To Squat or Not?

The squat in strength and conditioning is probably one of the most debated, researched and dogmatically approached movements.  Just in a couple of sentences you could pile up tons of different topics upon which to silo yourself.  Do you squat full ROM or partial?  Do you let the knees go over the toes?  Do you keep your back upright or do you lean over?  Do you put the bar in a high bar or low bar position?  Do you use Olympic Lifting shoes or do you squat in Chuck Taylors?

See?  

This is just one exercise and you could go on and on and on endlessly about the minute variables of how best to approach it.  The reality is all of it matters but you can't make sweeping generalities because every person that does the squat is different.  Now you can approach the squat from a bio-mechanics only position and give general cueing that most likely is going to be harmless across the board.  Nothing wrong with that at all!  However, what everyone actually wants to know is how should "I" squat?

The truth is some people shouldn't.  Some people weren't given the boney hip/femur structure combo that gives them a pain free pass into that movement.  If it is possible to do so then by all means learn to squat well.  However, if you can't get both femurs to perpendicular with your torso on a passively articulated supine hip scour then the squat is not for you.  There are plenty of other options though in this realm.  Lunge patterns, split squat patterns as well as deadlifting/hinge dominant patterns are all useful and beneficial to the vast majority of people even with structural issues.

So the issue isn't "What is the way to squat?"  Or even "Is squatting bad/good?"

It's more of a conversation about what is beneficial for the individual and what is the best approach for them based on what their unique capacity is for that movement.  The reality is that there is a wide ocean of variations here and depending on why the person wants to squat there may be a lot of different potential possibilities to explore.  Having trained a lot of people to squat with all sorts of different kinds of barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells, sandbags and many other pieces of fitness hardware the reality is that the person needs to fit into the particular squat mold well.  If they don't fit well then it's going to be more destructive than it is beneficial.

What often gets missed in this topic is also that the squat was a movement pattern before it was a loaded strength and conditioning exercise.  The reality is that movement/motor pattern wise the squat is a sequential step towards upright gait motor development.  So the first time we learn how to squat it's either with a good amount of assistance/stabilization help or from a quadruped pattern from the ground up.  It's not learned as a child in the crib placed adjacent to barbells, plates and a squat rack.  So often when teaching the squat it is not a terrible idea to do some floor work, ground work and look at the quadruped patterns of the individual.  This can help to determine if there are deficiencies there that need to be addressed first before walking up to the squat rack loading a bar onto the torso and then just engaging in descending/ascending mechanics.

Another part to consider is that torso development in the upper body loaded squat is pretty important.  What you want to avoid long term is asymmetry in the muscular balance of the torso.  Simply for the fact that you are balancing a bar on top of it as you ascend and descend with hip flexion and hip extension.  So, to be clear, the individual is learning to stabilize their body in the pattern and some form of external loading at the same time.  So it's not nearly as simple to understand as many people think it is.  Just throwing a bar on your collar bone/upper back is not a holistic solution to learning how to do the movement well.  It's certainly a step forward into the broader world of loaded movement but it's definitely not without it's fair share of challenges.

The most simple piece that can be lost in the training process is also where are you generating force from?  The lower body would be the simple answer but the challenge becomes where in the lower body?  Hip dominance in some squatting patterns is beneficial and in some other ones having more front side capacity in the front of the leg could be beneficial too.  What can be said pretty conclusively though is that all the hip/leg musculature must be developed in order to create a squatting pattern that allows an individual to explore more movement over time.  The more movement that can be explored the lower the risk of injury and the greater capacity the body will have to be able to demonstrate.  So this means that hamstring, glutes, quads and adductors must all be developed in order to translate the strongest squatting capacity possible.  What you don't want is the squat ending up in your back as the strongest mover or stress absorber.

The single leg squatting patterns are also incredibly beneficial and useful.  Whether you are using a rear foot elevated split squat, a front foot elevated split squat or a combination of the two raising this capacity is also incredibly useful when we are talking about raising the squatting capacity.  The reality is that you can position yourself differently because you are using a single leg and target slightly different levels of stress in different muscles than you would normally have access to in a squatting pattern.  Split squats with a Hatfield(hands on) influence are also dynamite for developing hip and leg musculature that you wouldn't get any other way.

Last but certainly not least.  Using a belt squat machine is also a form of squatting that most people haven't experienced but is highly useful!.  What you learn from using a belt squat machine is that there is a lot of capacity that does not get to be explored under a weight that needs to be stabilized on the torso.  Simply hooking yourself up to a belt and squatting either with a pulley or against a lever arm can create a lot of work for the lower body that was just absorbed by the torso previously.  The reality is that at some point torso loaded squats come with compromises to lower body development.  This is because the progressive over loading of the bar requires greater and greater levels of stability as well as load absorption from the rib cage, trunk and shoulders.  If you are truly a good squatter and the squat pattern is a good fit for your leg/hip development then the belt squat needs to be in your training plan!

When considering these and many, many more factors involving the squat what matters most is does the squat assist you or does it resist you in development?  Consider the factor that your movement options may not be significant enough to give you the proper gateway into using the squat to develop your hip/leg muscles.  Relegating yourself to leg presses and leg extensions is the way to create poor movement and limited capacity for the gait.  Squatting has so many elements that assist not only with balance but also stabilization of the human body that it's most likely unmatched as an exercise in lower body development.  Obviously, if you are one of those people that fundamentally wasn't given this as the option then you must find ways around it.  However, if you are capable(and most of us are) of squatting with reasonably good mechanics then you have the opportunity to increase the strength of your whole body.