Stuff You Should Try #2

“It’s not squats that are hurting your knees, it’s the way yousquat that’s hurting your knees”
Dan John.
 
Dan John is a legend in the strength training world and I love this quote of his.
 
The internet is a crazy place and if you try to find info to help your fitness (whether exercise or nutrition related) it wouldn’t be surprising if you got pretty confused.
 
There’s a lot of conflicting information out there.
 
The biggest problem (arguably), is seeing things as black or white.
 
This exercise is good, that one’s bad….crossfit sucks vs crossfit is my life, cardio makes you weak, fat and is the cause of third world debt etc
 
This why I love this Dan John quote so much.
 
There’s no such thing as bad exercise just ones that are inappropriately applied.
 
Over the last week I’ve assessments with a few people who have had knee and/or back pain.
 
All of them had the back squat in their current programs.
 
In each case, when I asked them to show me how they squat it turned out that how they were squatting was at least exacerbating their symptoms.
 
Enter the Bottoms up Kettlebell squat.
 

Reasons I like this exercise.
 
Taking the load to the front of the body acts as a counter balance, making it a bit easier to get back into the hips and get the glutes to load.
 
Glutes that are firing and pulling their weight is essential for keeping the back knees ouchie free.
 
The bottoms up position of the kettlebell adds a little instability for the body to control, it seems to really help the lifter get the feeling of using their core, whilst adding a little extra for the shoulder stabilisers.
 
By it self it’s not going to turn you into a raging powerhouse of muscle.
 
But that’s not the aim.
 
The aim is to help you get in tune with the movement you’re performing.
 
To get the right muscles activated and joining the party.
 
Then when everything feels a bit more natural and automatic you can try adding some load.
 
Whether that’s with a front barbell squat, a back barbell, double kettlebell or any of the other variety of loaded squats.
 
You could even just have it as part of your warm up to groove the right pattern
 
Key points to remember.
 
Spread the floor with your feet on the set up.
 
This gets the glutes to fire up.
 
Sit back into the hips, not down through the knees.
 
Have a try.
 
Was this useful or a waste of your valuable time?
 
Let me know in the comments.