Squat: Squat Benefits, How To Squat & Back Injury Risks From Poor Squat Technique.

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Welcome to the Back Pain Solutions Podcast – Squat: Squat Benefits, How To Squat & Back Injury Risks From Poor Squat Technique.

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Introducing The Squat: Squat Benefits, How To Squat & Back injury Risks From Poor Squat Technique.

During any daily routine we all have to perform key activities that enable us to get simple things done. From sitting on the toilet to picking things off the floor, the squat is a fundamental movement that we all perform whether we realise it or not. However, this movement is often executed poorly with a risk to back health. Squatting is a hugely beneficial movement to master in order to be in a position to perform key activities, everyday, without risking your back health. The squat is also a fantastic exercise to perform in the gym setting, or as a home exercise, as it is a compound movement that recruits multiple muscles. Building endurance in these muscles will help to support good spine health.

In this episode we discuss some of the common activities of daily living that we perform that require a squatting movement pattern whilst identifying common mistakes that people make when performing the squat. We break down the squat into all of the different components, which need to be performed correctly to execute this exercise safely and efficiently.

Some of the things you’ll discover…

• How to brace effectively and create stiffness throughout the core to support the spine

• Recruiting the latissimus dorsi and pectoralis muscles which people often overlook

• What is the posterior chain and how this is recruited during the squatting movement

• The importance of establishing a stable base in the feet, and breathing properly throughout the movement

• Why anatomically our hips are not the same and how this impacts your ability to squat to 90 degrees and beyond

• Why training the respective parts of the squat exercise may be an effective place to start BEFORE considering lifting weights

Show Highlights

The squat exercise, or squat movement pattern, is fundamentally important to back health. When performed correctly it allows us to safely execute simple movements whilst keeping the spine in neutral. Failing to do so can result in spine flexion which can damage structures within the low back if performed repetitively, or with additional weight. This is especially important if this exercise is being performed in the gym using a weighted barbell because poor movement execution will place you at significant risk.

Breaking down the movement into component parts will help you to learn good squat technique, allowing you to perform the exercise/movement safely. This will also ensure you can progress more confidently, adding weight, and building core strength.

Interview Transcription

Unknown Speaker  0:00  

When we’re young, we move with freedom and confidence with a great resilience to injury. But somewhere along the line we develop poor habits and become more vulnerable to back pain. Back Pain solutions features evidence based and practical advice to help you take back control of your health and get back to the activities you love. This is your guide to better back health through movement. So join us as we demystify some of the commonly held beliefs about back pain and build your confidence to a stronger back the smart way.

Ben James  0:28  

Hello, everybody and welcome back to the back pain solutions podcast with me Ben James. And as always my co host, Jacob stain. Today we’re talking about the squat, and specifically how the squat relates to activities of daily living, why it’s important in terms of movement pattern to help with our activities of daily living, about the mechanics, good form versus bad poor form, how this exercise can be beneficial in the gym in terms of building our endurance, building our strength if executed properly. And some of the issues that are a concern, if it’s not executed properly, and we’re going to talk through the steps as to how to do it well, to do it effectively to do it safely, so that you can have confidence in that movement. Before we jump in. As always, get on over to the website, www dot smart strong.co.uk. Take advantage of our free ebook, help you take back control of your back pain within seven days is there to empower you to take ownership take control and start to get a better back build a better back get back to the activities that you love. Jacob Good morning. How are you my friend?

Jacob Steyn  1:41  

I’m very good. Ben. Thank you. How are you?

Ben James  1:44  

Very well very well. Have you been doing any any squats of late yourself? You do you do many squats in the gym these days but for your training specifically?

Jacob Steyn  1:54  

That’s a good question. Actually. No with the lockdown. I’ve been home for nine and a half weeks. I’ve just been back to work for two weeks so I you know it wasn’t possible to go to the gym and at home I was doing other I train almost every day but my I didn’t have squatting in my in my routine no.

Ben James  2:17  

Would you do would you generally do it these days? Are you focused on more pushing the sled those kind of things is that how you’re training the posterior chain and we’ll come on to posterior chain as we walk through the show this particular episode or do you still incorporate squats with with weight yourself in the gym as a more of an isolated movement or less so these days?

Jacob Steyn  2:40  

Yeah, a lot less than before. I, I do walking lunges because I like the dynamics of the walking lunch as a big overlap between the walking lunge and the squat i think but I I do a lot of squatting at work because I have to I have to Bend over, I have to squat down, I have to do a sumo squat to, you know, keep a good posture when I work with my patients doing soft tissue work and when I pick something up from the floor. So I just thought about it I squat a lot when I’m at work almost every day. But otherwise, I’ve I’ve stopped going heavy in the gym, if you know what I mean. I mean, I used to do Sure. Do a lot more of that in the past.

