Don't Let Your Knees Go Over Your Feet When Squatting or Lunging!

 The ever-present golden rule to not allow your knees to go over your feet while squatting or lunging is absolutely WRONG!

 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

 Hopefully that helps a bit.

Don't Get Crazy With Squats Young Skywalker!

Through my career as a trainer and trainee I learned a great deal about squats. I have tried many variations myself. As a trainer I have seen many variations. What I find that works for the general public is to use specific squatting techniques to reach certain goals. If you want to lift a lot, there are squats to improve that. If you want to jump higher and run faster, there a squats for that. If you are looking to boost energy expenditure in training, there are squats for that. Also, there are squats that simply just suck. The squats that win the suckiest squats of all time awards are the notorious Smith Machine Squat and the Swiss Ball Squat (with the stupid ball against your back and the wall). These two annoying squats really do nothing more than cause improper squat technique and damaged joints. However I still see them being prescribed to trainees who are new or who state "squatting hurts my knees". My answer to that is "Oh really, so I guess you must be the only person in the world who takes a dump standing." This is for those new jedis looking to squat properly and not perform the wrong squats.

So, many newcomers to training have amazingly awesome hopes and goals. What we know is before this highly motivated individual embarks down the fitness road, he should build a proper "functional" foundation. All the exercises including squats should recruit perfected movement patterns, strength endurance, and neuro-muscular efficiency ( AT FIRST!). Once this point is complete the sky is the limit. So for the newbies the squat should be what I call the perfect learning squat.

The perfect squat is more focused on posture throughout the motion than on load or reps. The checkpoints:
1. Feet straight forward and hip width apart.
2. Shoulders back and down with a slight chin tuck.
3. Lower "core" area tightly brace (this includes preservation of the low back arch).
4. Form is maintained throughout motion.

Now, dropping the glutes below parallel is not part of the checkpoints for new guys and gals, because it simply is not as important as holding the posture. If he can do it... fucking great! If he can't drop that low ...oh well...it will come in with proper training.

This perfect learning squat is also the key to hip extensor progression. Master this and you will be a better squatter, runner, and jumper.

Just to make it perfectly clear on what a new guy or gal shouldn't be doing, the following are types of squats that work well for more advanced trainees with reason to squat like this:

1. No box squatting with a external load (barbell, dumbbell, bands etc) - The only guys and gals out there that should do box squats are those looking to squat the most amount of weight possible. Mainly, the big powerlifters and powerlifting wannabes fall into this group. Box squat just causes all kinds of trouble with the low back. People who box squat may put up impressive amounts of weight, but most likely they all get out of bed like Fred Sanford in the morning.
2. No jumping onto high plyo boxes - This is absolutely fantastic for building reactive power in jumping athletes, but looks like shit when a new jedi jumps up to a plyo box practically pulling his knees to his ears and lands with a big crash. I see it a lot and it must feel as miserable as it looks. Before you get to jumping squats, Skippy, make sure you have a damn good squat working for you. In fact you better be at the point where you can do some one legged squats without much trouble.

Lastly, let me leave you with the smart way to progress your squats:
1. Perfect Learning Basic Squat
2. Deep Squats
3. Deep Squats with Hands Overhead
4. 1 Leg Squats
5. 1 Leg Deep Squats
6. Jumping Squats
7. From Plyo Box Drop Down and Immediately Jump Up to Stabilize in a Squat


Of course there are exceptions to this rule. New trainees with flat feet or damaged ankles will need to widen their stance. If that does not work, raise their heels. Those who have already sustained some traumatic knee injury will stay at partial squats and do more one leg squatting drills than others. A rule of thumb is to get a decent assessment from a damn good trainer or sports therapists.

Now use the squat wisely young Skywalker.