It's an epidemic across the entire CrossFit community. There are too many people out there that can't squat for shit. There are a myriad of reasons why you don't squat well, but the first and foremost reason is you aren't strong enough to do it right. You have weak hamstrings, glutes, abductors and adductors. Everyone relies on the strength of their quads. What you get is a stance that is too wide, feet that are toed too far out, and the real killer: knees that track in rather than track over the feet. The lack of strength also causes many to relax at the bottom of the squat. The butt practically touches the heels and then the person tries to bounce out of the bottom of the squat. What's makes all of this even worse is you take a weak squat, and then you try and load it up. Thrusters, front squats, overhead squats, wall balls....they all load up the squat movement. Squat poorly and your knees are taking a brutal beating.
The thing I see the most in a squat is the knees tracking inside the feet. It's easy to spot because it usually leads to the heels rising off the floor. Next time you are at the gym, watch for it. You will see it all around you. You need to learn to keep the knees tracking over the feet. There are some simple drills to work on this technique. Squatting to a box is one of my favorites in getting people to squat more efficiently. Its a simple drill and with some good tactical coaching, works quite well in getting people to realize just how weak their lower body is and how poor their squat mechanics are. Just set up a box to squat height or even a little higher. Practice squating to a completely relaxed seated position. Keep the heels on the floor and the knees tracking over the feet during the entire movement. After you relax in the seated position for a second or two, try and stand up out of the squat without rocking forward. Eventually, you can do this with a bar on your shoulders or even a medicine ball in your hands. It is a drill, not a CrossFit workout. Do the movement slow and concentrate on moving well. I'll try and get a video demo up ASAP.
The second thing you can do to protect your knees if you squat poorly is to stop trying to do workouts "as RX'd." Learn to take some baby steps and check your damn ego at the door. I keep telling you that no one in the entire gym but you gives a shit if you do a workout as prescribed or not. What really matters is that you move well. Wouldn't you much rather have people talking about you saying, "watch this guy/gal's movement, its beautiful!" rather than "wow, he finished that workout fast"?? You come to the gym to get healthier. If ten years from now your knees ache all the time and it hurts to walk up the stairs, how is that healthy??? If you can learn to move well with a lighter load, you will get much stronger and much faster much sooner.
Look at the names on Wall of Fame board. People like Chong, Chris Stroud, and Maria are fast because they move well. They don't do thrusters on the balls of their feet. They don't do air squats with their knees tracking in. Watch them when they are training. You can learn a lot.
I leave you with a picture of a good squat. If anything, just get into a squat position and try to emulate Jolie's knees and feet in the photo. I don't even care if your chest is forward too much for now. Hit me up in the gym. I will give you some simple drills to fix your squat and save your knees......
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WORKOUT 1/11/2011
Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
- Row 250m
- 5 burpees
- 10 pull-ups
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Posted by: rs2shopping | August 15, 2011 at 01:40
Yes, very nice squat, despite the shoes. :)
Posted by: Wendy | January 18, 2011 at 22:48
I couldn't agree more. Many people want to race to either do cf wods or are trying to race through the wods. As a doctor of chiropractic I teach the squat and its biomechanics to people of all ages. Watch people get up from a chair. Many propel themselves forward with inertia or push with their arms to pass the weak spot of their quads. Many folks also lack the flexibility in their hip flexors to even achieve the lowest portion of the squat/watrch the heels leave the ground near the bottom. Nothing surpasses technique. If your getting hurt one of two things are happenin. You are using poor technique or you are not ready to perform the movement. That is everyones job in the cf community. Never force reps with bad technique, and don't encourage people to perform things they are not ready to do. Basics are the building blocks of perfection.
Dlb,d.c.
Posted by: darrack l bush, d.c. | January 17, 2011 at 12:47
I have a few questions to hopefully expand the discussion:
1. Is there data to show that bad squatting technique causes knee injuries?
2. Are we underestimating the body's ability to adapt to movement variations? Regarding a movement's functionality, the body will find a way to accomplish what is being asked of it, including knees going in while finishing the squat. I'm not saying that this is the ideal, but is it THAT bad? I would think that a criterion for “bad” is if the body is being injured in doing so, but I don't have the breadth of experience to have seen such widespread squatting injures.
3. If people can't squat well because they're not strong enough and the way to get stronger is to squat more, we've entered a Catch-22. I would agree that properly squatting will strengthen the weak muscles, resulting in a better squat vs. poor squatting just relying on the strong muscles. Is that what you mean?
4. On point 3, would it be a fruitful endeavor to train weak muscles with some special exercises (for posterior chain and maybe adductors)? I know this smacks of a globo gym mentality, but does it have to?
5. Regarding Kevin's point about squatting 385 vs. 225 pounds - which is better? If he was at the same fitness level for each lift, functional emphasis would say that the technique that allowed him to squat 385 is better because it produced more force (and likely more power) - a measure of fitness.