Ben James  3:28  

Yeah, and we’ll talk about that a little bit more because, again, I think we both talked before about how we see people squatting in the gym. It’s It’s a classic common exercise we see people performing and some of the things that we often see as a as a bit of a negative or certainly things to watch out that people tend to be doing wrong consistently. But I think we’re a good place to start is what you said there if you’re doing squatting a lot, but actually it’s as part of your job as part of your activity of daily living and that will be the same for a lot of people. They may just not be conscious of the fact that they’re doing a squat. And the question at this point is, are they doing that squat well, to save the back, because that’s the, the relevance of this squatting movement pattern is how it helps to save the back, allow you to do those things throughout the day that are just part of general life, but to do it safely, and we talk a lot about people learning these movements properly, consciously. So then when they’re doing them subconsciously as they will be now, they’re doing them subconsciously, well, not subconsciously, badly.

Jacob Steyn  4:39  

Exactly. I think I think you’re really talking about the spinal hygiene aspect. Absolutely. And and I think that the squat is such a useful, important, everyday pattern that I wish for everybody to understand how important this is, and to be able to do it properly. And the benefits to doing it properly is not only a better back or creating a healing environment for the joints in the spine, but it’s also using the right muscles, so it makes you stronger.

Ben James  5:16  

Yeah, absolutely and and when we’re saying activities of daily living, we’re talking anything from gardening, to loading unloading the dishwasher, the washing machine, whatever that might be getting up from the news. Getting up from the loo good, a good one, you know, particularly in the morning when we’re when we’re more vulnerable. Getting onto the toilet off the toilet. If you’re not squatting effectively, then you can be putting your your back at risk because really what we’re talking about here with the squat, Jacob is taking advantage of the big, powerful stable ball and socket joint of the hip or both hips and keeping the back straight and neutral because of the impact and risk the not doing so can have on back health.

Jacob Steyn  5:59  

Exactly. And I think you made it sound very simple. And you put it really, really well. But we’ll we’ll break it down in a moment. I mean, there’s all these components to making sure that your your squat is just a simple movement, but a proper movement.

Ben James  6:18  

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. So let’s talk about, about the biomechanics and the trunk stability and the neuromuscular components in terms of those muscle activations working together, and creating a solid basis talk through those points from a point of view of doing a squat as part of activities of daily living and just improving on that. And then we can talk more about extending that exercise into the gym and why these things become even more important, what the thing some of the things we often see as a problem.

Jacob Steyn  6:52  

Yes, so the you mentioned it there. The first the first and foremost important thing that you have to learn Or create and be aware of is the trunk stability. So it’s the ability to brace and to create not only the bracing effect, which is a stiffness that we generate mostly in the abdomen, but also compression between the shoulders and hips. So, if you are capable of creating proper real trunk stability, then we we can assume that you’re going to be very safe in your spine and in your back throughout that movement, when you have to pick something up from the floor or move something heavy. I think that’s the, that’s the first step. And we’re going to discuss that also, thoroughly today. Second step is the other components. So if you’re able to Firstly, lock the core, you know, create that stiffness in the abdomen and between the shoulder blades and the hips. Then we’re going to rely a lot on the posterior chain. What do I mean with a posterior chain? These are the muscles at the back, your glutes, the buttock muscles, the hamstrings, and it feeds into the lower back muscles. It’s like a chain on the back that we rely on when we push the hips backwards and we go into that squatting position.

Ben James  8:17  

Yes. And then obviously, extend that further down as solid base with the feet and the knees.

Jacob Steyn  8:24  

Exactly. I mean, that’s like you say that that’s our base. If that’s, that’s a big deal, I think, especially when I when I see a lot of my patients and work with them then on a one on one personal training session, they don’t always quite know or realize that this the obstacle in in the way of their of good form, for their squat is not so much around the bracing technique or the movement but it’s it’s at the knees or at the feet that isn’t actually allowing them to go deep enough. Because the the base isn’t, isn’t solid, you know, and there’s a lot to work on.

Ben James  9:07  

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you talked about the brace, you know, something that we’ve discussed a lot in terms of good spine health. Let’s, let’s look at the squat in detail. Now look at some of the things that people are doing wrong because often you’ll see a people bend in through the back. So they’re flexing forward through through the spine itself, not from the hips. They’re not bracing the core, but also, even more than that. It’s the coactivation of the the lats, the big muscles in the back the pecs, that just not working together. So if we start by breaking the squat down and looking at let’s say, the lats and pecs and working our way down, then we can help to help people to listen in to kind of visualize and break this movement down into steps that allow them to make improvements. In the execution of this, of this movement pattern.

