Drop It Low, and Stand Back Up = Squats
Copyright: Tamara Baleika | Dreamstime.com
“Seniors that exercise regularly are less likely to depend on others … If self-reliance is a priority, exercise is one of the best ways to maintain independence for older adults.” —Senior Lifestyle
In last month’s blog, we started talking about functional fitness for an aging population, and the functional movement covered was push-ups. As we all know, practicing a mat routine in Pilates is the hardest because it’s simply you and the mat. In fact, the mat exercises came first, and you get a lot of feedback from the mat, but not a lot of “tools” at your disposal to help support you. The genius of Joseph Pilates is that he designed and created the other apparatuses with springs to help people do the mat exercises better. There are so many push-up exercises covered in Pilates, especially when you’re in a studio with access to the various apparatuses.
This month, let’s discuss another functional fitness movement for an aging population: the squat.
What is the Purpose of Squats?
Primarily, squats strengthen the lower body: glutes, hamstrings, and quads. In addition to those primary muscles, it also works your core, back, calves, and hip adductors when practicing with proper form, making it a compound bodyweight exercise. Overall, this contributes to stability and strength in your body.
Let’s break down what these muscle groups are doing for you!
- Quads – generates power for the squat movement
- Hamstrings – works with quads to stabilize the knee joints, and help with standing back up
- Glutes – hip extension, which is the final component of the squat movement
- Core – stabilize the body to prevent injury during the squat
- Calves – assists in standing back up
- Hip adductors – inner thigh muscles to stabilize the legs and maintain proper form
- Back (specifically erector spinae) – maintain posture and stability
Those lower body muscles make it easier for walking, sitting/standing from the toilet, standing for long periods, carrying groceries/luggage, picking up kids off the ground, getting in/out of your car, and climbing stairs, to name a few things to get through your day. It can help navigate uneven surfaces and maintain stability. These are all important for functional longevity, especially as we live longer as a population. It’s about living longer in a way that allows us to stay active, engaged, and healthy for a longer period. Our independence and ability to have a good time is essential to living well.
What Benefits do we get from Squats?
- Build strength and prevent injuries (lower body, core stability, muscular endurance)
- Improve balance (requires coordination and increase joint stability)
- Improve functional fitness (think of how many times you squat in a day!)
- Increased mobility (can increase range of motion/flexibility in hips, knees, and ankles)
- Back pain relief (can improve posture and reduce lower back tightness)
- Reduce risk of osteoporosis and fractures (increase bone density for stronger bones)
What are Squats?
There are many versions, but I want to focus on bodyweight squats, aka air squats. Basically, it’s your body performing a squat in the middle of a room with zero assistance and no additional weights.
Think of squatting as sitting down rather than lowering yourself down. Squats are performed with your thighs at least parallel with the floor. However, going lower through the whole range of motion is known as “deep squats”.
What’s the Proper Form for a Squat?
Important to remember there are 4 components of a bodyweight squat.
- 1. Starting Position:
Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, toes pointed slightly outward. Keep your core engaged and chest lifted. Your back stays in neutral position, and your head stays aligned with the body. - 2. Descending:
Inhale as you descend. Extend your arms out chest height in front of yourself for balance. Begin by pushing your hips back as if you’re sitting into an imaginary chair, while bending your knees. Keep your knees tracking over your toes and your back tall. - 3. Depth:
Lower yourself until your thighs are parallel to the floor, or even lower if you have the flexibility (“deep squats”), keeping your weight in your mid-foot to heels. Ideal depth will vary from person to person. - 4. Ascending:
Exhale as you ascend. Press through the heels to push back up to the starting position, engaging your glutes and quads, while maintaining a tall back and engaged core.
Where can it go wrong?
The standing stance is important so that it doesn’t feel like you can lose your balance.
You’re not looking to bend over. Keep the chest upright. Gaze straight ahead with shoulders rolled back, and center engaged.
Bending the knees first. Think about pushing the hips/butt back ever so slightly then bend the knees to continue the descent.
Just because you’ve hit your depth doesn’t mean to relax. Keep the whole body engaged even at the bottom position of a squat.
Knees begin to cave in. Keep the glutes engaged to help with this.
Stop when the heels begin to lift, and/or the torso begins to round forward.
Can’t do a squat YET?
There are 3 joints working together: the hips, the knees, and the ankles. The mobility of each joint is important on its own, but together determines the depth of a squat.
- If you can’t squat to 90 degrees without your heels falling forward, you likely have weak ankles and limited mobility. Elevate your heels with towels.
- If you have unstable knees, incorporate a resistance band above your knees for added support. The tension of the resistance band helps with alignment and strengthens the joints and tendons around your knees.
- If you can’t squat to 90 degrees without your chest falling forward, you likely have a weak back and glutes.
- If you can’t handle basic low volume of bodyweight squats, you’re more likely to be injured, and take longer to recover from an injury.
Have no fear; it’s never too late to start! Let’s go through progressions so you can assess where you’re at today, and work up to it. In fact, I’ll even list some progressions if you’ve mastered the squats, and wonder what’s next!
- Most Accessible: Assisted or deep assisted squats with hands to the back of a chair, bodyweight squats to a bench, chair, physio ball (any object that stops your butt before your thighs can lower below parallel to the floor)
- Everyday Squat Variations: Bodyweight squats, bodyweight deep squats, sumo squats, split squats, reverse lunges, heel-elevated squats
- Challenge: Weighted squats, goblet squat, pistol squats, Bulgarian split squats, overhead squats, jump squats
What if the “most accessible” progressions is not where I’m at today?
Here’s a list of additional progressions you can try.
Progressions: Wall squats, wall sit holds, six-point rocking squats, supine banded reverse squats, seated or supine leg extensions with a resistance band
What are the bodyweight squat guidelines by age and gender while practicing them non-stop?
Men:
- 20s – 30s: 50
- 40s – 50s: 40
- 60s – 70s: 30
- 80s – 90s: 5-15 (focus on maintaining mobility than building strength)
Women:
- 20s – 30s: 45
- 40s – 50s: 35
- 60s – 70s: 25
- 80s – 90s: 5-15 (focus on maintaining mobility than building strength)
If you noticed you fell short of these guidelines, it may signal you’re losing muscle mass and bone density. Strength training can help rebuild both. On the other side of this, your progress can plateau with your body weight. Now, your body requires new stimuli to continue building your muscles and bones. New stimuli can be increasing your time under tension, additional reps, or weighted squats to increase strength and endurance.
If there is a Pilates Push-Up, is there a Pilates Squat?
It’s not known as a “Pilates Squat” by name, but there are many squat exercises, including variations, available on all the Pilates apparatuses. Many of these exercises build up your squats from where you are today depending on your body’s need to strengthen, stretch, stabilize, and mobilize. There are also squat exercises to challenge your body because there’s always another level if your body hits a plateau.
However, if you’re at home practicing the classical mat order, it begins with a squat down (ideally without the use of your arms for assistance), and 33 exercises later, from laying on your back, you roll up to standing (which is a squat to standing tall, again without the use of your arms) to practice the 34th and last exercise, known as the Pilates Push-Ups.
Final Word!
Think of all the squats you do in a day – to the office chair, to the toilet, to the couch, to the dining room chair, getting in/out of your car, getting off the floor, sitting on the side of your bed. Can you do these without using your arms to transition? How is your balance? How “deep” is your hip flexion; greater than 90 degrees? Do you plop on the last inch, or is it a controlled descent? Begin where you are today, and build from there. Incorporate squats into your daily movement, and see if you notice and/or feel a difference! It takes time and consistency to improve. Remember that Rome was not built in 1 day.