“A question I often receive from my clients is, ‘Dr. D, what is the best exercise I could possibly do?’ What they mean to ask is, ‘What secret exercise do only PT’s know that gets magical results?’ And the answer is always much simpler than people expect. It is the Almighty Squat!
The most basic answer is often the best answer. There’s nothing secret or particularly sexy about a squat. However, it is the humble squat that can garner the greatest results for strength, power & injury prevention. And it can be modified into a dizzying array of fancy & fun variations to keep things fresh & exciting!
Hip Strategy vs Ankle Strategy
To optimize the benefits from the squat, there are a couple of key factors to bear in mind: hip & knee positions.
When viewing the almighty squat from the side, we look to see the use of what I call a ‘hip strategy’ where the primary movement is seen at the hip with forward flexion, followed by knee flexion & some ankle flexion. Many people, unfortunately, perform a squat with an ‘ankle strategy’ where much of the movement happens at the ankle, followed by the knee & very little at the hip. This places the knees over the front of the toes producing a significant amount of torque at the knee & misses out on engagement of the hip muscles (the gluteals). Sometimes using an ankle strategy indicates weakness at the hip whereby the body responds by avoiding the use of those important gluteals. (We will address this particular hip issue in another article.) Suffice to say, for best results, using a hip strategy will protect your knees & encourage maximal engagement of those powerful gluteals.
Track Those Knees
When viewing the almighty squat from the front, I focus attention on knee positions in the frontal plane (meaning how close or how far apart are the knees). Ideally, the knees should remain about the same width as the hips, shoulders & feet & they should track in a straight line when going down & back up. When I see knees moving towards each other (i.e., towards midline) that is another indicator of poor control of the lateral hip stabilizers (gluteus medius & gluteus mimimus). To keep those important stabilizers engaged, be mindful of keeping your knees apart. It may be helpful to watch yourself in a mirror head-on to see how your knees track.
To further engage optimal recruitment of the gluteal & quadriceps, focus on pressing through your heels (not your toes) when going down & up. And, for a nice gluteal boost at the end, add a little squeeze of your bum at the top of your stance!
Modify, Modify, Modify!
From here you can make a myriad of modifications to the squat to get amazing results. You can, of course, add weights or resistance bands for strengthening. But there are many ways to modify a squat without special equipment. You can increase your Time Under Tension (slow the movement down), perform single-legged squats or backward lunges (I prefer those over the standard forward lunge) & you can progress into plyometrics with squat jumps, box jumps & the like. Just remember to use the hip strategy & keep your knees apart!
So, there you have it! The secret weapon. La sauce secrète. The one exercise that will get you the biggest bang for your buck. The Almighty Squat!”
For more info about Corey and/or his mobile physical therapy options, please email or call him at 208.570.3004.
For more info on “best exercises”, see these posts: