This content explains a common, incorrect squatting technique prevalent among individuals over 60, which compromises balance and strength, and introduces a safer, more effective "stability first" method to protect joints and enhance physical resilience.
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If you're over 60, this is the worst way
to squat, but it's exactly how I see
most people doing it. And squatting like
this quietly puts you off balance and is
one of the worst ways to build your
strength. But in this video, I'm going
to show you the safer, smarter squat
that protects your joints and helps to
keep you strong. In my 10 years of
practice, I've noticed so many people
squat like this with their arms straight
out in front, leaning forward. And yes,
it does feel easier, but it's easier
because your body is secretly
compensating in all the wrong ways. And
when you put your arms out in front
during a squat, your body uses them like
a counterwe. It stops you from falling
backwards, but only by forcing your body
to lean forwards. That forward lean does
three things, none of which are good
after 60. First, it shifts the load into
the knees instead of the hips, which can
be a problem if you've already got some
knee pain. And second, it reinforces
poor balance because you never teach
your body to truly stabilize itself. And
third, it reduces glute activation,
which is the exact opposite of what we
need to stay strong and independent.
Look at the two sidebyside videos of me
squatting now. And you can see on the
left side, my arms are out in front,
which brings my center of gravity really
far in front of my body. That makes me
offbalance. And if I was to take my
hands away, I would definitely fall
back. But if you look at the other
squat, that's me without my arms out in
front. And I've trained my body to keep
my center of gravity closer to my body,
which means I'm much better balanced
than when my arms are away from my side.
So, how do we fix it? Well, let's turn
your squat into something that actually
works for your body. And I'm going to
teach you my stability first squat
method, which is a simple three-step
technique to transform your squat and
make it twice as effective as it
currently is. Now, before I show you it,
I just need to make you aware it's not
suitable for everyone, and please avoid
it if you've got pain. Now, the first
thing we're going to do is a
counterweight squat, which I call the
goblet squat, which is a great
replacement for having your arms out in
front. Because if you take your arms
away straight away, yeah, you're going
to feel like you're going to fall
backwards if you're used to doing it
like this. But there's a way that we can
get a double benefit whilst fixing the
problem at the same time. So, for this,
you're going to need a small weight or a
bag filled up with books and we're going
to hold it tight to our chest like this.
So, going to take my weight, hold it
with two hands in like this, and instead
of having my arms out in front, they're
now here. But because I've got a little
bit of weight in front of me, now when I
start to squat down, it's going to
compensate for the loss of those arms
out in front by just ever so slightly
shifting center of gravity forward. And
that's going to keep me well balanced.
But the nice part about doing it like
this is we can also make a squat harder.
Because for most people when they try
and progress their squats, they just do
more reps. But after a certain point,
that isn't the best approach. The best
approach is to try and make the movement
harder. And when you've got a bit more
weight in your hands, that's an easy way
to do so. So, the counterweight squat
looks like this. You're going to do
exactly what you did before with your
arms out in front, but you're going to
hold a weight. And this will a keep you
stable, but b make the movement more
challenging, so you'll get stronger as
well. And by the way, before we move on
to the next step of the stability first
method, if you want a step-by-step
routine that's tailored to your exact
level of strength and mobility, why not
check out my free Stronger for Life road
map. You can find a link to it in the
description box below this video.
Anyway, let's have a look at the next
step now, which is something that almost
everyone gets wrong when they squat.
When you squat, your feet are your
foundation. And one of the reasons
people feel so poorly balanced when they
squat is because they put their weight
through the wrong parts of their foot.
Too much on your heels and you'll fall
back and too much on your toes and you
end up stressing your knees up here.
Instead, what you need to do is focus on
pressing your weight into three specific
points. And we call this the tripod foot
setup. You want your big toe, your
little toe, and your heel. This
instantly improves your balance and
stops that common wobble when you get to
the bottom. So, I've got my shoes and
socks off now to show you the tripod
setup. What you're going to do is put
your feet about shoulder width apart.
And we want to push down with the big
toe, then push down with the little toe,
and then make sure our weight is going
through our heels on both sides. Now,
this won't feel like that much is
happening, but it sets you up perfectly
for the squat. And once you're pressing
those three points into the floor, you
can now sit down nice and comfortably
and then come back up and you'll be
perfectly balanced right throughout the
squat. Now, let's look at that final
element to our stability first squat
method, which is so simple, yet so many
people miss it. The final element to a
proper squat is what you do with your
posture. And to fix your posture when
you squat, you need to do something
called the hip back chest tall
technique. And here is how it looks. So
you're going to start off standing tall
like this. And the first thing you're
going to do is try and sit back as if
you're reaching for a chair just behind
you. So I'll show you that movement
again. We're not moving anything else.
Not our knees, not our back, just our
hips. So pushing the hips back as if
you're about to reach for a chair.
They'll stop way before you lose your
balance. And then the second part of the
movement is we're going to push our
chest out at the same time. Okay? So,
we're going to go hips back, chest out,
and then we bend the knees. Now, this
sounds so simple, but it can be
transformative for people who've never
done it, just to put it in that
sequence. So, hips back, chest out, and
then bend. And that almost magically
improves your balance when you squat. It
stops you from tipping back and it stops
you from doing that rounded kind of
squat that many people do. That can
become problematic when we start to add
weight to the movement. Because if
you're anything like most people I speak
to, you want to progress over time. And
to do that, we eventually have to add
weight to the squat. And if we can't
squat without weight, how are we
supposed to squat with weight? So that
is how you fix your squat. And when you
put those three things together, the
counterbalance, the tripod technique,
and then the sit back chest up
technique, you're going to magically fix
your squat in just a few weeks of
practice. And if you want to learn what
might happen to your body if you commit
to doing the right kind of squat for 30
days in a row, click the video on the
screen right now and I'll show you. And
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