It seems there is no escaping this silly and useless rule. In the position I am now I get to hear from many different people from many walks of life and nationalities. It seems this rule is carved in stone with the vast majority of Americans and Canadians, and a few of the Europeans (most are still not crippled by this rule). I put the blame on the American (including Australian and New Zealand influenced) fitness classes and the celebrity fitness professionals. The classes are beneficial for getting people motivated and moving but teaching improper techniques is a major drawback. I can not honestly state this happens in every single class but A LOT seem to have adopted this knee never over feet rule. Slowly but surely it is losing its American isolation and beginning to bleed into the international community. Since fitness class instructors and celebrity trainers can not possibly be wrong, this rule must be correct. If a person does squat or lunge while allowing her knees to go past "the foot barrier of no return", she might hurt her knees and possibly never be able to walk again.
This is a frustrating battle for fitness professionals who do have an understanding for anatomy, exercise kinesiology, theories of exercise science and biomechanics. Debunking a gym myth that is thought to be a really legit rule, is a pain in the ass. What I plan to do here is give anyone reading this (who is faithful to the knee foot rule) a little insight to why this rule is wrong. Take the info or leave it:
- The length of your femur bone will dictate how far your knees while go over your feet.
- The femur (thigh) bone comes in different sizes. The taller you are the longer the femur. People with long femurs will squat and lunge over their feet regardless. A shorter person can get away with squatting or lunging while keeping the knee behind the feet, but taller people will totally screw up the proper alignment to perform a squat. Instead, it will look as if the person is doing a hybrid of a good morning and a squat (in the eccentric half of the motion). With a barbell added to this form the lower back becomes very susceptible to bearing a lot of the weight and therefore at great risk for a well deserved injury. If anything this form can be modified a bit and be used as a decent deadlift starting position.
- A basic partial squat in the "athletic world" is simply the preparatory position to a jump
- Before a person jumps his body automatically drops into the squat position. Usually this is what we call a quarter or partial squat. The partial squat is a good starting point for learning to either squat deeper or to jump. Before a person jumps he does not shift his weight into the "heels" of his feet. If he does his jump will probably be very low. Instead the weight of his body naturally sets at the "center of gravity" point, which is in the middle of the foot between the heels and forefoot. The ankles will bend properly along with the hips. If you view this from the side his lower legs and torso will be running parallel.
- In most properly progressed workouts a person will learn to squat and advance to a form of jumping squats. If you learn to squat into your heels like you are in a overpacked fitness class you will not have the proper motor skill to jump to your optimal abilities.
- Only Powerflifters squat into their heels
- There is a good reason for this. Powerlifters are simply looking to lift the maximal amount of weight per exercise. So, you can see the powerlifter will spread his legs out, turn his feet outwards, and sit far back as he lowers the weight. This is simply a play on physics. Put the body in a position where the weight does not really have to travel that far. More you spread your legs the lower the bar is and the less you have to bend your knees. Turn your feet out and the less need for ankle mobility to lower the weight. Sit far back and the less the lower body needs to flex and extend to move the weight. Unless you want to powerlift, probably best not to adopt this method.
- It's not the knees that are holding a person back it is the issues stopping optimal ankle mobility
- During a squat a person will have to bend optimally in three joints (hip, knees and ankles). The deeper the PROPER squat ... the more the ankle needs to (dorsi) flex.
- Ankle mobility is very important for anyone who weight trains, and especially important for runners. For the proper muscles to fire off in the proper sequence during a squat you need to be able to flex at the ankles. If not your body will use another physics law "find the point of least resistance" to move the weight. Ankles will not take the flexion so the knees and lower back joints will take more stress than they are supposed to (length tension relationship).
- A decent trainer will help you fix up low ankle mobility. When squatting into your heels the ankles do not flex a great deal and the issue of low ankle mobility will remain.
- Qualify thyself
- Seriously, we all know or knew how to squat and lunge. Squatting and lunging are primal movements that we gained at the point we learned to walk. The patterns developed as our bodies altered for the force of gravity (namely the spinal cord and feet). Then people begin to ride bikes, drive cars, sit on supersoft chairs and at desk. At this point the pattern probably begin to breakdown. Either we use this ability or we lose it.
- So, it is good to understand if you loss the ability to properly squat and lunge or if you still got what it takes. If you lost it, it is best to learn it again and definitely deal with any joint problems that may come along while assessing your lunge or squat. Trouble spots to look for:
- Do your heels invert (come together) and want to raise off of the floor when squatting deeply?
- Do your knees shift away from your feet either inward or outward?
- Is there any noticeable tilting or shifting of your body to the right or left as you squat?
- etc. etc.
- Hate to leave you hanging with these questions but If I go into depth on how to qualify yourself on squats and lunges this would be come a very lengthy blog. SO if you have questions for me just email me ty@fitnessenergysystem.com, leave a comment or ask in my forum
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