Tuesday 5.10.16
Squat Therapy Part 2 – Motor Control
by Grace Lin
Last week we talked about mobility requirements for the squat. In this article, we will dig into the second component: Motor control. Motor Control is defined as the process by which humans (and animals) use their brain to activate and coordinate the muscles and limbs involved in the performance of a motor skill. In other words, it’s how your brain signals your muscles to move. From reading that definition, it’s pretty obvious that this is extremely important in CrossFit… and life.
So how do you assess whether or not your motor control is hindering your squat? Here’s what you do:
Perform an air squat. Now, assess how it felt. Was it a struggle to go below parallel? Did you feel off balance?
Next, perform an air squat with some assistance by either holding on to a pole or a weight out in front. Again, assess how it felt. Did it feel more controlled? Did you go lower? Were you more balanced?
If your squat improved the second time, then motor control is hindering your squat. And don’t worry, for the majority of us, motor control is an issue. By the way, if your squat felt the same, then flexibility is more of an issue and should be addressed first.
So what are some drills to help improve your motor control?
Activation Drills: This will mainly include glute and hamstring activation. Many times when we are squatting in class, we will incorporate activation drills into the warmup. These get the correct muscles firing and warmed up, so you can feel what muscles need to be worked and can better recruit them when you squat. Some examples of glute activation drills are glute bridges (any variation), monster walks, clam shells, and lunges (any variation). Some hamstring activation drills include good mornings (any variation), glute ham raise, Romanian deadlifts (RDL), and leg curls.
Goblet Squat: This is a squat with a kettlebell or dumbbell held in front of your body. To perform this, place your feet in your squatting stance (about shoulder width). Hold your weight of choice close to your body with your elbows pointed down and out. Then lower into the bottom of your squat, while keeping the elbows inside the knees. Then use those elbows to push your knees out. Now hold this bottom position for at least 20-30 seconds. When you’re performing this, focus on driving those knees out, keeping your chest and torso upright, and sitting back in your heels.
Wall Squat: The all-dreaded wall squat! You’ve probably performed this during the warmup in class. This is a wall-facing squat with your arms elevated above your head. To perform the wall squat, start by standing a few inches away from the wall with your feet in their normal squatting stance. From here, bring your arms overhead without touching the wall. Then, SLOWLY descend until you break parallel and then stand up. As you get more comfortable with the squat, inch your feet closer to the wall. When you perform the wall squat, focus on driving your knees out and keeping your chest up, while keeping your arms outstretched overhead. Again, make sure the squat is controlled the whole time.
Bar Squat: If you are not able to perform a wall squat with the hips going below parallel, then try the same with a bar. Set up a bar about chest high. Stand about a foot away from the bar, stretch out your arms, and place them on the bar. From here, slowly lower yourself into a squat, while keeping your arms in contact with the bar. Focus on keeping an upright torso the entire time. On the descent, send your hips back and down, and drive your knees out so they track over your toes. As you feel more and more comfortable, inch yourself toward the bar.
Band Squat: Similar to the bar squat, this uses a band. Hang a band on a pullup bar and grab one side of the band in each hand. From here, slowly descend by pushing your hips back and down, while maintaining an upright torso. Again, points of performance are knees tracking out, weight in the heels, and vertical torso. As you get more comfortable, bring yourself closer to the band to decrease the assistance from the band.
Working on perfecting your air squat mechanics will result in better lifts and moving more weight. During all of these drills, make sure you are performing each squat as perfectly as possible. We always want to strive for perfect mechanics on our movements. It doesn’t do us any good to practice with poor mechanics. So, be virtuous and build those good habits!
FOUNDATIONS
A. 20 minutes to build to today's heaviest power clean
B. 12 min AMRAP:
5 power cleans
100 ft bear crawl
100 ft broad jump
GPP
A. 20 minutes to build to today's heaviest power clean
B. 12 min AMRAP:
5 power cleans (185/135#)
50 ft handstand walk
100 ft broad jump
COMPETITION
A. Every 2 minutes for 20 minutes: snatch grip halting deadlift + snatch + hang snatch
ENDURANCE
1000m row
100 push ups
750m row
75 push ups
500m row
50 push ups