Why Some People Are Better Built For Squatting
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into why certain body types may excel at squatting due to factors like bone length ratios and center of gravity. It emphasizes the importance of squatting for overall strength and functionality, offering modifications and exercises like seated good mornings to improve adductor Magnus flexibility and ankle mobility. The script also addresses common issues like the 'buttwink' and provides tips to maintain proper spinal alignment during deep squats, ensuring that everyone can benefit from this fundamental exercise.
Takeaways
- 🏋️ Squatting is a versatile exercise beneficial for strength, sports performance, and maintaining functionality as we age, suitable for nearly everyone with various modifications available.
- 🧍♂️ The ability to squat effectively is often influenced by an individual's body structure, particularly the length of the femur and the center of gravity during the squat.
- 🦿 The length of the femur affects the degree of hip hinging required to maintain balance during a squat, with a longer femur necessitating more hinging and a shorter femur allowing a more upright posture.
- 🔄 Dorsal flexion at the ankle is important for squat depth, and variations in this joint's flexibility can impact the squat posture and depth an individual can achieve.
- 🏋️♀️ The muscles involved in squatting, such as the hamstrings, gluteus maximus, and adductor magnus, must have adequate length and strength to maintain proper form and avoid injury.
- 🚫 The 'butt wink' or posterior pelvic tilt is a common issue when squatting too deep without proper muscle length and can be mitigated with proper form and mobility exercises.
- 💊 Maximus' testosterone protocol, sponsored in the video, is highlighted as a potential solution for those struggling to build muscle, by naturally increasing testosterone levels under medical supervision.
- 🤸♂️ Exercises like the seated good morning can help strengthen and increase the range of motion in the adductor magnus, which is often the limiting factor in deep squats.
- 👣 Elevating the heels during a squat can help maintain an upright torso and deeper squat depth, by reducing the flexion required at the hip.
- 🛑 Wider stance and slight external hip rotation can alleviate tissue approximation issues, allowing for deeper squats without compromising spinal alignment.
- 🔄 Improving hip and ankle mobility are long-term solutions to increase squat range of motion and depth, which can translate to better squat form and performance.
- 🌟 Regardless of bone length, individuals can achieve effective squats with proper training, mobility work, and adherence to correct form and technique.
Q & A
Why might some people be better built for squatting than others?
-Some people may be better built for squatting due to their body's center of gravity and the length of their femur compared to their tibia, which affects how much they need to hinge at the hips to maintain balance during a squat.
What is the importance of maintaining the center of gravity while squatting?
-Maintaining the center of gravity is crucial to avoid falling over and to ensure proper form and balance throughout the squat movement.
How does the length of the femur affect squatting posture?
-A longer femur requires more hinging at the hips and a more forward-leaning torso to maintain the center of gravity, while a shorter femur allows for a more upright posture during a squat.
What muscles are primarily responsible for maintaining spinal position during a squat?
-The extensor muscles of the spine, along with the hip muscles such as the hamstrings, glutes, and adductor Magnus, are responsible for maintaining proper spinal position during a squat.
What is the term for when the top of the foot comes closer to the shin bone during squatting?
-This is called dorsal flexion, which occurs at the ankle joint in the bottom position of a squat.
Why is the adductor Magnus muscle important in the context of squatting?
-The adductor Magnus is important because it actively lengthens during the squat's lowering phase, and its attachment to the pelvis can affect the pelvis's position and potentially cause a posterior pelvic tilt if it reaches its length limit.
What is the term used to describe the pelvis tilting underneath the body during a deep squat?
-This is often referred to as a posterior pelvic tilt or colloquially as 'buttwink.'
What immediate adjustments can be made to improve squat depth while maintaining proper alignment?
-Slightly widening the stance, externally rotating the hips, and elevating the heels can immediately help improve squat depth without compromising spinal alignment.
How can one work on long-term modifications to improve squat range of motion?
-Long-term modifications include improving hip mobility, specifically targeting the adductor Magnus muscle, and working on ankle mobility with calf muscles.
What is the role of the Maximus supplement mentioned in the script?
-Maximus offers a testosterone protocol that includes encline and pregnanolone to stimulate natural testosterone production and support hormonal health, potentially aiding in muscle growth and strength gains.
