First I want to be clear that I didn’t say anything about removing deadlifts. Although, as you might have guessed, there are obviously times when I feel that heavy deadlifts should be removed too.

I think it is critical to retain the squatting pattern and the deadlifting pattern (basically a hip hinge), but for some people the risk to the spine is just too great to load these movements heavily. In fact, I just had a conversation on the phone with Dr Stuart McGill about that on the phone this morning.

So the movement patterns are kept and practiced in some form or another (usually unilaterally – which consequently taxes the core to a greater degree to prevent rotation), but I concretely believe that you can’t (and shouldn’t) teach everyone to squat and/or deadlift with weight. There are a lot of alternatives that can benefit the body without injury risk to the spine (especially when the spine has already been injured).

I guess the big picture, as I see it, is not being fixed on making everyone fit into a specific set of unchanging standards. I do have certain foundational principles, but I’m not set on banging square pegs into round holes.

I can certainly appreciate your desire to make people squat properly. In fact, I don’t disagree that you can’t teach most people to do so. The problem comes when someone who knows how to squat properly gets fatigued which causes degeneration of technique resulting in injury. Or it can happen even with good form on someone with a preexisting injury if the flexion forces become too high.

Thanks for the great debate!

I have never had any problem with getting people to do good squats, some people need to build a better foundation before and some just need better teaching.
I have to admit that I do spend some freetime every week by the barbells to help and study members at the gym to make proper squats and deadlifts. So it is exercises that is close to my heart.

I’m very thankful for your willingness to debate. It shows you are a great trainer.

I agree that the squat is a great functional movement pattern and that it should be maintained for activities of daily living and injury prevention. This can be done with mobility work, flexibility, and core stability in most cases. However, for many people, a LOADED back squat position is not really “functional” as they’ll never really use this movement in real life. Most people may squat down to reach into a cupboard (hence the reason to maintain the pattern), but rarely will they place a set of 400 pound bowls and dishes on their back and squat repeatedly.

Of course, I don’t want to be seen as saying that squats aren’t a great lower body exercise for some (which they obviously are). I’m just saying that heavy back squats are contraindicated in some cases and that alternatives exist if the main goal is purely aesthetic.

This year I may have done 4 weeks of training that included squats in them at best, maybe 6. I mostly deadlift and do single leg movements.

Reasons being that I’m currently “in season” and heavy squats cause soreness for me (obviously with my lack of squatting) where deadlifts don’t, no matter how heavy I go.

I also can’t have some lumbar flexion about 3/4′s down which can flare up the lower back too.

Client wise we test the squat but I don;t train it much either for the reasons listed above. Plenty of lunge variations and step up variations though and hip dominant movements.

Great info, keep it coming.

While I agree that the squat for certain people may not be best, I think coaches should teach athletes how to squat properly and perhaps they need better cues or their athlete needs a better movement map in their head (so joint mobility, visual and vestibular work) or maybe they even need self cranial work (neuro connection between the saggittal suture and abdominal strength). Anyone with a head injury seems to have more of an abdominal strength issue from a messed up saggittal suture in my experience.

I think I geeked out a bit much on this post.

Rock on
Mike T Nelson PhD(c)
http://www.ExtremeHumanPerformance.com