Description
Plain and simple, there’s no good reason to lose your squat pattern. Foregoing acute injury, this pattern usually goes away from either overuse of the lower body (think avid runner) or reduced activity level. We can’t be content with the loss of such an important developmental milestone - and that’s why we assess it for pain and screen it for dysfunction. We look at a general ‘squeeze’ of multi-segmental flexion: Do all of your joints contribute in an extreme position? Are there right/left differences in ankle, knee, hip or shoulder flexion? Can your core span the required upper and lower body mobility?
Gray Cook’s selections for his squat pattern exercise progression unpack the movement from the ground up - fundamental before functional - and look for common tone and tissue concerns, especially in regards to posterior chain tightness and asymmetrical weight bearing. Beginning with rolling, the exercises move up through the postures through tall-kneeling and half-kneeling reaches and turns, RNT challenge exercises and finally in Gray’s take on an overhead squat.
The FMS philosophy still prevails here - correct other patterns first and recheck their impact on the squat. Remember, conditioning should serve to make a person strong and reactive in their squat, but it should never take the squat pattern away.
Course length: 55 minutes
Sneak Peak of This Course!
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Get access to the whole Corrective Strategies Series with our bundle option!
This course is part of a series that explores the FMS approach to identifying and correcting movement dysfunctions. Other patterns explored include Hip Hinge, Upper Body, Rotation, and Balance. Each details the differences between the FMS assessments and screens - SFMA, FMS, and Symmio, and follows with exercises based on a hierarchy of developmental postures: Supported, Suspended, Stacked, and Standing. The exercises are also structured by the ABCs principle: Awareness, Breathing, and Control, and use Reactive Neuromuscular Training (RNT) to engage motor learning, or as Gray says, “motor remembering”
The addition of Symmio includes an overview of the movement self-screen as well as a discussion of the impact of non-musculoskeletal lifestyle factors on movement health and wellness.
Functional exercise should never cause dysfunction and this FMS Corrective Strategies series, along with the insight into the system you integrate into your work, whether it be SFMA, FMS, Symmio, or all of our options, provides you with the basics of a test-correct-retest standard operating procedure. Go beyond the body parts and see the importance of patterns for identifying and correcting movement health issues at the edge of ability in a rich sensory environment.