How to Squat: What We Can Change [Part II]
For the second part of the intro to the squat, we will be talking about the anatomy that we CAN affect with targeted training!
Intro
When it comes to the squat, everyone wants to get to full depth (the so called ass to grass). You want to be able to lift that portcullis to let your allies through, right?
We’ve already shown in the last section that this isn’t ideal for ALL people. Whatever our comfortable range ends up being, we need to make sure we that we have adequate mobility of the ankle, the knee and the hip so that we don’t have to sacrifice our backs. Leave that to the cultists. Let’s dive a little bit deeper into how each joint contributes to the full depth of the squat.
Typical limiters of squat depth.
HIP MOBILITY
If you look at the picture of a squat, you can see that you need to be able to flex your hip quite a bit to get to full depth. While this might just be how your bones and body are structured (last section), there are a few things that we can affect.
Angle of the pelvis
The way that your hip is tilted can affect your squat. Learning to tilt your hips backward a bit during a squat can improve your hip flexion range of motion!Hip capsule
The bundle of ligaments that surround the hip bones is called the capsule. Sometimes a tight capsule can reduce the mobility of your hips, but luckily this is something that we can stretch out through targeted exercise.Soft end feel
Sometimes your gut gets in the way of the squat. It happens! (Too many second breakfasts, you hobbits…). I don’t want people to make excuses for not squatting because of this…but not being able to flex your hip fully WILL affect your ability to perform them. If this is the case, then increasing mobility in the other areas mentioned here can sort of make up for the reduced hip flexion due to the condition.
Internal Rotation of the hip is one of the most missed components of a full depth squat.
Internal rotation of the hip
What you might not notice is that your hips require a good amount of internal rotation [see picture] in order to get full mobility and efficiency with your squat. Addressing any issues here can be a quick way to improve your squat today.
KNEE MOBILITY
Being able to fully flex your knees is one aspect of being able to do a full depth squat. This can be limited by your quad muscles or perhaps due to pain, which can happen from time to time for different reasons (like taking an arrow to the knee).
What about the knee crunchies? Sometimes knees make sounds when we squat or flex them too much. But you don’t need to worry. Besides making you fail your stealth checks, studies by arcane scholars have shown that this is physiological, rather than pathological. What this means is that it is more likely to be due to your unique anatomical structures, rather than something insidious going on (unless you took an arrow to the knee, then please seek help).
The caveat here is PAIN.
Pain doesn’t necessarily mean something bad is going on, but if flexing the knee causes pain, it’s best to get it checked it out with a physical therapy cleric to give it the good ol’ once over to ease your anxiety.
ANKLE MOBILITY
Now we come to one of the most important places you need mobility when doing a squat, yet one that is taken for granted and undertrained: ankle mobility.
Good ankle mobility can make up for a lot of lost mobility in the knees or hips. Conversely, reduced ankle mobility makes it harder to get full depth in a squat and will require improved mobility in the hips and knees.
Think of your body as an adventuring party that has to work together to accomplish something. If your hips (the fighter) and your knees (the wizard) are on board, but you have the ankle (the bard) seducing everyone, then you are going to be much less able to complete a task.
If you don't have the mobility to perform a motion, you are going to compensate by trying to get mobility in places that shouldn’t be part of the motion…like your lower back. These compensations pull you away from the most efficient position which ends up reducing the amount of weight you can actually lift, as well as puts you in a position that may lead to discomfort in the back area.
Conclusion
We can improve our squat by working on mobility in the hips, knees and ankles.
Our next section will deal with specific exercises or techniques you can use to get those full depth squats going. Never know when you’re going to have to lift a portcullis.