When you work in a medical office, you have the luxury of having access to experts! This week, we asked our Athletic Trainer, Mike, if he could share his tips for perfecting the squat, such an excellent exercise that is so often done improperly. (Pin this bad boy for later girls!)
By: Mike Puglia, ATC
The squat is without a doubt one of the most beneficial exercises in anyone’s program and when done properly can lead to not just a strong and toned lower body but even those six pack abs you’ve been working so hard for this beach season. Performing a proper squat requires us to dynamically engage multiple joints at the same time which demands high amount of mobility, stability, body control or (neuromuscular control), endurance and strength. As beneficial as the squat can be it can also be equally as devastating to our bodies as well if done improperly. If there is a breakdown or inefficiency in any of these demands our body naturally compensates leading to poor movement which places us at a high risk for injury. I don’t know anyone that enjoys being injured so before you do another squat here is a few tips.
1. ASK AN EXPERT. Make sure your technique is perfect and if it isn’t or the exercise causes pain STOP DOING THEM IMMEDIATELY.
2. DON’T give up! It’s an amazing exercise don’t just give up on it, we only get better, stronger and more tone if we work on the getting better at the things we aren’t so great at.
3. FIND an alternative exercise that doesn’t cause you pain and places similar demand on the body that you can perform in place of the squat while you work on your movement quality. Some examples may be split squats, lunges, step ups or dead lifts.
4. WORK ON IT! “But where do I start?” “What are my deficits?” “And what exercises should I do to fix it?” There are a million answers to these questions all of which are unique to each persons body type and movement deficits. Because of this I always encourage people to ASK an expert like a Certified Athletic Trainer and have a full body functional assessment done. But we don’t have time for all that and I don’t know about y’all but I feel my money is better spent on other things like Sweet Frog and a new fall wardrobe. So to get you started on the path towards a better squat as well as a stronger, leaner and injury free physique add this one exercise to your pre workout dynamic warm-up.