6. Following on 5, is there a danger of overemphasizing technique at the expense of fitness? The beauty of initial CrossFit training is the emphasis on proper technique, but eventually you must say "3, 2, 1, Go!” During the WoD, everyone’s technique suffers to some degree as fatigue sets in, but I would postulate that the stronger a person is, the less severely the technique will suffer. Squatting with a PVC pipe is great for technique, but in order for the weak muscles to be strengthened beyond the bodyweight squat limit, weight must be added. The end result is a stronger squatter with better technique throughout the WoD.
7. As a coach, how far do you allow someone’s technique to degrade during a WoD before pulling back the reins and forcing them to either slow down or lower their weight or both?
Posted by: Steve | January 12, 2011 at 14:02
Start using that Glute-Ham developer the way it was designed to be used. It really is a great tool to develop the glutes, hams, and calves. Weak hams = weak knees!
Posted by: Greg | January 12, 2011 at 10:27
Another great article from your mad mind. Thanks for teaching the teachers and giving us ammo.
-joe t
Posted by: Joe T | January 12, 2011 at 08:26
Good Post! Wish someone would have taught my old Level 1 coach this information. I'm glad I finally figured it out, better late then never.. I scaled from doing a horrendous max close to 200 lbs to work on 65lbs with my butt back and knees not going in... It effects everything and not just your knees, but weakness effects the back and the whole body. It is serious. When someone comes to Crossfit without ever touching a barbell you look up to the coach... when your back and knees go bum and you find out they never taught you the mechanics and just left it at you had an odd body type and are not made for lifting it just doesn't seem right... A good coach means everything!! I'm sure I was the gym rat everyone could point out with my knees tracking in and over my toes and my butt always sticking out. GOODBYE to those days! haha.
Posted by: NewMe | January 12, 2011 at 03:47
This is an EGO-thing. I sucked it up, and retrained my body to squat properly.
Thought I was a badass with 385#... Now, I'm at 225#, but doing it correctly.
Thanks Freddy, and a shout out to Diane at CF San Francisco for teaching me right.
Posted by: Kevin Sullivan | January 11, 2011 at 12:12
Freddy, this post hits painfully (har) close to home. I can personally relate to the quad dominance created by poor squatting, along with the resulting knee pain, something that came out exceptionally fast for me due to preexisting acute knee trauma. Trust me, it's a b**** to fix!!
Something else I learned the hard way recently thanks to KStar is that my hyper-arched lower back (non-neutral spine) was preventing the glutes/hams/thingsthataresupposedtosupportyourknees from engaging properly when getting to the bottom of a squat. This is pretty common in women, similarly painful to the knees, and again, a total b**** to fix. But hey, gotta start somewhere!
Hope you all are well down at One World :)
Posted by: Andrea S. | January 11, 2011 at 07:40
When I first started CrossFit I sucked at squatting so I did 50 squats every day no matter what..come rain, shine, earthquakes, stock market crashes...did that for over a year and a half. Got out of doing it, but maybe I need to start it up again. Good post, Freddy.
Posted by: Jor | January 11, 2011 at 05:47
Maybe we should do air squats as part of our warmups every day until we all get them right in our WoDs.
Posted by: Alex Bond | January 10, 2011 at 22:21
Great post Freddy!
Eric had me doing box squat drills as well some time ago. They helped tremendously with my technique!
I'll see you guys on Friday!
Posted by: Jerry L. | January 10, 2011 at 22:18
I don't care what anybody says Freddy...you DO know squat!
Miss you bro, hope all is well :-)
Posted by: Playoff Beard | January 10, 2011 at 21:49
Very well put Freddy, I personally know I constantly need to work on my squat form and it's too easy to get sucked into trying to compete with others. I will make it a point at our box to concentrate on technique and proper movement. At 48 with an aching and broken body from the rigors and stupidity of my younger military days I need to ensure I can walk on my own whe I get to my 90's.
Posted by: Richard Toellner | January 10, 2011 at 20:56
My opinion is a person shouldn't even be doing a WOD until they can do the movement correctly. My people don't get to even do CF until they can pass all my movement requirements (squat, deadlift, press) and have a baseline of strength developed. I know this is a luxury since I don't need to pay the bills with my hobby.
Good post (again!).
Matt
Posted by: Matt L. | January 10, 2011 at 20:22
Fantastic post relating to virtuosity! You nailed the speed v. technique argument right on the head. If the technique is learned poorly when fatigue sets in the poor technique will rear its ugly head.
Posted by: Ismael | January 10, 2011 at 20:07
Outstanding post Freddy. Something that I agree is getting lost. Basics of movement is where we should be coaching. Hope all is well. -Bob
Posted by: Bob guere | January 10, 2011 at 20:05