Are You Squatting Incorrectly?

It's prevalent to encounter lifting advice in the gym. This one is as old as it gets. Let's examine it and see if it is a myth or a scientific truth.

In my opinion, the squat is the godfather of all the lower body exercises. It has numerous variations and is an exercise that, once perfected for an individual, can be overloaded very effectively. It’s relatively safe to perform, with some equipment like the safety bar and the smith machine amplifying this quality. Although being a fundamental movement that is so essential to us even in our daily lives, there are many misconceptions around it which I need to face as a healthcare professional and a lifter.

Somebody once decided that the knees going past the toes is apparently harmful and risky for the knees. Rationalisation was provided on the basis that this will limit the compressive stress and tension on the tendon of the quadriceps muscle, which in turn should prevent the inflammation of the tendon and knee pain. Even large research and education organisations like the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Council on Strength and Fitness recommended limiting excessive forward movement of the knee. This statement caught on as quickly as wildfire and was a widely believed notion until researchers and many fitness influencers started working on awareness. Granted that the knees moving past the toes would mean a greater quadriceps activation, but that has never been linked to the risk of knee and patellofemoral joint injuries in the hundreds of studies done on this topic.

Logically speaking, limiting the forward movement of knees over the feet would mean the hips being pushed farther backward, and a greater forward lean of the torso. Squatting like this means you are missing the point of this exercise. The load arm is increased and this significantly loads the back extensors to maintain the spine in a static position through the movement of the lower body.

One consistent clinical finding is limited ankle mobility, which causes the above-mentioned compensation. This is exactly why working on ankle mobility through physical therapy has shown positive effects on squat mechanics. Weightlifting shoes that have an elevated heel also achieve similar results through the relative movement of the ankle and subsequently the knees. What’s essential to understand is that good ankle mobility enables the athlete to lift heavier loads with minimal energy wasted on otherwise unnecessary stabilisation.

There are other compensatory movement patterns that we can observe even in elite weightlifters. The inward movement of the knees and the butt wink are just some of the supposed trick movements. You can head over to the other articles for discussions on these issues. For now, all we need to know is that in a squat, one needs to sit between the feet without much attention to the forward movement of the knee concerning the toes as long as the direction of movement of the knees is close to the direction of the foot placement. This ensures that there is very minimal rotation or torsion in the knee joint and we can target the extensors of hip and knee with other muscle groups being used to stabilise the movement.