Jacob Steyn  10:04  

Yeah, that’s a good point, I think we got to take another step back, and we got to realize that we’re looking at a structure that requires stability. So we have the spine. And, you know, next to the spine, you can almost imagine next to the spine at the top, and at the bottom, we have these anchoring points. And they are the shoulder blades, and the pelvic bones or the hip bones. And you have to imagine, I mean, an anchoring point has to be something solid, so it’s going to be bone. And we know that muscles run from bone to bone. And they either contract or relax or stay contracted to provide stability for example. So you, if you want to visualize it, you’ve got these anchoring points, and they provide the stability to the trunk to the spine. Right. And you were talking about bracing So I want to just speak about that a little bit more. The first step in moving towards a good breathing technique will be learning to belly breathe. And you know what I mean, there been chill. So that belly breathing is actually it’s for a lot of people, it’s not easy. I’ve worked with a lot of people where I, you know, I gave them the technique and I said, Okay, go home. Work on this for a week. When you lie on your back, put a hand on your chest, but hand on your belly, no movement in the chest, I just want to see the hand on your belly go up and down. So what we’re doing there is we’re creating this awareness from the mind to the diaphragm, this muscle just below your lungs. When that contract it pushes the content in your abdomen, down and out, so your belly will expand. We need this muscle very much in order to brace properly. Right So first of all, we need to we need to learn And become aware of being able to belly breeze. And that’s going to translate later into the, into the bracing technique.

Ben James  12:10  

Yes, so a good a good exercise at home then that you would recommend is just lying on your on your back maybe and trying that and keeping that chest still, effectively.

Jacob Steyn  12:21  

Exactly And when that and that when that goes well, you can move towards actually sitting sitting on a chair, feet nicely firm, firmly grounded. And you take your hands around your abdomen, you know, just below your ribs. And like you’re gripping your trunk, and then you push your fingers into your, into your abdomen, just below your ribs at the front. And you breathe out and as you breathe in, you breathe into the belly and you push your fingers out. And then you feel the muscles actually pushing the fingers out and you realize Yeah, that’s proper belly breathing.

Ben James  13:00  

Yeah, and how often would you recommend that patients do that or anyone should do that in terms of trying to bring this into the, I guess a lifestyle thing rather than just, we need to do this for rehab because this is something that’s got to be conscious at first, so that it can be ingrained in the nervous system neurology and becomes subconscious. That’s the important kind of outcome we’re looking for.

Jacob Steyn  13:29  

Exactly. Exactly. So I, you know, first of all, people come there, and they’re quite stressed, they have a busy job. or there might be an emotional person who likes to shrug the shoulders when they talk. And so generally we, we go out of the fact that they’re not really breathing and breathing high. In other words, they’re raising the chest to breathe. So the diaphragm has been, I usually call it been on holiday for a while. And so then, we started beginning we begin at process with actually laying on the back, you know, starting to create this connection between your hand and your brain, which you have in your belly, you want to see it moves, you activate the diagram. When that’s going, you start making a conscious thing when you’re sitting at work. So when you’re sitting at the desk, you know, a lot of people who are sitting behind a desk, they have a stressful job, and they quite often push for time, they have a lot of stuff to get through in the day. And so they start breathing higher, they get stressed, you know, and my suggestion is then to take a step back, relax, sit in your chair, put your hands around your trunk grip, grip your trunk, and then belly breeze pushing the fingers out. So you do that a few times activate the diaphragm. And the ideal situation would be to get to a point where you don’t have to think about it anymore. You’re sitting behind a computer or you’re doing something and you’re constantly belly breathing, unless you’re exerting yourself physically and you need to get more oxygen, your body then you go into breathing higher and into your chest.

Ben James  15:06  

Yeah, and it and it does take some practice, but actually, you know, within a few weeks, if you’re really concentrating and focusing on it, then you can learn to do it and you can feel that you can breathe and, and that just doesn’t, doesn’t move significantly at all. So I think it’s something that it requires. It requires effort, as with anything that is, you know, difficult in life and getting out of that pain is is one of those things, it does take effort, and it does take consistency, but it’s important and fundamental, in terms of an effective brace. And that’s, that’s so important because you we often see people with the rounded shoulders when they’re executing a squat, whether it’s in the gym or just activities of daily living so effectively, bracing the spine will help to keep it in neutral and prevent that rounding less the kind of foundation of this movement.

