Often when performing personal training sessions with private clients or during group fitness sessions, I find myself repeating over and over again one or more of the following phrases:

“Pull yourself into the squat”
“Make sure you get as low as possible maintaining an upright posture”
“Imagine a hole and sit right into it”
“Open the hips and sit right back”
“Come on…we both know you can go deeper than that!”

Getting people to squat deep is actually very simply when you are able to identify what’s going wrong with an individual’s body.

Common problems are:

- Tight hamstrings from sitting at a desk too much
- Lack of hip mobility from lots of intense sport particularly those with lots of lateral movement, jumping, landing and changes of direction such as football, tennis, hockey and rugby.
- Poor core muscle and lower back strength which prevents the individual from keeping their back in neutral and not collapsing forward.
- Tight hip flexors from sitting at a desk too much (common theme here….!) again pulling the individual forward
- Weak hip flexors resulting in an inability to pull yourself down into the squat – it’s not just about the ‘push’ from the bottom!
- Weak glute muscles encouraging the person to push through their toes and recruit the quads more (again leading to forward lean)
- Weak glute med muscles leading to an inability to stabilize the knees (do you find yours rolling inwards as you descend?)
- Poor balance qualities making the person feel like they ‘just can’t do it’.
- Ankle mobility restrictions – most common in those who have incessantly indulged in high impact sports throughout life (myself included!) resulting in scar tissue build up or worse, rogue bone growths such as osteophytes which are much harder to deal with.

There’s obviously a lot of reasons why someone may have difficulty squatting properly.

Unfortunately these issues can be compounded by repetition of bad habits.

A perfect example of this is the BodyPump ‘phenomenon’.

These classes are a very poor way to train for many reasons but that can wait for now.

I have seen many, many new clients present with issues which are a direct result of repeating poor technique over and over again for 4-5 minutes during ‘the Girls Aloud track’ often multiple times per week.

A client just this morning went from half squat to full squat and IMMEDIATELY reported her glutes (that’s your butt) firing much more and feeling it much more in her legs.

In English this means….she will get a tighter, firmer butt and much stronger legs coupled with a much lower chance of injury AND better movement as she ages. She’ll also burn more calories at each training session now simply because the muscles are being worked twice as much every time she squats!

Let’s see one of the reasons why BodyPump is a joke….

WARNING: This video contains images which may disturb those who have committed to providing training that really works for the general public.

TRANSLATION: “Okay, now we’ve got the bad technique perfected, let’s do it faster and put even more pressure on our lower backs…oh ya feel ze burn!!! You are now doing AWESOME in increasing your risk of injury and by the way, you’ll keep coming because you never get results but think you just need to come MORE so I can con you more with my awful coaching. But the good news is there’s a new BodyPump 437 CD out next week so I can mess you up to some new vibes from Venga Boys OH YA!”

That is an absolute disgrace and an insult to those who pay good money to be taught how to get fit and healthy.

(If you want to be built like a German sparrow, feel free to follow this kind of training with half-range of motion (and that’s being generous!))

This goes on across the country every day and the attendants wonder why they never see any change past the first week or so (when any exercise will bring a degree of results).

The good news is that in 95% cases, the problem of poor coaching (how can you coach 30 people to squat properly at once when it takes a skilled trainer a few weeks to succeed on a 121 basis?) can be rectified by a skilled professional who knows what to test and look out for!

This is a proper squat – you will also see me hold the weight at the front which increases the core challenge, eradicates issues of too much weight loading the spine (many people get bad backs from squatting) and makes it easier for lanky people like me to squat deeper!

NB About a year ago I had REAL problems getting deep in squats due to left over mobility issues from football and tennis when younger so these things can be corrected!

Find someone who can correct your squat and you’ll be amazed at the improvements in:

- Strength
- Muscle tone (legs and bum)
-  Injury prevention
- Running performance if that’s your thing
- Joint mobility, helping to avoid or at least greatly reduce lower back and knee issues as you age
- Calorie burn!

“But there’s no way I can move like that”, I hear you cry!

Let me answer with two pictures. The answers lie within…

Okay, okay if you haven’t twigged….

We were all born with the ability to squat down to our haunches. Those tribes who have not been corrupted by things like chairs, never mind desks and office posture, maintain this ability their entire lives.

The problems come when muscles tighten up and joints lose their mobility and lubrication through lack of use. Both can be restored – maybe not fully depending on wear and tear and age but certainly a huge difference can be attained in most.

So learn to move properly and enjoy the freedom and reduced aches and niggles it brings!

Key rules to remember and things to work on:

- Work on joint mobility, hip flexor and hamstring flexibility and strength
- Build a stronger core
- Sit back on your heels to help recruit your butt muscles
- Go as deep as you can and only add weight when you can do a full bodyweight squat
- Don’t go to BodyPump!!!

If you want to work with Jon in Guernsey on similar issues with your posture and movement please email jon@stormforcefitness.com and tell me what’s up!

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