How to Fix Common squat Technique Problems

James Wilson: Proper squatting is one of those basic human movements that everybody needs to know how to do it correctly. But in reality few people do, one of the main problems that we have is because of our tight hips, we kind of rewiring our squat more to work around a tight hip flexors, inhibit gluteus things like that and so we developed movement patterns that actually plays too much stress on our knees and on our lower back. So, I would say like 95% of people are however worked with, I've had reteach how to squat in someway or another; even people those have extensive strength training backgrounds. Usually, they're not squatting correctly and also judging by the amount of people that I get asking me and emailing me about you know certain squatting movements causing the knee pain or lower back pain and things like that is pretty impairing that this simple basic human movement is something that most people really need to think about whether they're doing correctly or probably need to make a few corrections. What I'm going to do is show you the two most common errors that I see and how you can correct them. The first one, it actually deals with the knees, if you get a lot of pain in your knees while squatting, then -- you're probably doing something along this line there. So, what I'm going show, I'm going to show from the side. This is what I call knee squatting, other coaches have different names for this, but the phenomenon is basically the same, where you basically break at the knees first, and then you just keep bending the knees, bend the knees, bend the knees, bend the knees, and then some people might actually will pull up on their toes or might kind of sit back a little bit. But basically the end up down in this position here. And so, you can see that my knees in relation to my toes, my knees were actually pushed out and pass my toes, and then you can see my butt is directly over my heels and so this is what's called sitting down into a squat. This is actually now what you want to do, you don't want to sit straight down because this place has a lot of excessive stress on you knees. What you want to do is sit back into a squat, so this is what I call hip squatting. So, what you want is to break at the hips first, push your butt back, and then key pushing your butt back and as you come down. Now look at the difference here, look at my knees in relation to my toes and one of my butts is in relation to my heels. This is what most people end up and this is where you want to end up, so you can see the butt pushing to the butt back and getting the butt back behind the heels more and I'm keeping the knees more directly over my feet, set of pushing that over my toes and stay back like that. Now there is a huge difference at bottom mechanically between those two movements. Even something is simple as that could make a huge difference on the impact that's going to have on your knee joint. Remember, how much weight you move is secondary to how you create the movement, if you're creating the movement wrong, then you're going to cause more damage, then you're doing good and so you need to learn how to just perform a basic body with squat correctly before you can really worry about having, if lowering stuff like that. So, this is just a really basic human movement that we need to get down. So, again break at the hips first, push the butt back and keep sitting back into the squat and end up down in this position rather than breaking at the knees first and driving the knees forward and sitting straight down into the squat. So, again, that'll take a lot of stress of your knees. I absolutely, 100% guarantee you that if you feel that squatting causes you knee pain, you're knee squatting, I'll guarantee you and it's not even a questions and you check your form. The easiest way to tell what's happening into your feet, where is your weight on your feet because your weight should always be a little back on your heel, you should have like a 60, 40 weight there should be. You should you know heels to forefoot, so a little bit of weight back on your heels before you start, and then if you can't heat that 60, 40 weight there should be as soon as you come down like this and back up, then you're need to travel in too far force. So, if you come down and you feel like that weight shifts to your toes and your heels are actually just start to come up off the ground, you're knee squatting. So, you have to correct that because again, you're going to tear your knees up, you have to squat, everyone has to squat, sitting down into a chair and standing up, it's squatting, it's a basic human movement, so to tell me that, I can't squat because I hurt my knees basically tells where that you can create one of the most basic human movements, which is pretty sad and just need to get you really limited in your daily functions as well as you're building the exercise and get, you know gains from your exercise program. Again, make sure that you're sitting back into the squat and not seeking straight down into it. Again, pay attention on what's happening at those heels, it's going to be real important keeping that way back on your heels as you're coming down. As soon as you're through that way, it starts to shift your toes, and then you need to stop and correct your body positioning. So, the second thing that addresses the knee