Daily Maestroism

DM #177

Wednesday, November 16th, 2016

DM #177: ?Well, when you put it like that it makes whole lot of sense. Square peg, round hole. Contraption squats, for those of you who are familiar with them, only work if you are a contraption.
Not everyone has the boney architecture to allow them to squat with their feet pointed forward. Now, I will ALWAYS screen people with their feet facing forward. Always. Why? Because it is a SCREEN. The goal is simply to see if you can or cannot perform the movement. If you cannot, then I must break out the pattern, assess you, and figure out why not. If you are screening someone’s squat and let them turn their feet out, you will miss ankle mobility restrictions 10/10 times.
Now, when it comes to loading that squat after I’ve assessed that person, will I let people turn the feet out? ABSOLUTELY. Lots of physics and biomechanics involved there, and I’m not trying to get into that in this post. The point of tonight’s DM is to speak about respecting one’s anatomy, and not trying to force everyone into the same squatting box.
If you have tibial torsion (rough assessment: knees are facing forward yet your feet turn out, or knees turn inward when feet are pointed forward even with glute activation), squatting with those feet facing forward is gonna be a pretty tough task and likely make your knees feel like they’re about to twist off. STOP IT!

Get assessed. Figure out what’s the most appropriate, efficient, and safest way for you to squat. And then go from there. Your squat isn’t going to look like your bestie’s squat, and that’s ok.
Disclaimer – this is NOT an invitation for you to assume your squat looks like ? because you have tibial torsion. Get assessed and figure out what’s going on!

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