Squats for a Better Health

Squats are a greatly popular exercise and there are many reasons why. This is a very complete exercise that can help develop many muscles from both the upper body and the lower body while improving our overall mobility, strength, and flexibility. This exercise has many benefits, and it is also quite practical and relatively easy. However, doing squats in an incorrect manner could cause severe injuries specially in the joints and ligaments.

How to squat: It’s All About Positioning 

There are a few squats variation, but to perform all of them correctly we are going through the steps you should follow to do the basic squat exercise:

• The starting position consists of standing with your legs open a little bit wider than our shoulder’s width. Twist your feet slightly with your toes pointing outside in a diagonal position, hence with the ankles a little closer to each. Looking to the front in a straight position, extend your arms to the front of your shoulders.
• To squat, push your pelvis to the back and the chest to the front while going down with your upper body as you would do while sitting down. Your hips should get slightly above your knees. Make sure you are breathing along with the movements so that when you flex your knees you take a breath in.
• Now to rise back to the initial position, you will pull your body back up using the strength of your legs. Make sure here you are exhaling and keeping your arms well positioned.

Some Additional but Important Details to Consider 

First, your knees, always make sure you are not getting them close to the center; they should always point slightly outside during all stages of the movement. You would not want to apply all the pressure form this exercise to your knee joints. This is how the correct positioning for adequate balancing will be key to avoid injuring your knees.

Regarding balance, it is also crucial that your ankles are always well supported on the floor. If they are lifting at times, it means you are not positioning your body weight properly into the position. This will be an issue since you need the ankle’s support to pull you up.

Squat Variations

Once you feel confident squatting you could try some variations such as deeper squats, squatting with added weight whether it’s free weights or machines, sumo squats, squatting with a single leg or pistol quats, box squats, Bulgarian squats, goblet squats, Romanian squats, lateral squats and so many other variations. The key is always positioning correctly avoiding adding too much pressure to our joints. If you have difficulty understanding if you are squatting correctly or need help improving your form, it could be considerably helpful for you to get in touch with an expert that can assess you on this matter. 

Orthopedic Corner | Leon Mead MD Orthopedic Doctor | 730 Goodlette Road North, Suite 201  Naples Florida 34102 | Phone: (239) 262-1119