What is the significance of full range of motion squats for strength and hypertrophy gains?
-Full range of motion squats are more effective for stimulating strength and hypertrophy gains, and they also help maintain mobility, which is beneficial for overall functionality and longevity.
Outlines
🏋️♂️ Squatting Mechanics and Body Types
The first paragraph discusses the varying aptitudes for squatting among individuals, attributed to differences in body structure. It emphasizes the importance of squatting for strength, sports performance, and maintaining functionality with age, suggesting that everyone can benefit from some form of squatting. The paragraph introduces the concept of the center of gravity and its role in squatting, using stick figure illustrations to explain how different body types may require different squatting techniques. It highlights the impact of femur length on the squat posture, with longer femurs necessitating more hip hinging and affecting the spine's position. The importance of muscles like the hamstrings, gluteus maximus, and adductor magnus in maintaining proper squat form is also discussed.
💪 Muscle Activation and Testosterone's Role in Squatting
This paragraph delves into the biomechanics of squatting, focusing on the active lengthening of muscles like the hamstrings, gluteus maximus, and adductor magnus during the squat's lowering phase. It uses a rubber band analogy to illustrate muscle eccentric contraction. The paragraph also addresses the challenge of building lean muscle mass and introduces a sponsor, Maximus, which offers a testosterone protocol to potentially increase muscle gains. The protocol involves selective estrogen receptor blocking and pregnanolone to boost natural testosterone production, with the aim of enhancing strength and hypertrophy without side effects. The importance of medical supervision for such protocols is highlighted.
👣 Strategies for Deep Squatting and Postural Alignment
The third paragraph provides practical advice for achieving deeper squats while maintaining proper spinal alignment. It suggests immediate adjustments such as widening the stance and heel elevation to counteract limitations caused by bone structure. The paragraph explains how tissue approximation can restrict squat depth and how slight stance adjustments can alleviate this. It also discusses the 'buttwink' phenomenon, which occurs when the pelvis tilts under during deep squats, potentially compromising spinal posture. The role of the adductor magnus muscle in this limitation is explored, along with the seated good morning exercise as a method to strengthen and improve the range of motion of this muscle.
🚶♂️ Long-Term Modifications for Improved Squatting
The final paragraph offers long-term strategies for enhancing squat performance, including improving hip mobility, particularly of the adductor magnus, and ankle mobility with calf muscles. It emphasizes the importance of continued squat practice regardless of bone length, as individuals with both long and short femurs can achieve effective squats with proper training. The paragraph concludes with encouragement to keep practicing squats and references to additional resources and videos for further learning.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Squatting
💡Center of Gravity
💡Dorsal Flexion
💡Femur
💡Hip Flexion
💡Eccentric Load
💡Adductor Magnus
💡Posterior Pelvic Tilt
💡Hip Mobility
💡Ankle Mobility
💡Seated Good Morning
Highlights
Different body types may have varying advantages for squatting due to their unique physical attributes.
Squatting is an essential exercise for improving strength, sports performance, and maintaining functionality as we age.
Various squat modifications can accommodate different body types, making it a versatile exercise for everyone.
The center of gravity plays a crucial role in squatting mechanics and varies from person to person.
Ankle and hip joint positions, particularly dorsal flexion, affect squat depth and posture.
Femur length relative to the tibia influences the degree of hip hinging required to maintain balance during a squat.
Individuals with longer femurs may need to hinge more at the hips, affecting squat posture and muscle activation.
Muscles like the hamstrings, glutes, and adductor magnus are critical for controlling the squat's lowering phase.
The adductor magnus muscle is often the limiting factor in squat depth due to its attachment to the pelvis.
Elevating heels can help maintain an upright torso and deeper squat without compromising spinal alignment.
Widen stance and external hip rotation can alleviate tissue approximation and allow for deeper squats.
The 'buttwink' or posterior pelvic tilt can be a sign of muscle length limitations during a deep squat.
Strengthening the adductor magnus through exercises like seated good mornings can improve squat depth and posture.
Ankle mobility and dorsal flexion are interconnected with hip mobility and can affect squatting ability.
Maximus' testosterone protocol is highlighted as a potential solution for those struggling to build muscle mass.
Full range of motion squats are more effective for strength and hypertrophy gains and are beneficial for longevity.
