Squat Challenge Week 6: Fruits that resemble glutes... and symmetry

Weak glutes. Everyone has them, including me. Is it due to poor posture and a lack of walking and squatting? Most likely. I know that my gluts are weak and I know that my left side is weaker than my right. I can see this weakness manifest in my squat when I:

1. shift more weight onto my stronger right leg when coming up from my squat. 
2. move the weight forwards towards my toes as I go deeper, instead of keeping it planted through my heels - see purple line in picture A, the knee is in front of the heel as weight comes forward 
3. collapse my knees together when I rise up from a deep squat - see picture A, the top line between the knees is much smaller than the bottom line between the ankles 

Picture A... bad 

Picture B... better

This weeks goals: 

1. Create symmetry between the left and right side. Focus on evenly moving up and down through the squat
2. When in doubt, stick it out... get the glutes more active by moving the weight back into the heels. Ideally I want to be able to wiggle my toes at the lowest point of my squat - picture B, purple arrow on knee directly over ankle 
3. Keep the knees as wide as the feet, pushing the knees away from each other on the way up and down - picture B, pink lines are the same distance at the knee and at the ankle 

And now for fun... FRUITS that resemble GLUTES

Good luck with your deep squat this week! Try not to attempt to make too many changes at once. Focus on just one or two things until they become natural and easy then move on.

Squat Challenge Week 3: Pelvis

This week we will talk about one thing that most people do as they start to squat deeper... TUCK the TAIL BONE.

At some point during my squat my pelvis starts to 'TUCK'. That means that my tail bone (back) gets closer to my pubic bone (front). This position shortens the pelvic floor preventing it from working properly. It also puts the gluts and core muscles at a disadvantage when supporting my body in a squat. This is one reason that I need to hold onto something when I squat.

Two things to focus on this week:

1. Sitting with a not tucked tail bone.

This position is a less deep squat and a position that I get into (way too) often throughout the day. I'm going to sit with my tail bone not tucked at the table, on the couch and in my car. Practice rotating your pelvis forward and backwards to get an idea of what it feels like to tuck and untuck the tail bone, that way you'll be able to tell what your pelvis is doing while you squat. Just like calf stretching vs neutral footwear (see week 2) it's more important to correct the positions you spend all day in rather than do a few minutes of stretching.

 


2. Supported Squat.

I'm going to use support to go deeper into my squat while maintaining a not tucked tail bone. I will need to continue to support my ankles with my yoga mat (or a decline slope on a sidewalk). Hanging out here will help me gain body awareness of my pelvis position as I move in and out of tucked vs not tucked. Over the week I want to decrease the amount of support that I need, only using my fingertips to hold me upright as my balance and strength increase.