Why everyone from Olympic athletes to your grandma needs to squat

We often have friends or patients tell me that their doctor or therapist told them not to do squats.

"You're too old to do squats!"

"You have injured your knees, you can't do squats anymore!"

"Squats are something only professional athletes need to do!"

These well-intentioned misconceptions fundamentally come from a lack of understanding of functional movement. Squat is not just a sports training movement, it plays an important role in our daily life.

(Photo provided by Dr. Dai Dawei)

The legs age before the person does

When a doctor who doesn't like squats is asked, "So how do you train your patients to stand up from the toilet?" he will be speechless. Of course, one way is to install handrails on the toilet and support it with your hands. But for a healthy person, no one would want to buy a toilet raiser when he is older, or make going to the toilet a hassle.

In primitive society, or in today's undeveloped countries, human lifestyle, whether it is eating, gathering and other activities, is often carried out in a squatting position. Social civilization has brought about the great invention of the "chair", while the sedentary lifestyle in the office has brought about premature degeneration and aging phenomena such as weak gluteal muscles and thigh muscles.

Some people would also advocate not bending your legs more than 90 degrees when squatting. This is another common fallacy. Imagine that we are sitting (especially sitting on a low chair, or sitting on the ground), how can we stand up without bending our legs more than 90 degrees? Training should be gradual, but should not be restrictive. If you have trouble squatting, I guess it wouldn't be surprising if you get injured from lifting or moving heavy objects in the future.

Squats are not just exercise, squats are life.

There are thousands of articles on the benefits of squats if you just Google them. But maybe you think you are not an athlete and don't need explosive power. Maybe you think that since you don’t have a girlfriend, you don’t need to train your waist strength. Maybe you think you are no longer a pretty girl and don't need to train your butt. But to be precise, squats are not just exercise, squats are life.

Every day we need to stand up from a chair, stand up from the toilet, often need to climb stairs, squat to lift heavy objects, get out of the car, these movements use the same muscle groups as squats. If these movements make you feel tired and sore, it's time to consider squat exercises! In fact, the main cause of knee pain in middle-aged people in my clinic is insufficient lower limb muscle strength. Cases of true early knee joint degeneration are relatively rare. For these people, strengthening the gluteal muscles, thigh muscles, and core muscles is their top priority. Otherwise, even if you take a truckload of glucosamine or collagen, there will be no improvement.

I also found that people who already had better lower limb muscle strength would recover much faster after surgery. Some people who unfortunately suffer a fracture in a car accident can get out of bed and move around the day after surgery; while some people have difficulty even moving in bed for several days after surgery. One of the key factors in this is lower limb muscle strength. His daily training and attention to health will show his value at critical moments.

Don't think that falling and breaking a bone won't happen to you or your elders. According to statistics, one-third of the elderly fall at least once every year. These falls result in 16,000 to 18,000 hip fracture surgeries in Taiwan each year. Having good lower extremity muscle strength and coordination can not only reduce the chance of falling, but also allow for quick recovery after surgery in the event of a fall, and may even save your life.

A happy life with correct squats

Even if they are both 70 years old, the quality of life of one who can't squat and the other who can squat easily with weights will be very different.

It is certainly possible to get injured by squatting incorrectly, but the solution should be to seek professional help and learn the correct posture and force method, rather than avoiding squats.

Let us squat together to live a healthy life!

This article is from: Dr. Tai Dawei's blog Ta-Wei, Tai MD

※For more information, please see "Ta-Wei, Tai MD"