Jacob Steyn  16:00  

Yeah, exactly. And then we I think we’ve gone on to say we talked a little bit about the shoulder blades and how important that is with the lads and the pegs. So we we feed the strength into the bracing effect by contracting the lads on the pegs. So we’re making the shoulder blades or at least the shoulders, part of the stiffness we want to create in the trunk by actually compressing the shoulders towards the hips.

Ben James  16:32  

Yes, and that’s, that’s undoubtedly, a key and a frequent mistake that that you see whether it’s in the gym or just just generally that there is a disconnection there for a lot of people, and just again, visualizing and we don’t want to we don’t want to separate these things out too much and not incorporate them as one movement but ultimately learning to cocontract those lats and those pecs and then incorporate that with the brace is so important for a really effective brace and squatting movement pattern and particularly if you then going to add weight to it. So, a good exercise Jacob, even as a starting point could just be standing neutral and learning to contract the muscles in the, in the lats and the pecs together without doing anything else, just to learn again, back to that conscious movement to then try and ingrain that in, in the neurology.

Jacob Steyn  17:28  

Exactly. I’m also you know, a lot of people who go to the gym or not, it doesn’t matter if they squat or not anything they do where they do a push, pull movement with the arms within front of them, especially in front of them because if we go overhead becomes even more difficult. But if we think of basic push pull movements we do in the gym, a lot of people are not aware that we have to always have that connection with a pec and a lead they should be on during the push, pull movement. With your arm. Almost always can’t really think of the on boards not on, what happens is that we shrug the shoulder, we go to the trap, we lose the PEC and the Latin the medial bicep, which provides the strength in the compression of the shoulder downwards. And, frankly, we lose power in the core, we have an energy leak. We also have a compromised shoulder joint. So as soon as we’re going to do something heavy, and we’re asking the shoulder to do this, but we have the lat and the pec not properly activated, then we’re, we’re in debt, we’re in a danger zone for what might happen to the shoulder joint.

Ben James  18:39  

Yeah, and I think you’d make a good point here in terms of an energy energy leak if you’re particularly if you’re lifting weight and, and that is not incorporated or the contraction of the lats and pecs is not incorporated, then, clearly, you know, that’s, that’s going to impact your ability to lift effectively. And it’s, again, like you say, and I think an important point that this is something that should be practiced and incorporated into any movement, any exercise because like you say, for shoulder, health and for, for effective bracing, it is so important. But I know for sure that that transition is difficult. And when I say transition, if your arms are by your side, and then they’re going up, above and overhead, such as in a shoulder press, for example, that’s a key point that that transition point where the arm goes up is where sometimes often people, even if they’re good at it, lose the the cocontraction of the of the lats and pecs. So again, it does take some practice and it’s, it’s about scaling back those weights and, and being lighter in those weights, maybe initially, to learn this movement to then start to add the weight again, just so it can be done effectively and safely. And rather than it being just something that you just suddenly tune into and try and incorporate, it’s got to be it’s got to be progressive.

Jacob Steyn  19:54  

I totally agree. And I think you can even scale it back further to isolated work where Don’t do a complex movement like a squat because a doing a absolute performing a proper squat technique is a very complex movement. Unless you’ve done it many, many times, if you’re gonna make it look easy, but somebody hasn’t been doing it, you know, it will require weeks months to really get towards a really good squat in the gym. That’s not what we ask of you, if you’re just going to use the squad for emptying the dishwasher or getting off the toilet or getting out of the chair to keep you back safe, but if you want to progress to, you know, either home training doing a sort of goblet squat with a kettlebell or you know, starting to squat at the gym, it just realized that it’s, you know, it’s something that takes time. It’s not something that’s going to happen in one go because there’s so many components that the brain has to figure out and manage at the same time and it takes weeks to months to actually get that coordination from the brain integrated, so all those components are happening at the same time as one, one proper movement.

Ben James  21:09  

Yeah, absolutely. And like you say, it does take time because, you know, over over many years, often, people haven’t been doing it. So there’s faulty movement patterns that are what’s ingrained in, in the nervous system. So, you know, it’s adapting as well for those different activities, you know, doing a simple non weight bearing squat, just to get onto the toilet, versus even squatting to reach into a washing machine, dishwasher. The CO contraction, those muscles, you know, is going to be different because the arms and the legs extended out. So it takes work but it is important if it’s going to be really effective in terms of that, that movement. So, moving down, Jacob, we’ve talked about the bracing, the importance of incorporating the lats and pecs may be an isolation first of all, but then bringing that into our overall bracing and stiffening of the upper body then obviously we’ve got the posterior chain, the glutes importance in terms of stabilizing the knee, but also in terms of movement through the hip joints and being that powerful movement rather than losing that contraction throughout the chain.

