3 Exercises to Improve Your Squat

The squat is a fundamental position that everyone should be able to perform. It’s arguably one of the most functional movements. The problem is, chairs have conditioned us to only have to squat to partial depth. I spent a few months in the Philippines and it was common to see older folks sitting in a deep squat to eat their lunch. If we all did this more often, we likely have healthy ankles, knees, and hips. 

The majority of issues I see around a deep squat start at the ankles. For normal walking, you need about 10 degrees of dorsiflexion, but for squatting, it’s closer to 20 degrees and very few people I treat have that much range of motion. Dorsiflexion is the motion of bringing your feet upward, the opposite of stepping on a gas pedal. 

Here’s a great way to fix that:

You also need a fair amount of rotation of the hip. Probably the best way to fix this is with the following exercise:

Lastly, the adductors (groin muscles) can be a limiting factor in a deep squat. I love this exercise for the adductors:

If you feel like you are going to fall backwards when you squat, that is because your ankles are missing range of motion. There is nothing wrong with squatting with your feet turned out or your heels elevated to make up for the missing range of motion. However, I do think it’s a good idea to continue to improve your available range of motion and aim for squatting without those compensations in the future. 

Squatting and Back Pain

Have low back pain when squatting? There can be several reasons for this, but the first thing I check is your ankles. Limited ankle range of motion can alter how you squat and change your center of gravity, placing more strain on your low back. 

If you can’t squat deep without your heels raising or your feet turning out, chances are you are missing some ankle range of motion. The body loves to compensate, and just how it chooses to do it dictates where symptoms may develop. 

For example, if you squat and feel like you’re going to fall backwards, you will likely bend forward at the waist as a counter to the feeling of falling backwards. Like so:

That may be all well and good, but once you start loading this position with some weight, your back will have to work extra hard to get that weight back up. A quick test to see if the ankles are the problem is to take them out of the picture by buying back some range of motion and elevating your heels. You can stand on some plates or on something like shown below. If, with heels elevated, you can be closer to upright in your torso, chances are it’s your ankles to blame. See below:

So the short term fix would be to elevate your heels, or just not squat as deep. However, if you want to get into a deep squat (which I recommend for knee health), then you should prioritize mobilizing your ankles and getting some range of motion restored.

Here are two of my favorite exercises for this:



Difficulty With a Deep Squat? Check Your Adductors.

There are a number of reasons why you may have difficulty achieving a deep squat. Usually it’s your ankles. If you feel like you are going to fall backwards during a squat, it’s your ankles. However, if you feel strain in your groin or inner thigh, it may be your adductors. 

Adductors get stiff. Often. Your femurs at rest are in a shortened position, even in standing. If you don’t take time to mobilize your adductors, then they stay stiff. When you squat, the femur has to flex and abduct which takes up the slack in the adductors. 

Try these three things to mobilize the adductors, then retest your squat: