CrossFit Athletic Group

I am probably going to do a Position - Movement - Purpose post soon that covers this topic in more detail. But at yesterday's team workout we did squat and pistol progressions that didn't exactly look like the squats and pistols we are used to seeing.

This is Simon doing a pistol hold during the workout. Is this legit?

...........

When we hear "squat" we think of the thing we are doing at Lifts 4 Gifts on Saturday. Or the last exercise of Cindy. Or the bottom position of a clean. The form on all of those is pretty similar as well: feet forward, heels shoulder-width apart, knees out, torso upright, back flat, weight evenly distributed on heels and balls of feet.

When we move outside of the weight room, however, the squatting looks much different.

The specifics of a squat depend entirely on why you are performing said squat. If we are doing an Overhead squat it would serve in everyone's best interest to keep your torso as vertical as possible. However if you were a lineman in the picture above, a vertical torso would likely result in you getting blown to pieces by the creature lined up accross from you. Weight on the heels is what is preferred in an air squat, but Kobe and the flip turn dude need weight on the balls of their feet in order to direct which way they are moving. Hips just below the knee is what is universally considered a rep for back squats, but Misty May and Cap'n Jack find themselves well below that mark, while everyone else lives above parallel.

It is important to understand that there is specific squatting - front squat, squat clean, shuffle - and there is the general overlapping movement pattern of squatting - which is the motion of hips moving before knees before ankles. We practice this formally in the gym in a controlled environment with weight and range of motion and speed so your specific expressions of squatting in real life are not only safer but more effecient and more powerful.

There is a reason why every strength and conditioning program for every sport or population does some variation of a squat. It shows up everywhere. We just have to realize that the formal weight room squats with their specific techniques and standards are not the only legit ways to practice squatting.