Jacob Steyn  22:27  

Yeah, that that’s a big one, the posterior chain. And I’m just thinking, when I see people squat, sometimes also when they’re starting out at the gym, you know, finding out that the CrossFit, maybe they’ve just done the on ramp and now they are getting into doing the workouts of the day. You see, you know, I mean, as a chiropractor, you know, Ben, we can’t help analyzing, even if we don’t intend to, we just do it all day. When we see people walking or standing or moving or picking something up. You Just kind of evaluating and you know, figuring out what’s this strategy that this person is using, that I see quite often is that if the core if the glutes are not on point, if they’re not used to the brain and the glutes, of course, this connection is not used to performing this movement in terms of providing the necessary strength or stability, then you’ll have this rounding of the low back, the brain is looking for a different strategy to be able to bring you into the squat position. So you’re around the back, trying to give the work to a different muscle group. Well, when you see someone who’s got strong glutes, you know, maybe they’ve done a sport before or genetically they’re just blessed with it. And you see that posterior chain is just very present. The squat happens almost by itself. You know, of course, there’s going to be something you have to fine tune but the posterior chain, if that’s really well tuned, we have a much better, much better chance of preserving forces. And so let’s say injury happening at the low back.

Ben James  24:23  

And I think again, this certainly, as a focus should be in isolation initially, making sure those glutes are, are being activated, make sure that they are firing, because I’ve spoken to a few patients and we’ve given whether it’s the clam shell exercise is monster walks, and even glute bridges as well for the for the bigger glute max. And then they’ve gone out and started running or really started to notice that they’re feeling feeling in the buttocks more than there they are in the legs. So they’ve actually Not really been effectively firing those glutes even during running and and just incorporating these isolated glute activation exercises can be really quite impactful. And you can notice some improvement pretty quickly. But it is so important and it’s also a muscle that we know that is often deactivated with a back injury. So that can then potentially compound the issue.

Jacob Steyn  25:28  

Deactivated because of a back injury, but also because of mostly what a lot of people are doing most of the day at their jobs. And that’s the thing. Yeah, so we we neglect this muscle group very much just because of our modern day lifestyle. And that definitely translates big time into the quality of our movement, obviously.

Ben James  25:53  

Yeah, absolutely. So it is again, you know, a fundamental piece of this this puzzle in terms of effective squat and, you know, there’s, there’s not any area really that can just be ignored, it has to all collectively work. And it’s optimal to really execute it properly. And particularly if you’re then gonna go to add weight. So let’s talk about the hips, Jacob, because this is where things get a little bit different because generally, we’ve all got the same kind of muscles and bones, etc, etc. But when it comes to the squat, the hips are not anatomically the same in everybody in terms of the depth of the joint and the stability or the flexibility in that joint and that significantly impacts your ability to squat down to the floor or not. And therefore, it should be recognized as part of your technique when you are in the gym lifting weight because again, it’s going to limit that that range of motion.

Jacob Steyn  26:54  

So very good point. And for a lot of people, they’re a sore point because I have Some, some clients and some patients who found it very difficult to accept. When I, when I told them look, you know, the anatomy of your hip isn’t made for deep squatting, in fact, even a 90 degree horizontal squat is going to be quite an issue for you. And, you know, I suggest staying above the 90 degrees, so you’re not really made for CrossFit where, you know, you have to make a 90 degree squad. Before someone will accredit you with a rep. 

Ben James  27:40  

Yeah and let’s talk about that. Just just jumping in there briefly because that that’s a huge problem, isn’t it particularly in the, in the CrossFit world you find in and that’s leading to a lot of injuries and people are really we were focusing more on the on the competition level. athletes in that sense, because that’s a real problem. If anatomically you can’t do it, but, you know, this competition dictates that you have to do it then, then that’s, that’s a real issue.

