Could the hidden problems with the way you walk be wrecking your squat?
Could the way you walk be wrecking your squat?
The headline here could have the word “squat” replaced by nearly anything, but here we’ll look at how one particular phase of your walking cycle, may be destroying your ability to perform a decent squat.
Squat Depth
During the squat, our ability to descend to depth is limited somewhat through the length of the adductors. Often times doing some work through releasing the adductors, and following up with some squat patterning work can help to see the athlete get even deeper in the squat.
But what happens when one side is shorter than the other?
Hip rotation in the squat exercise
A huge number of athletes I see suffer from some rotation in their squat, and a good number of you reading this will as well. Sometimes this will manifest as a very obvious rotation through the hips (where one hip moves backwards during the squat), other times it will result in a weight shift to one side, or any other array of compensations to mask this movement, particularly if you were already aware of it. It can also often be the reason for setting up one leg a little further back or rotated out, though keep in mind, in all of these cases, it could be a multitude of factors. For ease of reading (and writing!) here we just want to focus on one “what if.”
The Gait cycle
During our gait cycle, a point comes where we need to start to move our mass from one foot to another. Gary Ward of Anatomy in Motion calls this “shift” phase.
During this point in gait, your pelvis should shift in a level manner, from one side to the other, as you prep to land your lifted foot on the ground. Sounds reasonable, but I am triggered to write this after seeing a huge number of athletes in my practice lack the ability to do this well on both sides. Very often the pelvis seems to move easily to one side, but is restricted to the other. In fact, in may stay on the side that is easy, and never see light of day on the other.
What’s the repercussions of this?
A lack of ability to shift the pelvis to one side, may see the other side present with tight adductors for one. A shortened QL on the other side (a muscle that runs from your spine to your pelvis), as well as compression through the lumbar spine, may also be reason for rotating the hips in the squat, and could even be the reason for lower back pain during squatting.
If you rotate in your squat, or feel constant tightness in your adductors, particularly on one side, check your ability to shift your pelvis side to side. Another good idea may be to video yourself walking, and take note of the ability of the pelvis to shift side to side. If there is restriction, adductor release and squat technique work will only go so far, when everytime time you walk back to the car, your body is undoing the good things you gave it.
Funny walks are only funny in movies. Get your gait sorted and good stuff will follow.