Baby Squats

February 26, 2017 – 

For those of you who come to F.I.T. there is a VERY good chance we have talked about the most fundamental of movement patterns that even a baby can do, Squats. And I hate to be redundant but our bodies just have to keep up that movement pattern.

Yesterday a client was telling me she saw a video of an old woman who was doing Yoga. She was 94 and still teaching yoga. Her link is at the bottom of this report. We went on to talk about how she wished she “could still squat down like that” to play with the grandkids or just to get up off the floor afterwards with ease. I assured her that she could. The look on her face told me I was ludicrous and out of my mind.

So for all of you nay-sayers … this is a true story… I asked the client to stand on the blue mat, and I asked her to trust me as I helped her down onto the mat and onto her back. I then asked her to pull her knees up towards her chest. She did, and I asked her “what is the difference between your body position right now and the one I’m in right now (I was squatted down beside her on the mat)?

She realized the only difference was I was vertical and she was horizontal. When she stood up and tried to squat down, her muscle tension (tightness) when vertical (standing) would not allow her to into a squat position functionally. And, if she were to squat down that deep I would have had to help her up (due to the inability of the brain to send signals to muscle fibers that at that point have become dormant). Ugly truth, use it or lose it !

Back to my point, she was functionally capable of making the squat happen without being under a load. By not performing the motion of squatting, we limit our functional mobility and our functional strength.

Here is your FIT functional lesson for February

Baby Squats Challenge (click to watch a tutorial)

1. Position; beginner stand in the kitchen at the sink and hold onto the sink.
   Feet right against the counter (even if under counter)
2. Movement; tighten or stabilize your tummy/core. Suck in your belly.
   Tilt the hip, lift your tail and push your hip backwards,
   Follow it in an arching squat as far as you can (like a baby does).
   Go as deep as comfortable
   Now reverse, by standing back up
   Pull with your arms if necessary. YOU DID IT! You squatter You!
3. Challenge – Do at least 1 more every day, by the end of March you should be up to 31 squats! IF you feel up to it and don’t even need to hold on anymore that’s great.
   For those of you laughing at 31 … do triple and go for 100!!
   Not smiling now are you? : )
   

And after all this sqatting around, I always suggest a nice stretch.

In good health,

Bob

The biggest mistake people make with the squat is…not squatting enough.
-Arnold S.