Regardless of bone structure, proper squat technique and modifications can lead to improved performance and muscle gains.
Transcripts
some people are Better Built for
squatting than others but why is this
what is it about one person's body that
may make them better equipped for
squatting than someone else and more
importantly if you're not as well built
for squatting does that mean you
shouldn't do it absolutely not because
squatting is such an amazing exercise
that can greatly improve strength Sports
Performance and help us to maintain
functionality as we age so you could
definitely make the argument that nearly
everyone should do some form of
squatting because there are so many
variations and modifications that we can
apply to make you a great squatter
regardless of your body type so today
because it's obviously very fascinating
we'll answer why certain body types may
be a little bit more advantageous for
squatting than others and again show you
some modifications that you can apply to
your squat to make it work best for you
so let's do
this so why are some people a little bit
Better Built for squatting than others
well we're going to approach this with a
discussion about center of gravity
because all of us have to maintain our
center of gravity while we squat or
we're going to fall over and so to help
us understand what I mean by all this
we're going to use these stick figure
drawings on the Whiteboard and these are
representing the bottom position of say
like a parallel Squat and this line here
is representing the foot and then you
can see the ankle joint here and in the
bottom position of a squat the ankle is
in dorsal flexion now as an FYI our last
squat video we went into more detail
about joint positions and all the
muscles involved in a squat but I'll
review some of the key points here if
you haven't heard of dorsal flexion it's
when the top of the foot comes closer to
the shin bone which this is the shin
bone here represented and that's the
tibia then we have the knee joint that's
inflexion at the bottom of a squat and
the horizontal line is representing the
femur or thigh bone then we have the hip
here the hips position is in flexion as
you can see by me squatting down here
and then we have the Torso represent by
this line the red line down here is
representing a really important muscle
that we'll talk about in just a few
minutes and the red circle is
representing like a weight or a barbell
that we might be squatting and the
dotted line is showing you our center of
gravity or how that weight is going to
be transmitted throughout the body and
this is really important to How You
Might Squat differently than say another
person so let's use me as an example
here if I take this barbell and I
perform a barbell squat notice what
happens to my hip
as I go deeper into the squat position
as I get lower and lower and lower you
can see that I have to hinge more at my
hips and my torso is much less upright
and again this is all about how I have
to move my body to maintain my center of
gravity now if I change the weight
position and move it to the front of my
body I can kind of tweak the center of
gravity in a way and you might notice
with the front squat I might be able to
maintain a little bit more of an upright
posture now I can give you a little bit
more of an extreme example example if I
were to come over to the table here and
hold on to the table you can see I can
pretty much go into a completely deep
Squat and maintain almost a completely
upright posture but you know if I let go
of the table I'm going to fall over
because I couldn't maintain my center of
gravity in that position now this whole
center of gravity thing is greatly
influenced by the length of your bones
like the ratio of the length of the
femur to the tibia but we'll mostly
focus on the length of the femur so if
we look at the length of the femur on
the this particular body this is how
much hinging has to occur at the hip and
therefore the Torso coming forward in
order to maintain one center of gravity
but if we come over to this example this
body has a shorter femur look how much
less hinging at the hip is required and
it allows the body to be in a more
upright position specifically that torso
as opposed to someone with a longer
femur I've seen people in the gym with
beautiful looking squats where they're
squatting all this weight and their
torso is almost completely upright and
admittedly I'm slightly jealous but this
whole idea of having a longer versus a
shorter femur what does this mean from a
muscular perspective if you were to have
a longer femur well let's first look at
the upper portion of the Torso if you
have to hinge further at the hips that's
going to require more work on the
extensor muscles of the spine in order
to maintain the proper spinal position
also if we hinge further at the hips
that's going to require more range of
motion for the actual hip muscles that
are active during the squat we're going
to be putting a greater eccentric load
or greater length requirement on those
muscles that mobilize the hip and just
as a reminder an eccentric load or an
eccentric contraction is when the muscle
is actively lengthening and the muscles
that are actively lengthening or
eccentrically Contracting at the hip
during a squat to control us on that
lowering phase are the hamstrings the
glutes and a muscle called the adductor
Magnus and just to kind of give you a
visual of what's going on there so I'll
use this rubber band to try to show the
