A Squat is a knee dominant movement focusing on building strength in the legs. Many people avoid squats because they think that squats will make their knees hurt or they have experienced knee pain when performing squats. It is common when doing a squat incorrectly that a person feels pain in their knees and their low back. This can be due to many reasons including the squats being performed incorrectly or a lack of mobility and/or stability in specific joints that are used during this movement.

To perform a squat properly, someone needs:

1. Stability of the core

2. Mobility of the hips

3. Stability of the knees

4. Mobility of the ankles and stability in their feet

 As discussed in our previous post about core stability, controlling the pelvis during a squat is crucial. Hips and ankles are joints that need to be mobile. With many of our clients, we find that lack of ankle mobility decreases the clients ability to attain depth, where progression can be found.

Take a look at the video below to check out how we test ankle mobility during our assessments.

Many believe squats are simply a leg movement, however, when done properly, you’ll quickly recognize the necessity for engagement of the core and even upper body once you start adding weight.

Squats are a functional movement that we perform more often than we think. Learning how to correctly perform a squat can help reduce injury with daily activities.

Squats can be regressed and progressed by the way they are performed and increasing weights and implements such as using dumbbells and barbells.

Take a look at the video below for some variations explained.

Fitness Challenge of the Week:

Over the course of 5 days complete a total number of squats starting with 30 reps (This can be broken up, example: 3 sets of 10), increase the total reps by 10 each day.

• Day 1: 3 Sets of 10

• Day 2: 4 Sets of 10

• Day 3: 5 Sets of 10

• Day 4: 6 Sets of 10

• Day 5: 7 Sets of 10