It only took a bunch of months but finally finished Part 2 on stuff about squats. In this part, I’ll talk about what goes wrong in the squat. Part 3 will be how to fix those things. Check out Part 1 here.
#1 Blatant Disregard for Anatomical Considerations
I talked about this at length in the previous post, so won’t go into the specifics. The barbell squat is useful, but we have to acknowledge that it is not natural. All of the other “functional” movements look similar (push, pull, hinge, lunge, jump) because you are interacting with some external object. Sitting in a chair (external object) is not the same thing as barbell squatting. The barbell squat is controlling something attached to you, so the movement changes based on where the bar sits.
People are built different, and a one size fits all approach is unnecessary unless that specific movement is your goal. Do you NEED a big squat or do you WANT to get stronger. There are many ways to accomplish that goal. If you NEED a big squat, you may need to augment or change your body structure. Changing your body structure takes a long time. Longer than you think.
#2 Cues Gone Wrong
Most cues are given to correct something. Knees going in? “Knee outs!” Chest falling down? “Chest up!” Seems logical, right? The trouble starts when the cue becomes the way to do something. Typically, body parts that get corrected are usually the victim, not the culprit, and result from not creating and/or maintaining tension in the body throughout the movement. That squat usually looks like some combination of the low bar and high bar squat. NERD ALERT!! I’ll go into the science weeds of it in the next couple of paragraphs, feel free to skip ahead to #3. If you teach people exercise AND skip this part, I would argue that you aren’t really “teaching” anything.
Cues relate to something called Attentional Focus – where you focus your attention during a task. #profound Research tells us an External Focus (the WHY) is superior to an Internal Focus (the HOW) in regards to performance. The Constrained Action Hypothesis (CAH) states that the brain, when given the opportunity, will figure out the best way to accomplish something. A “WHY” just needs to be provided. A great example is throwing darts. The WHY is “hit the board,”, the HOW is “with a dart.” That’s why you look at the board, not the dart, when you throw. Looking at the dart constrains the ‘system” that is trying to figure out how to hit the board.
Is there a place for internal focus cues? Maybe, but a common language has to be established before the cue has any relevance. So “use your core” only works if the person saying it has taught the person doing what that actually means. Otherwise, the person doing it will do whatever his/her version of “using your core” is. Same for “chest up.” Seems like a simple cue, but the person doing it will get the chest up at all costs, potentially at the sacrifice of something else. Why? Because you told them to.
#3 Improper footwear
Have you ever played flag football or softball (or some field sport) with someone that doesn’t own cleats? Usually they show up in running shoes and end up sliding around all over the place. They can’t play defense, which is important, because defense wins championships. I feel like everyone knows this person. Or maybe this person is you?!
Below is a breakdown of standard shoes I’ve seen in the functional fitness world with respective heel-toe drops. A higher heel equals easier squatting. Since functional fitness is en vogue right now, shoes are trying to “do it all” and face an existential crisis of being a running or a training shoe. These are mutually exclusive because a running shoe isn’t rigid enough for strength training, and a training shoe shoe feels like cinder blocks attached to your feet when you run.
For me personally, a zero drop shoe is the best all around shoe, but I have trouble barbell squatting with them. I have long legs and a short torso, so a 4mm drop helps me some, but 8mm is my personal minimum effective dose. Just remember than more heel equals easier squatting. You still may have to work on your squat, but at least realize what you are getting into when you are buying shoes.
Summary
So there you have 3 things to consider. An extreme example to illustrate the point – take a freakishly tall person with really long legs and a short torso. High bar back squatting with no bull trainers may not be the answer. You could work on ankle mobility and all that other stuff over the course of several months, OR just get a higher heel, switch to a low bar squat, and find someone to give you better cues to create/maintain tension. Like always, the answer is somewhere in the middle.
3FN 