active lengthening of the muscle so this
is like the orientation of one of the
hamstring muscles and as you can see I
go down that rubber band is lengthening
kind of showing you how that hamstring
would eccentrically be contracting or
lengthening as they go down the gluteus
maximus would be in this position you
can see how that would lengthen and then
this muscle that not as many people know
about called the adductor Magnus this
one's going to be really important for
our discussion a little bit later this
one also will be actively lengthening
during that lowering phase of the squat
and with all this talk about squatting
it might be getting some of you excited
about the potential to build leg muscles
but sometimes people can actually have
trouble putting on lean muscle mass and
so some men may be curious about their
testosterone levels and that's why I
want to take a second to say thank you
to the sponsor of today's video Maximus
Maximus has a testosterone protocol or
what they also refer to as their their
EP protocol where e stands for encline
and P stands for pregnanolone encline
blocks selective estrogen receptors
which is important because you don't
want to block every estrogen receptor as
estrogen does have other important
functions but this selective blocking
stimulates your body's own natural
testosterone production within the
testes and pregnanolone is a Cornerstone
molecule that serves a key role in the
production of other hormones such as
testosterone Studies have demonstrated
that most individuals experience an
average of a 1.5 to 2.5 times increase
in their total and free testosterone
levels with this protocol without the
testicular shutdown shrinkage
infertility or the need for an injection
and I want to be clear here I am not
advocating that everyone needs to boost
their testosterone levels and I
certainly don't think something like
this should be done without the help of
an experienced clinician but this is
another reason why I like Maximus
because Maximus connects you with
licensed doctors who are experts in
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trusted us-based compounding pharmacies
to ensure all products are safely
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trying this protocol for Maximus we'll
have that link and the information in
the description below and now let's get
back to squatting but again to drive
this point home the more we have to
hinge at the hip the more active
lengthening or eccentric demand is
placed on those muscles and the more we
have to work to stabilize the spine now
I'm not saying that someone with a
shorter femur doesn't work hard when
they squat I am saying that they have a
biomechanical advantage and generally
they can squat deeper before they start
to get to the length limitations in
those muscles of the hip when you get to
those limitations in the muscle ability
to lengthen any further you'll start to
find it more difficult to maintain that
proper postural alignment of the spine
that you definitely want to keep during
a squat sometimes when people get down
to close to parallel or even deeper into
a squat they'll notice that the pelvis
will almost start to tilt underneath or
what we call a posterior pelvic tilt and
it kind of just rolls underneath the
body slightly they also call this the
buttwink I'm not sure that's the best
name in the world but that's what they
call it so let's use me as an example
here again as I put this barbell on my
back as I get close to parallel you
might notice this subtle tucking under
of my pelvis and you should be able to
see it now and this is because the
pelvis is attached to the sacrum the
lower part of the spine and this will
flatten out my lower back or my lumbar
spine and if I were to really load up
the weight on that barbell when my
pelvis tucked under right there and my
back flattened out a little bit this
could potentially put me in a compromise
situation so how could someone fix this
should you just not do parallel or deep
squats anymore and stop the range of
motion just before you get to the
infamous buttwink I mean you could just
do quarter and half squats for the rest
of your life but you're leaving a lot of
potential benefits on the table if you
don't deep squat now I will say that
quarter squats can have their place in
certain training protocols for example
somebody who's really training for like
a vertical jump they may want to spend
some time training the top end of the
squat that popping of the hips that
occurs during a jump that person might
really load up a barbell with more
weight than they could lift during a
full squat just to train that specific
range on the end of the vertical jump
but even still that person would likely
also include full squats as part of
their routine full range of motion
squats have been shown to be more
effective for stimulating strength and
hypertrophy gains full range of motion
would also obviously help you to
maintain mobility and from an aging and
Longevity standpoint who doesn't want to
just be able to squat all the way down
when they're 70 or 80 and just pop right
back up again so here are some things
that you can do to help you get into a
deep squat while maintaining proper
alignment if you're too narrow in your
stance you can get to this place where
you start to have tissue approximation
where literally your soft tissue and
even some of your bones contact each
other and they stop you from going any
further and you might if you tried to go
any further than that you might end up
