Squat deeper and optimize your health and performance with Lift Clinic’s team of physio, chiro, RMT and strength coaches!
This post will focus on the reinforce techniques used to improve the range of motion in the deep squat pattern.
We squat every single day to sit down, pick things up, and use the restroom! The ability to get into a deep squat also ensures your body can tolerate reps and reps of extreme positions involved in sports. Example: digging a low ball in volleyball, squatting down as a back catcher, or setting up a good start position off the blocks as a sprinter.
If you haven’t already, check out our previous posts on deep squat assessments and deep squat resets where we show assessment and hands-on treatment techniques for the spine, hips, knees, ankles, and feet.
For any given movement pattern, our treatment approach follows 4 major steps:
- Assessment
Techniques used to test ranges of motion and find the root causes of limitations
- Reset
Hands on treatment techniques used to improve & restore limited range of motion
- Reinforce
Exercises or self treatments that help maintain the gains made from the reset techniques.
- Reload
Exercises that develop strength, resilience, and coordination for the desired movement pattern.
6 reinforce exercises to maintain deep squat gains:
1) Banded dorsiflexion mobilization
Using a band allows for deeper and more comfortable ranges of dorsiflexion by promoting the normal joint glide between the bones of the ankle joint (talus and tibia/fibula). This may improve joint mobility restrictions.
2) Banded inversion and eversion
This is a strengthening and range of motion exercise to improve the side to side motions of the ankle.
3) Banded hip flexion
Time to strengthen hip flexion range of motion. The focus should be on isolating movement from the hip joint while avoiding any rounding of the spine as compensation.
4) 90/90 hip internal rotation
This position allows for isolated movement of the femur to work on improving internal rotation range between the femur and pelvis.
5) Shin box get ups
This exercise allows for active movement and strengthening between internal and external rotation in the hips.
6) Half kneeling adductor stretch
This exercise provides a nice groin stretch, and actively opens the sacroiliac joint (SIJ) into external rotation.
What's next?
Most of the time, the results of these techniques will be temporary. Now that you’ve locked in your mobility gains for your deep squat, the next step is develop strength, resilience, and coordination in those new ranges.
Stay tuned to our next post in the series: Deep squat: Reload
See what our clients have to say
I came in for a physio appointment with Diana a few months back with some pretty bad back pain and hip pain that was preventing me from doing my job to the best of my abilities. Within my first initial assessment, Diana was immediately able to pinpoint where my problem areas were and not only did hands on treatment to provide immediate relief, but educated me on how to strengthen so that I could continue to reduce my body pains and prevent any similar future injuries.
