Body Weight Squats

by | Jun 19, 2014 | Exercise, Health & Fitness | 0 comments

squat

Picture by Tribesports

The ability to do a full bodyweight squat is probably the most fundamental movement humans can do, yet many adults can’t do them, due to either strength or flexibility issues. A movement that babies and children can do so easily, we lose as adults. Squatting, done properly, improves the health of the knees.

Foot Position. To improve your ability to squat, you first need to be properly set up bio-mechanically; this means setting up the foot position correctly. The feet should be slightly wider than the hips with the feet pointed outwards about 30 to 45 degrees. This placement creates a straight path for the butt to go down, without the knees and feet getting in the way of the movement, and loads the front portion and rear portion of the legs evenly. The stance also allows the knees to be slightly pushed out, tracking over the feet and not buckling inward.

The Arms and Head. Once the feet are positioned properly, bring your arms up and extend them in front of you parallel to the floor. Fixate your eyes slightly upward and forward. Keeping the arms in front will counterbalance the possibility of falling backwards while in the bottom position. By fixating the eyes up and forward, the head, neck and spine are forced to become straighter, with the torso remaining more vertical.

Breathing. For bodyweight and sub maximal squatting, it is better to “reverse breathe”, meaning, exhale, or breathe out, going down and inhale, or breathe in, coming up. Inhaling on the way down pushes the internal organs forward, throwing the center of gravity forward in the bottom position, causing you to potentially lose balance. Exhaling during the downward movement pushes the organs backwards towards the spine, better stabilizing the lower back and better placing the center or gravity right under the hips. In addition, exhaling on the way down increases the range of motion and allows the butt to go further down in a much more comfortable manner.

The Movement. Starting from a standing position, with the feet properly placed, the arms extended forward, and the head straight with the eyes fixated slightly upward, take an inhale and exhale going down. As you move downward push the knees slightly outward, so they are tracking directly over the feet. As you go down, you will feel the stress go from the front of the legs (quadriceps) to the rear (Glutal and hamstrings). The weight on the feet will go from being evenly distributed on the foot’s ball and heel to being distributed more on the heal. Once in the most bottom position, as you begin going upward, inhale and the muscle stress and weight shift will reverse until you wind up in the starting position again.

-Bill Garelick, DOWNTOWN’s Fitness Editor

Downtown Magazine