Jacob Steyn  28:11  

100% I mean, the the research on this is very clear. Professor Stuart McGill and there are others who have just shown us through and through that, because of the anatomy, anatomical differences between individuals, some people are going to be you know, especially in a high level, your your architecture is going to dictate what sport you will be doing, especially on high level. So, if your body type is not made for that sport, you’re just not going to perform on a high level at all. And if we look at crossfitters, on a high level 99% if not hundred percent of them can do a proper squat. Someone’s going to look a little bit better than others. Also depending on body type, but you can’t be at that at that level. And not be injured. If you have if You’re not able to make a good squat. But if we go to your regular CrossFit gym, and of course, that’s the big CrossFit, the biggest proportion of the CrossFit population. Then you see a lot of people who, you know, either have this idea from social media or you know, from friends, or the feeling they get when they’re in the gym, and they think though, I’ve got to make this 90 degree squat. And if I don’t do that, I’m not gonna get a rep when I do a WOD. Which means the trainer’s gonna, it’s gonna tell me to go deeper or no rep, no rep, no Rep. That’s not good for your self image. And so we’re kind of forced to follow this idea that we have to make a 90 degree squat, but the same time we’re losing the low back, neutral spine, we are not thinking about what we’re doing with Alaska’s in the end of that goes and we’re burning through the low back. We’re not able to make maintain good form at all, and everything breaks down. So this is a real problem. And I don’t know if you’ve asked me what we’re doing or what I’m finding it at our gym, but I think it’s about nearly three years ago that myself and my wife, we we actually made blocks from wood, we were just being creative, had some pieces of woods, chopped up or sewn up in the right proportions. And we just put it together, we made these blocks that can stack up in eight centimeter intervals. And so people when we look at the deadlift, we’re not discussing the deadlift now, but for example, that deadlift where you specifically require this ability to squat deep with a specific hip type. You don’t have to do that when you have the blocks. So we’re actually able to spare the spine similarly to a squat where you don’t squat deep.

Ben James  30:58  

Yeah. So with the with The deadlift point you’ve got to bring in the bringing the floor higher up effectively or remain blunted to the floor itself. And then the weight sits sits on a, on an on a block that’s a little bit higher. And then similarly, like you say, with the, with the squat, it’s a case of just recognizing those limitations and not trying to force that leg to 90 degrees and beyond. Just because you feel that’s what you should do, or, or in the case of CrossFit, what what competition or rules dictate because you’re just trying to change or you’re just trying to bend or force your anatomy, which is just, which is just going to be impossible to do and, and really, there’s a genetic component here, isn’t there in terms of the Celtic versus Polish hips, that’s where that’s where there’s a lot of variation, or that’s the that’s the range that that we kind of work with, with within.

Jacob Steyn  31:50  

Yes, so you mentioned there, the Celtic hip versus the Eastern European or dimension hip and the Celtic hip being the deep hip socket. So you’re going to have Less range of motion so you won’t be able to squat very deep. Typically, if you ask someone with hips like that, they’ll be very hunched over, won’t be able to get the bum, close to the same height as the knees. And then we have the opposite of that we have the Eastern European hip or the Dalmatian hip, which is a very shallow hip joint, which allows us incredible, huge range of motion. And that’s what the Slavic people are famous for. If they squat the set with the bombs almost on the floor with a relatively straight back. And that’s also why they are so good in Olympic weightlifting just because they have this natural ability. And I and an interesting fact is we have the highest number of hip dysplasia birth in Poland and that is because of the hip socket being very shallow and I know that’s not Eastern Europe and Central Europe, but it’s moving towards east.

Ben James  33:06  

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I wonder if my daughter will end up being a being able to do a really deep Scotland because as you know, Jacob, she’s currently got a brace on for hip dysplasia. So she’s clearly she’s clearly of that of that type with a shallow shallow a hip joint for sure. But back to the kind of cross what question do you see things changing? You work out of a CrossFit gym over in in Nijmegan. Do you kind of change the rules there? Do you? Do you recognize this issue? Do you see that changing within the CrossFit world itself as as more and more research comes out? Because it seems a fundamental flaw there?

Jacob Steyn  33:45  

Yes. So our answer our gym with my guidance is when we do the general WODs. We do we have a we have a sort of rule that you go as deep as you can with a neutral spine. So everybody who joins the gym. When they do the on ramp, they come to me. For the core lessons, I have a core one, which is mainly theory where I explain all these things so people can understand it. And then we have core two, which is a more practical aspect, putting it into play and, you know, doing a sort of workshop. And so, with the wards, we, we have this rule that, you know, spine safety first bracing technique first, and if you can’t go very deep, then that’s okay. So we’d rather pay attention to that. We’re not going to tell you look, it’s a no Rep. You make your squats, the way you do them, as long as they’re safe. You make the number, any move through the training session. And when we do competitions, of course, then there’s the requirement when we do that, you know, against another gym or regionals or whatever. Then you have to obviously make your 90 degree squad but I think even If you’re not, if your hip anatomy is not great, and you do a competition, I don’t know, once in a few months, you will still be able to cope very well, because you’ve built up such a resilience and good form that your tissues are going to be able to cope with with, you know, our competition once in a while.

