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Richard E. Wood, BS, CSCS |
This month is about the king of all exercises, the squat. And who should bow down and perform the king of all exercises... pretty much everyone! The squat gets a bad wrap because of incorrect techniques which places unnecessary stresses on knees and lower back. Squats are important to myself and my clients because life revolves around the ability to squat! So much for our self sufficiency, every day activities, and quality of life when we cannot squat. I am far from a sadistic coach! I would never be so adamant about squats if we didn't have to do them everyday as part of life.
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Improper technique is most likely the key factor is scaring people away. As you bend over to pick something up and you feel that bad stress in the knees and/or back, that reinforces the fact that you will never use the squat as an exercise. Besides young children and already coached adults, I have not met a single person out of literally thousands of people that naturally knew how to perform a proper squat! Yes! When you do it wrong, it hurts! Yes! It is bad for your knees and back to do it wrong! My daughter at just over a year old was performing her 200+ squats per day perfectly. I mean absolutely flawless! Somewhere along the way we somehow forget or simply our center of gravity gets thrown off and we are unable to subconsciously perform a proper squat!
A huge mistake and presumption that most non squatters make is the necessity of full depth. This paragraph should be first; it's that significant! You do not need start, day one, by going down to full depth! There is so much balance, coordination, flexibility, and strength needed for the perfect squat. It's a progression! All I ask is that you use your body weight and progress downward in small increments. Start your squats with a finish of just a little bend in the knee. Everyone is stuck with a minimum starting weight of the weight of their own torso. Obviously, that is more for some than others. Individual coaching is important based on so many variables. The relativity of how challenging even body weight squats are (without any additional weights) will immediately sell you on the fact that they should be priority #1 in your regimen!
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