Squat reminder.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. As you all have noticed, there is always room for learning and expanding what you know. I think squatting can always be reiterated. A better squat can ONLY help you while a complacently lazy squat may hurt you. So, ergo, it would behoove any human being to strive to improve their squat to maintain hip and spinal health.

Many schools of thought exist pertaining to the squat. But a squat is a squat. Here are the basics:

• Hinge and the hips and sit back, keep your chest up and back straight (neutral).
• Maintain the aforementioned "form" all the way down as you TRY TO FULLY close your knee joint. Some people think that a squat ends when your hip-crease passes below your knee joint, or just below parallel. WRONG! We want full ROM (range of motion). So we want to go as low as possible while still maintaining, or striving to maintain, neutral spine. This will involve a lot of muscles in your back being used more than normal which usually elicits a lot of discomfort and strange grunting noises.
• At the bottom of the squat, you're going to want to keep that back tight. Humans are NOT rollie-pollies and should not emulate them. We should look strong and assertive in the squat. Chest in front of shoulders, so pull the shoulders back and stick your sternum (chest bone) high. Back straight (use your hip-flexors and back muscles). Keep your knees out and weight on heels (point your toes up).
• Drive through your heels and push the Earth away from you. Keep your chest big and very visible in front of your shoulders. Finish by standing tall and authoritative. Feel proud. Breath!

That's about it. But here's a more detailed write-up from a guy who has more time on his hands than I do to write blogs.

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/how-to-squat-properly/

We all need to be reminder of the correct way to do things sometimes.. I had a pretty brutal reminder last week. It's not fun, but it makes you better in the end and everyone wins.

Here's some exercises to keep you all busy:

Tabata: 8 rounds 20 ON : 10 OFF
- Squats
Full Recovery (2 min)
- Sit ups
Full recovery
- Mountain climbers

Then hold a fully bottomed-out squat for 5 minutes. Relax into it as much as you can and focus on form and keeping yourself centered on your feet. Avoid falling back. Keep your knees out and your bellybutton forward. Breath easy. Elevate your heels if need-be and stop the clock to rest as needed.

Enjoy.