The Art of Squatting

G’day and welcome back to Wealth of Health, Gold Coast Physiotherapy's evidence backed health blog which aims to share hot tips to boost health and longevity. This month we delve into a fundamental yet often overlooked aspect of our daily movements – the squat. Buckle up as we explore the importance of squatting, it’s relevance to everyday human function, and teach you how to master and harness the power of your squat.

Squats are Important

Aside from being commonplace in gym exercise programs, the squat is an incredibly versatile movement for humans. Not only do squats allow us to achieve tasks such as picking items from the bottom shelf at the grocery store and getting up from a chair but among the many other benefits, squats are now considered to increase our longevity. From research, it is now well understood that having a healthy and strong squat is a significant investment into your musculoskeletal, functional, and overall health. In this month’s Blog we break down the reasons why we should all have a great squat, why we should be doing them regularly and exactly how to master your technique.

Fundamental Human Movement

The squat is a fundamental human movement integral to many daily activities in the life of a human. Activities like picking items from the bottom shelf at the grocery store, getting up from a chair, and even getting dressed all involve the foundational movements of a squat.

Musculoskeletal Health

Regular squatting promotes healthy bones, muscles, joints, and ligaments. The "use it or lose it" principle applies here – maintaining the ability to squat well contributes significantly to the overall health and resilience of these tissues. Thereby our musculoskeletal systems ability to move with freedom and ease.

Movement efficiency and injury prevention

A plethora of essential connectivity tissues from muscles to joints, tendons and ligaments are all highly engaged during a well-executed squat. Having these tissues moving and working efficiently drives healthy human movement. Mastering the squat thereby translates to enhanced efficiency in everyday tasks. When the body is accustomed to the proper mechanics of a squat, these movements become simpler and less strenuous, minimizing the strain on our bodies during routine activities.

Longevity

Ever seen a 90 or 100 year sit in a deep squat position like a child playing in the sand? One of the oldest populations of humans in the world have the incredible ability to perform deep squats at all ages of life. Likely due to their sitting, eating and praying rituals, the Japanese Okinawans ability to squat is considered to be one of the reasons for a healthy and longer life. There is also a significant gamut of research that has arisen in recent years proving that the ability to deep squat, sit and rise from the floor is linked to living longer (Barreto de Brito et al., 2012). Among many factors, having a healthy squat is considered to significantly improve our physical health, increase our capacity to maintain physical independence with age and reduce our risk of falls. 

In essence, having a good squat is not just about ticking off an exercise in the gym; it's a holistic investment in musculoskeletal health, injury prevention, and improved functional capacity for the demands of everyday life.

Consequence of a Poor Squat

The consequences of poor squatting can be quite innocuous when the loads we place on our body are inconsequential. However, when comes the time to move house or get stuck into sorting out the unruly backyard, if we are performing poorly in the squat department, this can place you at serious risk of injury.

Perfecting the Squat: Lets Get It Right

Now, the exciting part – how to squat like a pro! From our expert tips we are looking to give you the means to move fluidly, engage the right muscles, and achieve that picture-perfect squat that allows free and healthy movement. From bodyweight squats to adding resistance, this guide will have you squatting with confidence in no time.

In the technological age that we live in, there is a plethora of information on how to squat, the common mistakes and golden rules of squatting. To be fair, it can become very confronting and confusing. So, to make it simple, we discuss what the research tells us and look at the three most common technique corrections we prescribe at Gold Coast Physiotherapy breaking down their importance.

What Makes a Good Squat?

Based on current available evidence in the literature (Comfort et al. 2014), the following 7 steps are most important for achieving a good healthy squat

Full Depth

This means taking all our joints and muscles to there full range of motion 

Natural foot position

Place your feet in a comfortable and activated position (see more on this in the tips below)

Feet approximately shoulder width apart

This allows for most appropriate movement and muscle activation to occur 

Unrestricted forward movement of the knees

Allow your knees to go over the toes as much as you wish. Again looking for full range of motion of the joints and muscles. This is very healthy.