Ben James  35:24  

Yeah, so what you’re saying there is the anatomy doesn’t prevent a 90 degree squat. It’s not that it’s not that significant in terms of that hip depth that is preventing 90 degrees, it may be a little bit more of a challenge in terms of the the other soft tissues around there. But if you’re training effectively, within a more comfortable range, then doing it once in a while and competition is is not going to be a huge risk, but it’s just recognizing, as we’ve talked about before with other exercises, repeating those exercises, we talked about setups for example in in military tests are a set of scenes that themselves are a poor exercise to train the core, because they’re so bad for the back health. So doing a plank, or other more isometric exercises to really build that endurance and then performing that kind of setup test is not going to be as much of a risk because you’re not exercising in that way regularly. In a similar way, you’re saying the same thing from a from a squatting pattern or or certainly trying to get to a slightly deeper squat for CrossFit competition.

Jacob Steyn  36:36  

Exactly we’ve we’ve created healthy tissue and healthy tissue can cope with a lot more. And if we then give that tissue the chance to recover afterwards then in reality, you know, that’s just a normal verses of life and it should be perfectly fine.

Ben James  36:53  

And, and as always, you know, a key takeaway message here for for the listeners is, you know, if you’re not If you’re not cross fitting and you’re not in competition, then clearly just perform within your individual tolerance. And if that is slightly less than a 90 degrees squat, then that’s fine, you’re still going to get a lot of benefit from that in terms of muscular activation. If, of course, you’re following the advice that we’re giving here. But as with any elite, sporting endeavor, there are always some of some offsets that we’ve got to consider some risks that have got to be considered, and and effectively understood, because there’s no getting away with it in certain sports, and therefore, you’ve just got to understand that the way that you train versus the way that you compete may differ slightly in terms of the way that you exercise and train because of the risk or some of those movements and, and clearly at this moment in time, squatting and CrossFit is One of those in terms of hip anatomy and, and, and get into a deep squat. So, Jacob, let’s move down to the feet and talk about the feet because again, often overlooked, but fundamentally important because, you know, this stable base for any closed chain activity, whether it’s running, walking, playing golf, paying football, such a fundamentally important structure and yet so often overlooked.

Jacob Steyn  38:28  

So, we talked about the posterior chain and the connection between the posterior chain and the feet and the knees is very big. If we have a well functioning posterior chain, we’d be able to hold the knee out and not have a knee that’s collapsing in. When we have a knee that’s in the right position, facing outwards and our feets pointing usually in the same direction as our knees. Then we will be pulling our archers foot arches off the floor and allowing a very strong stable base that can absorb absorbed a lot of force. It’s when the knee collapses in that we quite often see that the foot collapses in. And if that happens, we’re already losing, or have lost the function of the glute Med, so part of the posterior chain. And if we’ve done that, like I said before, there’s a good chance that the brain is going to tell the low back muscles to do the job we might be around in. We might be looking for a different step strategy. And then we will kind of see the whole structure breaking down.

Ben James  39:45  

Yeah, so what you’re saying there is without that stability locally, right from the base, then everything else kind of can become to some degree irrelevant. You’re still going to have an element of safety with with effective bracing. It etc. But if you don’t have that stable base, then like you say the brain is going to do what it can to compensate. And that’s where we’re going to lead to muscle imbalances, risk of injury, etc, etc.

Jacob Steyn  40:12  

Yeah. Yes. And, and I think there are a lot of people who you don’t have to work with their feet and have to make sure that they have a stable knee and it’s, it’s something that, again, like we said, previously, you know, you got to peel back the onion, and you got to start with piece by piece. And so for most people, that would be a case of, if I have my foot with my foot arches dropping in, I don’t have a lot of control over my feet, you got to go work with your feet first got to create stability, or if you’ve started squatting, do some isolated footwork on the side of that, you know, make it part of your warmup and get it into the system activated just before you go squatting. So gradually, the brain We’ll start picking that up, you know, you got to stay aware of what you’re doing with your feet in your knees. A very good exercise for that would be something like the monster walk. If you are able to assume a good squat position consciously, if the feet are collapse too much, and the knees are, you know, they’re not stable, then most likely doing the most the walk, you’re going to you’re going to compensate. So you’re going to strengthen the compensator II movement instead of using it as using it to correct the movement. And, yeah, you know, I think you just got a follow up program, and especially look at the website and we’re going to give you a lot of tips there in terms of these exercises.

