How Much Do You Squat, Bruh?

I'm not really asking how much weight you can stack on a bar for a set of Squats at the gym. The real question is, "How often do you Squat?" 

A Deep Resting Squat is one of the most natural positions for humans to spend time in, but unfortunately, most of us don't spend much time squatting at all, after we hit school age. If you watch toddlers exploring and playing in their environment, they will frequently squat down to look at something more closely and/or grab it to examine it physically. Soon, however, we start introducing the modern chair and table, which disconnects the lower body from the upper body. We don't need any flexibility or movement from the bottom half to bring things closer to our face and hands for learning. 

In "Developed" or "Western" countries, a typical young student will spend 8 hours a day sitting in a desk like these and maybe another 2-5 hours a day sitting in a cafeteria chair, a bus or car seat, and then some kind of chair at home doing homework. A physical education class or recess period will most likely be less than 1 hour. That's quite an imbalance, in my opinion, which sets up our bodies for failure later. In Traditional Thai Massage there's a philosophy that "Aging begins in the legs."Immobility and frailty of the hip joints are notoriously bad signs for elderly people. It's a shame that we set up those habits culturally, decades earlier. 

I just did some manual therapy on a patient who is an IT professional.  He is working through some lingering low back pain after a car accident, and shared that his coworker was suffering from sciatica. He asked if I knew any stretches for those issues. I told him to squat. Just get in a deep squat and sit for 20-30 seconds. It will feel very foreign at first, but you can slowly build up to longer. Just moving through that full range of motion a few times throughout the day will do wonders for back and hip flexibility.

A deep, comfortable, heels to the ground, body weight squat is invaluable for ankle mobility, plantar fasciitis relief, blood flow, lumbar discs, sciatic pain, and more. Even if you need to cheat by leaning your back into a wall as your tissues get accustomed to this infrequent positioning, give it a try every day for a week and see if you've improved in any way. 

Think about the squatting in terms of growth vs. gains. Sure it's easy to get some quick gains doing consistent sets of squats at the gym. You can rack up more and more weights and lift it easier and easier as you strengthen your ankles, legs, hips and low back over time. You can see and feel a difference. It's trackable in your workout log. That's all gains, but I'm talking about growth. Growth is when your brain figures out the balance of your body in 3 dimensional space, in every tiny, nuanced vector of force and resistance throughout the entire range of motion of the squatting exercise. Even better if you're dealing with uneven terrain during some of your squatting motions, as opposed to a perfectly flat even gym floor. Your brain has to be engaged during the exercise in addition to the gross muscles. Best case scenario, both your brain and muscles work in concert, to produce strong, stable, balanced, consistent, adaptable movement. The more holistic concept of growth is superior, in my opinion, to simple gains in numbers of pounds added to the bar. 


Here is a video that examines squatting vs. chairs and how it affects other movements throughout the body:

What's the Difference Between Sports Massage and Deep Tissue Massage?

Yesterday I had a couples massage on a regular client. Afterward, when washing up, the other therapist said that I had done one of the best "Sports Massages" she had ever seen. That compliment was funny to me, because I was doing much more rehab/injury type work than sports work. The client had been working with a Chiropractor daily for a week to resolve some severe lumbar pain and spasm. I was thinking way more about that challenge, than preparing him to get back to training for the half marathon he has coming up. His sedentary desk job was exacerbating the issue just as much as running would have.

I mention this, because I feel like there's a lot of confusion about "Sports Massage" and what that label means. To me, it is applying Myofascial Release, Neuromuscular Therapy, Structural/Postural Alignment, Stretching and/or Flushing Swedish techniques to a specific soft tissue imbalance, in a person who is doing something athletic. I can use this very same definition for "Deep Tissue Massage" except that the client may not be using his body for specifically sports or athletic training. Sitting at a computer several hours a day isn't "Athletic," but it is using the body repetitively. Which is the unifying theme- Repetition.

There's not a list of secret "Sports" techniques that only apply to athletes. I'm going to do whatever kind of massage the client needs for the specific problem area that day. Problem areas usually come from some kind of repetition mixed with imbalance. When the body is not used to doing a movement and is then forced to repeat the movement, you create strain. After strain comes compensation,  creating more imbalance. I'm going to look at any client who comes to me from that perspective; to unravel the compensation, imbalance and overuse to restore the optimal movement in the body. If you want to call that "Sports Massage," I'm happy to take the compliment. If you want to call that "Deep Tissue Massage," we are starting to speak the same language.