Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Rest Day

Go out and play in the yard or with the kids. Do something you enjoy.





The Squat Continued
How to Squat
  • Feet shoulder width and toed out
  • Look straight ahead
  • Butt back and down
  • Knees in line with and behind foot
  • Weight on heels
  • Arms out and up
  • Use hip flexors to pull yourself down
  • Keep lumbar curve
  • Break parallel with thighs
  • Rise without forward lean

Common Squat Faults

  • Not Breaking the Parallel Plane
  • Rolling Knees Inside Feet
  • Dropping Head
  • Dropping the Shoulder
  • Losing Lumbar Extension (rounding the back - this may be the worst)
  • Heels Off the Gound

Causes of the Bad Squat

  1. Weak glute/hamstring. The glutes and hams are responsible for powerful hip extension, which is the key to the athletic performance universe.
  2. Poor engagement, weak control, and no awareness of glute and hamstring. The road to powerful, effective hip extension is a three to five year odyssey for most athletes.
  3. Resulting attempt to squat with quads. Leg extension dominance over hip extension is a leading obstacle to elite performance in athletes.
  4. Inflexibility. With super tight hamstrings you’re screwed. This is a powerful contributor to slipping out of lumbar extension and into lumbar flexion – the worst fault of all.
  5. Sloppy work, poor focus. This is not going to come out right by accident. It takes incredible effort. The more you work on the squat the more awareness you develop as to its complexity.

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