Upright trunk

The more upright your trunk the more efficient and leg driven the squat becomes. This minimises load on spine and joints. (See more on this in the tips below)

Forward and upright gaze

This allows for integration between your visual cortex and your muscle and joint awareness. This gaze translates nicely when performing asks which requires coordination.

Some minor individual variation

Having your own bit of flare is normal and healthy as we are all built, shaped and move a little differently. Remember, fluidity and ease of motion is the key.

Common technique tips/corrections

1.      Straight/Widespread foot for 3 points of contact

Forming a stable base of support/solid ground contact is foundational and the first step to achieve a good squat. To do this we need to create strong arches in our foot, much like the legs of a camera tripod, this is done by having 3 strong points of contact with the ground. Our foots tripod includes the heel, the base of the 1st toe, and the base of the 5th toe. Just as a tripod is most stable when all legs are firmly grounded and spread wide apart, maintaining the arch in our feet during squats enhances stability and power. If any part of the tripod loses contact with the ground, stability and power are compromised meaning load is shifted elsewhere in the body (our knees and backs are often the load bearers when the foot fails). Our most common tips to ensure our foundation solid is “Spread The Foot” and “A little more weight under the big toe”

Figure A – shows the 3 important points of contact with the ground to achieve prior to squatting.

2.      Create rotation torque at our hips and knees

Before descending into the squat, a critical cue is to generate external rotational torque at the hips. This tension establishes a spring-like tightness in the hips, ensuring ideal knee alignment and power generation throughout the squat. To achieve this hip torque, we get our clients to focus on cues like "squeeze your glutes" and "drive the knees out." These actions wind up the force mechanism in your hips, engaging the deep hip stabilising muscles instantly. As a result, the knees align with the toes, and the foots natural arch responds. Remember, gentle outward-bowing knees create a fully arched foot position, while inward-falling knees lead to foot collapse and a flattened arch (see Figure B and C below).

Just as important here, be sure to maintain the 'spread tripod' foot during this process so avoid pushing the knees excessively outward. Misusing the cue to drive knees too far to the side can compromise the alignment and thus the stability to perform the squat.

3.      Trunk – Shin angle

As seen in the picture below, when we squat, we want to consider keeping our shin and trunk angle approximately the same or, if possible, having the trunk more upright/vertical than the shin.

What this means is that we are not leaning too far forwards which places additional load on structures like our spine, knees and ankles. For us to achieve this we need good ankle, knee and hip range of motion as well as good leg and trunk strength. Often for individuals who can’t achieve this vertical trunk we find that by far and away the ankle is the biggest limiting factor to achieving good trunk-shin angle.

In this case, to start we often recommend placing a weight plate, a book or better yet an angled board under your heels (seen in Figure E) to reduce the need to bend at the ankles. Then we get stuck into treatments like ankle mobilisations until such time that you improve your ankle range and can achieve a good Trunk - Shin angle without the need for heel elevation.

So, there you have it. The insights and hot tips to the fundamental human movement of squatting. We hope you got a lot out of this month’s episode and take away some wholesome tips to improve your bodies efficiency. Remember: having a healthy and strong squat is a significant investment into your musculoskeletal, functional, and overall health. So lets get out there, get at it and nail our squats. Want to see how your squat stacks up. If you have a full body mirror close by, why not test your squat see if you’re achieving the 7 steps and try the 3 tips for a good squat. Feel the difference for yourself. If you would like more information, please give us a call or if you would like to take your body to the next level, why not book an Appointment or an Athletic Screen where we put your squat and 8-10 other functional/foundational movements to the test. 

References

Barreto de Brito, L., Ricardo, D.R., Sardinha Mendes Soares De Araújo, D., Santos Ramos, P., Myers, J., and Gil Soares de Araújo., C. (2012).  

European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. Ability to sit and rise from the floor as a predictor of all-cause mortality. Volume 21(7), (2012).

Comfort, P., McMahon, J., Suchomel, T. (2018). Optimizing Squat Technique – Revisited. Strength & Conditioning Journal. 40(6).