Geschatte leestijd: 4 minuten
Every body is different, we know that by now. But why should everyone squat in the same way then?
You don’t have to!
In fact, nobody should squat in the same way! Forcing someone into a certain position because it ‘has’ to be done, with a significantly increased risk of injury, is simply ridiculous.
There are many factors influencing the
squat technique that suits you best:
- Ankle mobility, flexibility, and load capacity.
- Hip mobility, flexibility, and load capacity.
- Knee mobility, flexibility, and load capacity.
- Load capacity of your erector spinae muscles (long straight back muscle).
- The length of your torso.
- The length of your thighs.
- The length of your lower legs.
If you have long thighs, you probably won’t like squatting. Especially if this is combined with a short torso and limited ankle mobility.
Your squat will then quickly look like a folded accordion. This is also called a good-morning squat because the back bends forward like in the good-morning exercise:
And that is completely logical.
However, what many people do not know is that with certain adjustments, you can quickly improve your squat technique.
This article discusses the cause of a good-morning squat and then provides some tweaks to quickly and easily improve your squat technique.
The cause of an accordion/good-morning squat
With a squat, you actually want to touch the ground with your buttocks between your legs without falling over.
However, there is one important factor that makes everything much more difficult: the weight pressing down on you. I have indicated the force exerted by the weight in the image below with the red arrow. You want to keep this force line above your ankles at all times, otherwise you will fall over.
Your goal is to squat down as far as possible without falling over. To perform this task as efficiently as possible, you want to let the weight drop straight down in a straight line. The weight should not come forward or backward. If you do, it will cost you extra energy.
What you want to do is evenly distribute your body weight on both sides of the center of gravity. That’s why your knees go forward when you bend your knees, otherwise you would fall backward.
So far so good…. Now the tricky part.
People with long thigh bones will tend to fall backward quickly during a squat. To prevent this, the following happens:
- Your knees go forward to compensate for the weight shifting to your hips moving further back.
- At some point, your knees can no longer go forward. This is determined by the mobility and flexibility you have in your ankles.
- However, you still want to squat lower. From then on, the extra space comes entirely from your hips. For every bit you squat lower, you’ll also have to lean more forward. To stay in balance.
- The result is that you look like a folded accordion. There is a lot of pressure on your lower back and hips. Furthermore, you notice that you cannot squat below parallel without a forward tilt of your hips occurring, also known as a ‘buttwink’. The tilt you make with your hips is much larger than with people with short thighs.
This is all beautifully illustrated in the image below:
Tweaks to squat as well as possible for someone with long thighs.
Although squatting may feel less natural with long thighs, it is fortunately not impossible.
A few simple adjustments can make a world of difference.
1. Turn your feet outwards
The more you turn your feet outward, the less your thighs come in front and behind the center of gravity. Allowing you to stay more upright during the squat and squat deeper.
If this principle is not clear, try holding a pen horizontally lengthwise in front of you. Imagine that the center of gravity of the pen is in the middle of its length. Then rotate the pen around its x-axis (horizontally). This makes it seem as if the pen becomes shorter when you look at it exactly from the front.
2. Try a wider stance
This is something I see a lot of people doing wrong; they stand too narrow.
The build of your hip and thigh bone determines the width of your stance in which you can squat the deepest. Some personal trainers also call this ‘opening your hips’; assuming a foot position that makes you most mobile.
Something totally logical, but often forgotten, is that you also need to make room to squat between your legs. If you have a very large stomach and squat with your feet close together, you will quickly end up with your stomach on your knees.
Experiment with the width of your
stance and see with what you can squat deepest and most comfortably.
And no: squatting with a narrow stance does not train the outside of your thighs more [1]. It just means you’re wasting your time doing a sub-optimal exercise.
3. A heel elevation
A heel elevation causes your knee to move more forward. This brings more weight to the front of the center of gravity, just like with the other tweaks.
Around me, I notice that this is a popular option. But try the other two tweaks first before placing a heel elevation. Raised heels change your posture, which creates more stress on your knee and lower back [2,3].
The cited studies relate to walking. The question is to what extent these findings can be translated into squatting x number of times a week with a raised heel. To be on the safe side, I do not recommend it immediately. Your bones and joints are not quick to recover, unlike muscles, so be careful with them.
By the way, please don’t squat on weight plates. This brings extra instability, which can lead to dangerous situations. Don’t be stingy and invest in a pair of good weightlifting shoes like the Adidas Adipower, or Nike Romaleos.
4. Shift the load
Last resort: shift the load more forward with a high bar back squat, or try a front squat.
A
front squat requires more ankle joint mobility and puts more strain on the knee. Things to consider.
Practice over theory; invest in a good trainer.
Forcing someone to keep their knees from going past their toes, to keep their feet straight, and to squat below parallel regardless of flexion in their spine, is simply ridiculous.
As a personal trainer, you should ALWAYS take the individual into account. Squatting is a complex movement, and every body is different. All of this doesn’t make it easier, but that’s also why personal trainers exist. A good personal trainer should be able to analyze all these things with you and then advise you on an appropriate squat technique for your body.
But where do you find such a trainer? Well, in the FITsociety app.
References
- facebook.com/eliteresults.nl/posts/1006741186106592
- sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140673697112818
- sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169814101000385
