Born to Squat

Humans are born with the natural ability to perform a deep squat with the whole foot flat on the floor and are able to maintain this ability into old age, if practiced. The position? Foot is arched, shins and knees drive out over the 3rd/4th toes, hips fall between the knees whereas thighs touch the calves, heels are directly under hips, lumbar spine is comfortably neutral. It's easier than it sounds, but harder than it looks because the nature of most of modern society is such that a deep squat is no longer necessary to operate in daily life. From sitting in thigh-level chairs and sleeping at waist level beds, to increasingly ergonomic efficiency of household tasks, we lose the ability over time. Intuitively, in cultures where chairs are less common researchers have found there is a significantly decreased incidence of low back pain and is directly related to mobility in the hip structure and low back musculature. So pop a squat and read about why we lose it and what we can do about it. 

If you’ve ever seen a toddler or a baby squat, you’ll notice that they can easily access the position and comfortably maintain the depth of the squat for multiple minutes, but you yourself might hear a little creaking or crackling if you attempt to do so without support. What’s the difference? The answer: Time-under-tension. Brains are interesting - they are constantly cataloging what the physical body is doing and how long it does it. For babies and toddlers, their brain is changing so rapidly that it maintains a high pliability with respect to physical positions, and the nature of unstructured play for children is such that they are likely to access these ranges of motion consistently, building more time in the tense state. From drawing on the floor, to picking up the 47 cheerios they threw on the floor while laughing maniacally, the brain keeps that range of motion active because it expects to use it.

However, once the brain starts to be able to predict what you do on a consistent basis, it begins to solidify range of motion by literally restricting how far a muscle will stretch and allow for a joint to move. This whole process is called Sensory-Motor Adaptation - the optimization of neural drive for specific, predictable positions, and down regulation of muscle stimulus to unused ranges of motion. The brain knows that, to survive, it must be efficient with both resources AND logistics. If we don’t use it, we lose it. The nervous system starts treating these unused ranges of motion as potentially dangerous areas. The brain commands the muscles to prevent further reaching, creates a co-contraction of agonist and antagonist muscles for the joint, and effectively locks the joint into place. This gives you the feeling of being “tight” at these ranges - it's not because the muscle is inflexible, it is because your brain doesn’t think you need to go there and may even present this range of motion as pain. Good news, though: The same principles that get us stuck are the same principles that get us unstuck: Time under tension.

1. Introduce the position: start spending a little time in the deepest position you can maintain. 20-30 seconds for 1-2 sets, 2 times per week is my start spot for my clients. Tell the brain you want access.

2. Accumulate time: Add 5-10 seconds each week, then add an extra day or two. Eventually, seek to spend 1-2 minutes in the position per day. Tell the brain you will be continually accessing.

3. Accumulate tension: Concurrently with dedicated time spent in a deep squat or new position, you can begin to add load. Our preference is to generate an internal load by flexing and contracting all relevant muscle groups. Teaching the body to flex and contract in these deep positions reinforces the relevance of the position to the brain. Not only do we want ACCESS, we want STRENGTH in this new range.

These steps apply to all mobility and strength acquisition, and steps 1 and 2 are where most people start and stop. These two steps take the most time - you must undo months or years of learned behavior, but with patience you will connect the intention of the new position with the physical expression of that behavior. The problem is that most people regress because they stop there. Without distinct performative context, the body will quickly regress to the more “efficient” position (lower range of motion), so step 3 is how we seal that range. You must continually maintain the time, but you must also continually provide tension. Do this by squatting every day, training different ranges of motion and mastery of movement.

At Method, we will make sure you are spending the time here under tension, but any extra time you get outside of the gym only makes your mobility and quality of movement easier to maintain and excel within.