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ASSESSING THE SQUAT
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Should achieve 90/90 hips and knees without the heels lifting off the ground. If so, may be caused by:
- Short or stiff posterior leg musculature (Triceps Surae…aka…calves)
- Restricted dorsiflexion of ankle mortise joint
- *See Standing Wall Stretches
If burning sensation is noted on the anterior aspect of the lower leg:
- Tibialis Anterior is likely working overtime to eccentrically control the tibia. (Normally, the tibia should lean forward but due to restrictions posteriorly, it remains upright)
- *You may need to get a hold of a Grid
Should also maintain neutral spine
- Lumbar hinge may indicate (among others):
- Lack of proximal hamstring flexibility – see hinging
- Lack of eccentric control of gluteal musculature
- Stiff/Short hip flexor group (ie. psoas/rectus femoris)
Knees should normally stay in line with and over the 2nd toe
- If knee buckles in (valgus) –> lack of eccentric lateral hip control and / or short and stiff ADDuctor group – Uh oh!…may be at risk for ACL injury. Probably need to check their jump-landing biomechanics
- If knee flares out (varus) –> lack of ankle mortise mobility and /or tight ITB and lateral retinaculum. – GRID…check!
Toes/Feet flaring out may indicate weak deep plantar flexors of ankle or stiff/short lateral hamstring musculature
Spine tilting to one side (lateral listing) may indicate:
- Weak intersegmental musculature
- Stiff/Short contralateral intersegmental musculature
Lateral shift of pelvis
- May indicates musculature imbalance between ADDuctor group and ABDuctor group
- May also indicate stiff/short psoas and ADD of side of shift -> pelvic rotation is likely scene here as well.
- May shift to side of injured knee (possibly indicating ITB, patellar issues)
Pelvis rotation
- May indicate stiff/short gluteal musculature, weak/inhibited gluteal musculature, Sacroiliac joint dysfunction, etc
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ASSESSING THE SQUAT PAST 90 DEGREES
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The Lumbar spine should flex sequentially (buttocks to heels)
- Bottom up segmental movement
- Examine for Hypermobile segments vs Hypomobile segments
- Buckling will also indicate a hypermobile segment
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Hi Jeff,
Love your posts. Two comments:
1. I don’t pretend to know anything about the FMS, I totally agree with your breakdown on this but…when reading “Movement” it seems that Gray Cook is shying away from the idea of parceling out the lack of ability to do the squat into different “parts”. Just wondering what you think about this.
2. Unrelated to the FMS but totally related to the Tib Ant activity during the squat. During my years measuring EMG we always found a huge amount of tib ant activity during the squat on everyone. Even those with a large amount of dorsiflexion. It was a very odd finding – the amount of EMG during a slow, body weight squat would greatly exceed that of what we found during a maximal contraction of resisted dorsiflexion. Definitely a change in length of the muscle was a factor (which influences EMG readings irrespective of muscle activation or force production) but nonetheless, the squat was a fantastic way to turn on the tib ant. More than wobble board exercises, Janda sandals, one leg balance, one leg balance on foam. Very interesting, but then I stopped researching and never published.
Keep up the research blog,
Greg
Thanks Greg. I need to check out your site. I didn’t realize you stopped doing research. I’ll admit, this was one of my more adolescent posts but Perry N. recently did a nice little write up on dynamic chiropractic last month.
http://www.dynamicchiropractic.com/print_friendly.php?pr_file_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dynamicchiropractic.com%2Fmpacms%2Fdc%2Farticle.php%3Fid%3D55111%26no_paginate%3Dtrue%26p_friendly%3Dtrue
Being somewhat familiar with both the FMS & SFMA, I believe Gray advocates against parcelling it out only if you don’t break it out. He uses an algorithm to systematically break out the pattern to prevent one from assuming that the inability to squat cleanly is a result of this or that.
But as I mentioned, I do like Perry’s article better than the above post.
Hope you’re well and I can’t wait to check out your site.
Jeff