Ben James  41:46  

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that, you know, it’s a great point there. You mentioned just at the end there about the fee and again, how we need to break it down because hopefully the, what you’ll have understood from today is that the squat is is more complex. And it seems you know, there’s there’s a lot of factors there that really contribute to making it effective making it safe and particularly as you start to add weight and and the point I want to add There is also that this form and all of these steps have to be considered consistently, throughout any set up any training routine you’re doing, because quite often, one of the things I noticed is that it’s on the last rep, or the last rep of the last set. It’s that kind of lazy last Rep. I call it when you start to see a bit of flexion in the back, or you start to see the loss of latter two pec contraction and there’s a little bit of movement through the back. It’s at those points where you’re going to be most vulnerable. So it really is being conscious about perfect form throughout the set. So every repetition and if that’s the case of reducing those repetitions or reducing the number of sets then so be it because Form is so, so important if you can avoid injury and allow yourself to effectively build strength and progress forward, if indeed that’s your, that’s your aim. So Jacob, anything you want to add there before we go any Yeah, variations among different people that you want to talk about. I know that, you know, there’s different training events, whether it’s CrossFit powerlifting, etc.

Jacob Steyn  43:25  

The my suggestion would be to drop the reps, because what I see quite often is someone doing 10 or 12, or more squatting reps and that’s just going through the motion. There’s not really a conscious effort to feel the movement to to pay attention to the feet, the knees, the connection between the shoulder blades and the core. You know, spreading the bump cheeks when you go down, you know, making a wide base, staying upright with your chest. You know, if you would be doing that you’d be doing more like five or six, maybe max eight reps and it would be done, you’d be finished, you know, the body would be like, Okay, I gotta take a break. So my suggestion is, drop the reps, do smaller sets. If you want to an extra set, it’s more about getting the focus, where it should be performing that movement very well. And that’s when you’re going to see that the movement gets better, be able to add more weight. Or you might be able to add more reps if you feel that’s what you got to do if maybe you’re a rugby player, and it’s more of an endurance thing for you. But if you train in a way where you do the squat properly, then you are preparing your body for either doing stuff at home or for the specific sport that you’re training for. You know, we don’t want to do the squats and get injured or cause micro trauma by doing them you know, that just defeats the purpose. So yeah, that’s what I wanted to add there.

Ben James  45:03  

No, and I think that’s a great point. And, and, you know, for everybody listening, it is a hugely important movement pattern for overall back health, at home, getting up and off the couch, toilet, etc, to keep that back in neutral, and then extending it into the gym a fantastic exercise for for building strength and endurance and also for, for building back health over the long term, but it’s got to be executed effectively. And one last point I want to mention there is don’t compare yourself to others. You know, some people are power lifters. Some people are weight lifters. Don’t compare yourself to those people or compare your technique to those people necessarily because, you know, there are going to be subtle differences and there are differences in anatomy as well. Some people are at all or some people are shorter. So you’ve got to look at this movement pattern for you as an individual work within your own tolerances. Break the movement down when necessary. So you can integrate sure that you’re executing it effectively, you’re executing it safely. And that will help you to build the weight and progress forward if that is your aim. So Jacob, anything you want to add before we close the episode on squatting?

Jacob Steyn  46:19  

I think we’ve said most of it, you just mentioned different types of squatting. And I think it’s not appropriate to really discuss this now in depth. We’ve we’ve talked a lot, Ben, but just about different techniques. And I want to say that instead of focusing so much on the different types of sports that we would use different squats for your squat is not going to look necessarily the same as someone who’s got a different body type. You know, there’s a lot of individual variations. In the squat, you might have a certain hip structure which is gonna want you to squat with Knees quite wide. I’ve helped, you know, I’ve helped guys, especially if you have to think back, you know, a couple of tall big guys, you know, they’re trying, they’re trying to put their feet close to each other and keep the knees in and, and I’ve widened their base and I’ve got them to do more of a sumo squat. And all of a sudden, they could go a lot deeper, they could stay more upright, they could feel their glutes more. So you got to figure out what works with your body type. And stick to that, you know, and maybe, depending on the range of motion you can have, you can go into variations from a normal squat to a very wide Sumo Squat. But for some people, that is just not the case. And you got to figure out what works for you. And if if you are not compromising the back, maybe you can try different variations. But if you are, stick with what works for you build up strength there and then later, try to act spanned the different techniques.

Ben James  48:03  

Yeah, I think great point to end there guys that we’re, we’re all unique. We’re all individual and not just related to back pain but a great take home message just in general. You know, it’s, it’s about you, you’re unique, do what’s right for you. So as always, thank you for listening guys head on over to the website as we say www.smartstrong.co.uk UK a lot of information, a lot of advice over there as we build a build out the content. And as always, we ask you to head on over to iTunes give us a rating helps get the message out to more and more people so that we can help more and more people take back control of their back health and empower them to get back to the activities they love. So thanks again guys, and we’ll speak to you on the next episode.

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