Squatting with the knees passing the toes This video depicts a lifter in Africa doing some deep, deep squats. Now youll notice that the knees arent jutting out over the little toe, the shins arent vertical and the knees definitely pass over the toes. Why is this ? Take a look at her thigh (femur) and notice its pretty much as long as her shins are! Squatting style depends a lot on torso, and femur length. Youll notice many Asian lifters squat bolt upright, their thighs barely scratch parallel even at maximum depth and their shins also dont travel far forward. This is due to the fact due to the femur being the strongest lever and the shortest, the knees dont travel far because they dont have too. However with African lifters who have very short torsos and long legs they naturally lean forward to emphasise their backs and hips (their shortest/strongest lever) to help out those long legs which would be a weaker lever. In order to reach depth people with longer legs/femurs will naturally have to push the knees further forwards than shorter femured people in order to reach depth. Does this matter in regards to squatting max weights ad preventing injury ? Ultimately. No. The two styles are different for a reason! each emphasises the strongest levers you have, so in training you need to train the technique that is best for your build, and muscular strengths. As long as youre squatting in a ROM you can control, this means a flat back, weight evenly distributed over the whole foot being able to maintain muscular tension during the ascent, descent and body positions throughout the whole range of motion then youre probably squatting just fine! There are always ways to improve the squat but as long as youre taking care of the major key points on form listed previously then you dont need to worry about your squatting technique hurting you. #SquattingTips #Performance #Strength
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 18:16:31 +0000
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