A rehabilitator has named 3 cases when squats are contraindicated for you. Check yourself

A rehabilitator has named 3 cases when squats are contraindicated for you. Check yourself

And tells you how you can fix it.

rehabilitation therapist, kinesiotherapist, psychosomatologist

“There are a few cases where squats are worth transforming or replacing them with other exercises altogether.”

Knee dysfunction

Some people feel discomfort in their knees even with relatively light exertion. For example, when going down or up stairs. Such people may find it painful to do even basic exercises such as squats and lunges. Pain may be due to the inability to “hold” the load with additional provocations or mechanical injuries received in the past.

Exercising through the pain is not a good idea. As a temporary help at home, you can reduce the amplitude of squats by reducing the depth. One way is not to bring the knees beyond the level of the feet. If this helps, you can continue doing squats, gradually increasing the amplitude of the movement over time.

Pelvic dysfunction

Many people do squats for the sake of growing the large, largest, gluteal muscle – one of the main stabilizers of the pelvis. If the left (or conversely, right) gluteus maximus is hypotonic (meaning it has reduced muscle tone), squats can exacerbate muscle imbalances both at the pelvic level and throughout the body.

It is important to make sure that you feel both buttocks: to do this, alternate and isolate the right and left buttocks. If you can’t feel them when squatting, replace squats with more isolated exercises. For example, front leg swings (for the front thigh muscles) and back leg swings (for the glutes).

Foot dysfunction

Foot functionality is the ability of the feet to hold body weight and to cushion, that is, cushion the load. For exercises that are performed standing up (squats are such), formed arches on the foot are important – longitudinal and transverse. They must be maintained during squats.

The longitudinal arch is the curvature of the foot on the inside of the foot from the heel to the joint of the big toe. The transverse arch is the arch at the base of the toes.

Otherwise, squatting may contribute to further aggravating their dysfunction, leading to uncomfortable and even painful sensations in other parts of the body that will have to work “for” the foot.

In case of foot dysfunction, it is recommended to roll them with a tennis ball: flexion-extension, abduction-adduction, rolls inward-outward. In addition, it is desirable to train on an unstable support, performing simple standing exercises on it.

The above recommendations are easy to implement independently. However, to find and eliminate the root cause of the problem (e.g., pain during squats), it is recommended to consult a rehabilitologist, kinesiologist or psychosomatic specialist.