Human Movement Pattern: Squat
Part 1- How did we go from good to bad?
One of the most common human movement patterns that we do almost every single day is a SQUAT. Think about this, every time you sit and stand from a chair you are simply squatting. So, I felt like it was fitting to start this conversation discussing it.
First, let's think about this. Have you ever looked at a small child, noticing how they just sit down into a perfect squat? Peep down at photo number 1. I remember I was sitting with my nephew playing with a ball. Basically tossing it between the two of us. I tossed it to him and with ease he squatted down perfectly, picked up the ball and tossed it back to me. I was mostly jealous because I wondered who taught this kid how to squat like that?
It dawned on me. No one taught him. Squatting is an intuitive skill that you’ve developed since you were a child. Hence, why it is so crucial to develop it effectively. Beyond being jealous, my other thought was, at what point do we lose our ability to squat perfectly?
Now there are a lot of factors that have played into our inability to squat like a child. A huge one is just our body development. Obviously, as we get older our bodies are constantly changing. Side note: if you are reading this and want to know how your body changes as you grow, you may want to go take an anatomy class or call your mom. Could my ability to squat have stayed the same since I was a child if I worked on or developed this movement pattern correctly? My answer: yes! Classes like yoga were not developed just for fun. They were developed to give us a better understanding of how to stretch and lengthen our muscles. Lengthening and strengthening are primary keys to keeping and developing muscle to support proper movement patterns.
Now let's talk about how your squat started looking like this…
Woof this is terrible. Side note: if your squat looks like this, send me a message we have work to do ASAP!
Public enemy number #1 sitting all day. As we grew into the fine/ mature specimens that we are, we found that most of the time we sit all day. Let's think back to the beginning stages of life and factors that we've dealt with up until this point. Below is the breakdown of typical schedules and growth development:
Pre-K/ Kindergarten Age: circle time, recess, sit at tables to do school work, sitting while riding home from school, maybe playing a little bit after school, then sitting for dinner, bed.
Elementary school: Classroom sitting at your desk all day, recess/ gym class, back to sitting at your desk, sitting in the car, still playing after school, sitting for homework/ dinner, bed
Middle School: (this is the chance to keep our development) Sitting in class, maybe walking to the next class to sit again, gym class, sitting again in class, sitting to get home, homework, sitting to play video games, bed
High School: sitting in class, sitting in class, sitting in class, gym class, sitting again, sitting to drive home, sitting at home, sitting for dinner, bed
Do you see the pattern here? In the most crucial times as we have developed throughout the years, most of our time has been spent sitting. It does not get much better as we get older. As adults, we sit WAY more than any kid we know. Basically because we are tired. We are tired because we do not move much. Our bodies are used to inactivity so when we give it a little movement, we immediately are tired and go back to sitting.
Next part: Why is sitting so terrible for you?
Mechanically, as we sit more and more, our hip flexors tend to become shorter and shorter. Tight hip flexors cause low back pain, which cause underactive abdominal muscles, which cause you to look in the mirror wondering where your abs went. Kidding, well only partly on the wondering where your abs went.
Anyway, do you see what has happened here? Muscles and tendons in our bodies are connected in some capacity. So when one thing is not working properly than that causes something else to not work correctly. So if you have ever asked yourself how can I improve my squat. We will be digging deeper into the mechanics and how to correct that next.
