Hey this is Rick Kaselj from ExercisesForInjuries.com. I got a question that came through customer support when it came to figuring out the best foot position when it comes to squatting. A lot of times when it comes to squatting, if your foot position is wrong, it puts unnecessary stress on your knees and it puts unnecessary stress on your back.
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It’s important to be in that right foot position in order to decrease the stress on your knees and your back. So the specific question was, “How do I determine and figure out the best foot position for me to squat in and that can be in doing a body weight squat or that can even be with a loaded squat like a back squat or a dumbbell squat”.
Orsy will demonstrate, start off with moving into a 4 point position.
#1-Four Point Position
Hands are underneath the shoulders and knees are underneath the hips, its going to be difficult for you to do this on your own. You need someone to take a look at what you are doing. Looking at the pelvis and then bring the hips back. If I see the pelvis move, I am going to come back to the start and then separate the knees a little bit more and then once again we are going to rock back and if I don’t see any movement in the pelvis, I am in a good position.
Four Point Position
With Orsy at this point I am not seeing her rotate the pelvis forward or back, there is no movement. I am coming straight down and back. This would be where I would start off when it comes to squatting position. I would get her to straighten out the legs come up onto the toes and now what we are going to do is testing it with a body weight squat.
#2-Body Weight Squat
I am going to look at her pelvis when she is squatting and I want to see if I end up seeing any pelvis movement when it comes to anterior or posterior when she goes through that squatting movement. She is squatting down.
Body Weight Squat
At the very bottom she ends up having a little bit of pelvis movement but during the main part of the squat which ends up being from standing to hips passing 90, there isn’t any of that pelvis tilting forward and back. When she gets near the bottom of the movement, there is a little bit of a movement.
Give that a go! If you end up having any kind of knee pain or back pain, when it relates to body weight squats or loaded squats, make sure that you are in the right foot position and this is one easy little way of testing out to see if you are in that right foot position.
You will need another person to take a look at things or you can get a trainer or a kiniseologist that can end up looking and seeing and finding out what your best foot position is for your body weight squat or your loaded squat.
If you want to learn more about the proper foot stance when squatting then check out Fix My Knee Pain here:
Rick Kaselj, MS