pain, the second issue that people have is with their lower back. There is actually two things that can happen, one is on the way down and that is when you let your tail top and so what I mean by top is as you're coming down, I would certainly kind of let the tail tucking like that. What you have to be able to keep your abs nice and tight and your belly button drowning, be tall and thin and that be able to keep that set as you squat down, so that your tail doesn't tuck as you come down because if that tail tucks and you're down here, and then when you stand back up, look what happens that tail comes back to this position here. We'll guess about muscles responsible for bringing you back to that position, your lower back. And so, there is a couple of issues there, one is core strength, learning how to brace the abs, you know some controversy in strength training circles about the drawing versus bracing, you know both have their merits so you know again I think, thinking tall and then just kind of getting those abs engaged, it's a really good, cute for you whenever you're squatting in order to get the abs set the way that you want and so. But if you let that tail top, and then you come back up and you'll have a straight back up using your lower back, and then you put load on yourself that's just a recipe for diaster for your lower back. So, again, you need to make sure that you're not letting the tail tuck, so you need to be able to achieve a full range of motion, body weight squat, which is coming down until your upper thighs are parallel with the ground with out that tail tucking and being able to keep your weight back on your heels before you even think of adding load to this movement. If you can't do that, you need to work on your hip mobility, the issue is hamstring link, if you've got tight hamstring and weak abs, then as you're coming down, you reach the integrate hamstring range of motion, you abs can't control it anymore, so they break and your pelvis tucked forward in order to should, continue to seeing down and create a false range of motion for you. So, you need to work on opening the hips up, opening the flaws and hip flexors up, lengthening the hamstrings those are going to give you what you needed more to achieve a good squat depth. Lastly, on the weight back up, let's say that you're able to come down and maintain a good neutral lower back as you come down, but then as you come up, your very first movement and your shoulders rising up like that. But you want to bring your hips and shoulders to come up at the same rate, this needs to be your initial movement, not that. A lot of people a tough time distinguishing between lumbar flexion and hip extension and so a lot of times people will actually initiate the squat by flexing the lower back and bringing their shoulders up. So, if you feel like your very first movement -- as your shoulders rising up and your chest kind of coming up, rather than your hip is rising up off the ground. Again, you're initiating the movement with that lower back and that is a recipe for diaster, you don't want that lower back creating movement, you wan this stabilizing and the movement all coming from the hip. So, again the tail tucking or the shoulders rising on the way up, it's just an indicator of just you know bad mechanics you know an inability to hold the core strong and the power the movement where we wanted to. So, again, if you do those things, if you make sure that your hips squatting meaning that you're pushing your butt back and you're coming down into this position at the bottom, and then on the way up, you're rising up, squeezing the gluteus pushing through the heels and your butt and your hips are coming up off the ground first like now your shoulder is rising up. If you're able to achieve that form, then I absolutely guaranteed you that any lower back or knee that you're having is going to go away. Lower back and knee pain is not normal, it's just an indicator that you're doing something wrong, you know everybody can squat. And again, you know as we have the good lower put that together to be able to create these movements, but when he put this together, he designed us to the operator in a certain way. When we deviate from that way that's when we start opening ourselves up to injuries and stuff like that. Again, just being conscious to how you're creating the movement rather than concentrating all the and how much weight you're moving will go a long way towards your long turn results and you're building to you know keep from hurting yourself and in setting yourself off of for injuries down the road through your exercise program, which is never what to have happen. So, again that's a basics on squatting, you know sitting back, bring to the tail doesn't tucked and making sure that the shoulders are not rising up first as you stand up. If you can achieve those three things, then you're well on your way to doing a good functional squat again, practice with body weight just come down as far as you can maintain good functional form, work on increasing your mobility, work on increasing your functional range of motion. Once you can achieve a good functional for range of motion squat, then you can start learning yourself. You definitely want to get strong in this movement, but you should make sure that you can create the movement correctly first and see you don't get injure yourself in the process.