How Low Can You Go?

January 26, 2014

What is the #1 movement your body can do to maintain overall strength and flexibility?  In 1 or 2 seconds I can show you – it’s the “baby squat.”  Our bodies spend the first 9 months in a fetal position, and it is critical to our overall health that we maintain the ability to drop down to a “baby squat.”  You won’t find this theory supported by many medical minds….but I am correct (of course).  My assessment at F.I.T. Human Performance shows your “risk” of overall muscle and fitness or potential future injury, and this “baby squat” would be part of that assessment.

“Aw, how cute,” we say when we see a very young toddler drop down to a “baby squat” as they discover their toes or squat to pick up a dropped Cheerio.  For the most part, they could stay in that position all day.  But we “hurry them up” and stand them up, so we don’t have to go so low to play with them. But, maybe we should go low.

As human beings we acquire mobility along with strength and balance.  Here is the progression of movement or mobility beginning at the earliest stages.  By the way, as we age, we lose these movements in regressive order.

1. Roll-over – the strength in your appendages (arms, legs, head) and core to roll your body over from front to back or back to front.
2. Hands and knees – first gaining strength at the big ball and socket joints of the hips and then the shoulders to elevate the head up to a new perspective and then balance the head and body.
3. Kneeling – allows another new perspective and more strength and balance.  Now the core muscles really come into action.
4. Standing – “so big” as the entire skeleton and its muscular system must now find balance, strength, and perception to maintain this ability.

Of course, you know the rest of the story.  We progress through squatting, walking, stepping, lunging and all the movement patterns life allows us if we are blessed.  We learn to improve in mobility, strength, and balance.  However, with time and aging, if we stop practicing and/or using or mobility, our strength, and our balance we lost it.  Blame the job, the diet, the schedule………The responsibility is yours!  Use it or lose it.  So how low can you go?

Try it now:  Squat as deep as you can.  Did your torso lean way forward?  Did your heels come up? Was there tissue impingement that limited your squat?  All of these are signs that your body is at risk.  Doesn’t matter the reason or what happened to you; all that matters is what you are going to do about it.  That simple move is a basic entry-level fitness assessment I use here every dy to help my clients get better, get stronger, and get healthier.  Want some help?

Call me today!

In good health,

Bob

“To fully collapse the leverage system and lower the center of gravity is to squat.  Primitive patterns take precedent over higher-level patterns – they support the higher patterns.”    –   Grey Cook   MSPT, OCS, CSCS