being made on products that enable us to NOT have to bend, not have to reach, not have to squat.  But our bodies are designed to move and perform all of these basic functions on their own and this is where the squat is invaluable.

If squatting is difficult for you, it might be for one of the following reasons:

Your knees hurt when you squat

Your back hurts when you squat

You feel shaky, it’s tough to balance

Your legs just don’t bend well

You feel that you just don’t have the strength

All of these are mostly remedied by having good form when squatting and squatting often. So let’s take a peek at what a good squat looks like.

 

 

You should have:

 

Starting Stance: Feet shoulder width apart, toes slightly turned out.

Knees press out over the pinky toe for stability.

Knees continue out as you descend.

Squat low so your hips are below your knees (if possible).

Drive up with speed.

Finish with hips and legs straight. Use your arms for balance.

 

 

Even if you don’t hurt when you squat, keep your eyes open for these form faults. They can certainly lead to pain and injury over time:

 

Knees press in as you descend: Pressing the knees in puts pressure on the inside of the knee causing discomfort, pain and possible injury.

Knees pressing in, at the low position: Even more pressure on the inner knee in the low position, difficult to hold and balance in addition to being at risk for injury.

Heels off the ground: In this position you can’t use the back leg muscles (hamstrings and glute) efficiently. Makes for a poor squat and tough to balance.

Rounded Back: Creates poor posture, extra pressure on the knees and front leg muscles (quads)

 

Remember these tips:

Start with where you are.  If you can lower your hips halfway to parallel- great! Keep working to get lower until you can sit in your chair and stand up without using your arms. Sometimes holding a weight and extending your arms can help you get up, or leaning forward as you stand will also help. After you’ve got the chair, try something lower such as a foot stool.  Keep good form and have someone watch you to give tips (you’ll have to put your pride away to receive feedback, but it’s worth it.)

Squat often– Daily. Shoot for daily. Think about how often you sit in a chair, in and out of your car, and let’s not forget the bathroom…

When you simply can’t get any lower because you’re inflexible, open up your hips with stretches. We’ll have a later post that talks about hip mobility. In the meantime you can click here for some hip stretches. Click for Hip stretches  

If you’d like to go a step further, check out this book which goes through the fundamentals of good movements, including the squat. Many exercises and pictures are included so you can target areas of limited mobility and stiffness:  Kelly Starrett “Becoming a Supple Leopard”

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