like rounding your back or getting in
some compromised position but if you
were to just slightly widen your stance
and you could even externally rotate
your hips a little bit you don't need to
go that far just a little bit of a
subtle external rotation that'll kind of
get that tissue approximation issue
taken care of and will allow you to go
deeper down into a squat but eventually
you still might find that you get to
that point where you've reached the
maximum length of a hip muscle and then
your pelvis might tilt causing you to
lose that alignment in your spine so
what muscles might be the limiting
factors that are causing this tilting of
the pelvis or again that Butt Wink many
people will blame the hamstrings for
this limitation but it's not usually the
hamstrings and this is because your
hamstrings also cross and flex the knee
so as you go down into a squat and I I
use my rubber band as the hamstrings
here yes I will get some lengthening of
the hamstring fibers that are associated
with the hip but I'm also bending or
flexing the knee which will actually
give length back to the hamstrings just
as if you were doing like a hamstring
stretch if you were to bend down and
touch your toes as soon as you were to
like bend your knees you would notice
that you no longer really feel that
hamstring stretch anymore the glutitis
Maximus generally isn't the limiting
factor either but the adductor Magnus
muscle that I mentioned earlier often is
the limiting factor the adductor Magnus
has a head or a portion of the muscle
that acts like a hamstring at the hip
but not at the knee because it doesn't
cross the knee and that's what I've
drawn here on the stick figure here this
red lines representing the adductor
Magnus ending before the knee so as one
bends down into a squat position that
adductor Magness I'll try to show you
the orientation here will lengthen and
lengthen and lengthen and stretch and
because of where it's attached to the
pelvis it's the pelvis is going to
eventually turn underneath if you get to
a point where the adductor Magnus can't
lengthen anymore kind of think of it as
I get to a point where I'm lengthening
I'm lengthening the adductor Magnus and
it's like I can't lengthen anymore and
if you push the squad even further
something's got to give in the system
and that's going to tug and pull the
pelvis underneath which can potentially
flat out flatten out the back and you
would lose that that spinal posture
alignment that you want so how could you
fix this well you would want to increase
the length and the strength of your
adductor Magnus and one very effective
way to do this is with an exercise like
the seated good morning a seated good
morning can strengthen the adductor
Magnus but you would also want to try to
go further and further in that range of
motion as part of your progression and
the more Mobility you get in this muscle
that could potentially translate to
increased range of motion in the squat
without That Butt Wink and the
flattening out of the back another thing
that you could do immediately to get
into a deeper squat presumably while
you're still working on your adductor
Magnus and hip mobility is to elevate
your heels for example if I move back
and get onto this slant board right here
and just elevate my heels you'll notice
that the elevation of my heels allows me
to maintain a more upright torso without
compromising my spine and going into a
deeper squat
now why is that well I said a little bit
earlier I talked a little bit earlier
about this ratio of the fur to The Tib
and we mostly talked about the femur
here but we haven't talked a ton about
the ankle joint and if somebody had a
little bit more range of motion at their
ankle joint and they could get a little
bit more dorsal flexion hinging a little
bit more at their ankle this is a
connected system and so if you get
changes in movements here it's going to
affect things Upstream so a little bit
more dorsal flexion at the ankle could
allow me to have a little bit less
flexion of the hip and be a little bit
more upright in my posture or with my
torso and so this could be helpful for
also getting into deeper squatting but
no matter what if you have a longer
femur in proportion to your tibia that
extra range of motion is going to have
to come from somewhere either at the hip
muscles or the ankle muscles or a
combination of the two so to review all
the key takeaways here if you're trying
to increase the range of motion of the
squat SP while maintaining proper spinal
alignment the immediate changes you
could make is slightly widen your stance
and you could also elevate your heels
for more of the long-term modifications
working to improve hip mobility at the
adductor Magnus as well as your ankle
Mobility with your calf musles but
hopefully that gives you some really
cool info on what the different
requirements are for squatting with
different bone lengths and I do want to
say that I've seen people with long
femurs still squat a ton of weight so
don't let that discourage you there are
people who are fairly tall and have long
femur who work really hard and have
amazing squats people with short femur
can clearly have some amazing squats too
so keep up the squatting everyone and if
you want to check out some of our
previous squatting videos we'll link
that here we'll also link a video on
strength versus hypertrophy thanks for
supporting the channel and we'll see you
in the next video
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