I was recently on a vacation with a friend that involved a great deal of walking around a new city. During a moment of respite, I noticed she dropped into a deep squatting position, rather than plopping down on a nearby bench like I did.\u00a0When I asked why she wasn\u2019t sitting, she joked, \u201cI\u2019m trying out the Slav squat.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pervasive \u201cSquatting Slav\u201d or \u201cSlav Squat\u201d meme<\/a> refers to images of Slavic-appearing men wearing tracksuits and hanging out together in a deep squatting position with their heels flat on the ground. Searches for this meme often direct people to the notion of the \u201cAsian Squat\u201d<\/a> as well \u2015 a nod to the ubiquity of deep squats in many Asian cultures.\u00a0<\/p>\n But in the U.S., squatting is considerably less common (such that in my informal poll of friends, only about half were even able to assume this position without holding onto something).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe squat as children and in our teens, but as we in the Western world get older we completely stop deep squatting in our daily lives unless we intentionally do it as a form of exercise or in yoga,\u201d said Bahram Jam<\/a>, a physical therapist at Athlete\u2019s Care Clinic in Toronto.\u00a0\u201cA true sign of aging is the inability to squat or sit on the floor and be able to get up independently again.\u201d<\/p>\n But should we be hanging out in a deep squat for prolonged periods of time? What\u2019s the optimal approach to the squat? Below, Jam and other experts break it down.\u00a0<\/p>\n What does squatting do for your body?<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you squat, your joints are at the end range of motion \u2015 ankle, knee and hip,\u201d noted Bryan Ausinheiler<\/a>, a physical therapist, personal trainer and nutritionist who\u2019s developed an interest in the deep squat and the cultural differences in how people move their bodies.\u00a0<\/p>\n Maintaining a deep squat resting position with heels on the ground requires a good amount of balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThink of it like a Slinky, folding over and aligning your weight,\u201d said Justin C. Lin<\/a>, a physical therapist and executive director of Rehab and Revive Pain and Wellness Center<\/a> in Tustin, California. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to line up your center of balance, so you can kind of crumple down like an aluminum can. It\u2019s this little balance game.\u201d<\/p>\n This balance game, as Lin called it, targets multiple muscle groups, stretching your back, hips, knees and ankles.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe ankles, knees, hips and back move into their full rage of flexion, loading the joint and the cartilage which is necessary for maintaining good cartilage health,\u201d Jam said.\u00a0<\/p>\n For some people, getting into a deep squat position with their heels on the ground is difficult or may even feel impossible. This is often the result of compromised ankle dorsiflexion \u2015 basically the ability to bend your ankle and move your foot toward your shin.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cFull ankle dorsiflexion is needed to keep the heels down during a squat,\u201d Jam explained. \u201cIf people have stiff ankles either due to genetics or due to an old ankle injury, keeping the heels down will not be possible. The modification is to simply hold on to a doorway or a bar and go into a deep squat.\u201d<\/p>\n Ausinheiler noted that 45 degrees is the optimal ankle range of motion for achieving a deep squat and that people with less than 35 degrees will likely struggle to get into the position.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen my babies were born, I measured their range of motion at about 75 degrees,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s so easy for toddlers to squat. They have the body proportions of a chimp, so their shins might even be totally vertical.\u201d<\/p>\n As children grow, their body proportions change, and their limbs get longer.\u00a0Squatting thus becomes more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cShort people have proportionally shorter limbs in general, so squatting will be easier for them,\u201d Ausinheiler explained. \u201cThe people who break world records in squatting are usually short.\u201d<\/p>\n Many kids don\u2019t use their full range of ankle motion, so it decreases over time. Ausinheiler believes children should be encouraged to squat more to help maintain a 45-degree range of motion.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe range you use as a child will determine your capacity to squat, even more so than your height,\u201d he explained. \u201cI think kids shouldn\u2019t be using chairs and desks at school until second grade. We should have them on the floor more to maintain that range of motion.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I was recently on a vacation with a friend that involved a great deal of walking around a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[6647,102,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-193138","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fitness","8":"tag-fitness","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}