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Most people that first come into my physical therapy practice have a primary complaint of pain. And generally speaking, that pain creates some type of limitation in their daily life. While they don’t typically complain about their ability (or inability) to squat, this functional movement is something that I always screen for. That's because I get a ton of information from it.
While simple in nature for some, the squat is actually a biomechanically complex movement requiring multiple muscles and joints to work (or relax) together to achieve the desired motion. Here are a few for starters:
- Adequate ankle dorsiflexion ROM (range of motion): do you have sufficient ankle joint mobility and soleus muscle length extensibility
- Adequate knee flexion ROM: can your knee bend enough
- Adequate hip flexion ROM: can your hip work through the range of motion
- Adequate stability of lower extremity chain: when your knee flexes, are your hips flexing too in a controlled manner
These are just a few of the many things happening when you squat. However, I will focus on the ankle for this blog post, since it affects movement throughout the body.
There are many reasons ankles can be limited:
- Years of prolonged sitting or positioning at a desk
- History of ankle sprains
- Toe-walking as an early walker
- Some sort of trauma
- Underlying stability issue (somewhere along the chain)
If even one ankle is limited, it will affect the entire kinetic chain and influence the hips, pelvis, and spine to move in a compensatory or inefficient manner. Here's a good illustration of the compensation:
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So let's first look at the left photo. You can see that, due to a lack of ankle motion, there's a sharper angle between the hip and spine, resulting in excessive use of the low back muscles. This can lead to low back tightness, decreased joint space for the hip joint (which can cause front hip pinching), and inefficiency in the hip extensor muscles such as the gluts and hamstrings.
In contrast, the right photo shows a more erect posture with decreased stress and strain on the spine and low back muscles, improved synchronization and balance between the hip and knee joints with movement, improved hip joint space for decreased front hip pinching, and improving the muscle balance between the gluts and hamstrings relative to quadriceps (front thigh muscles). Oh and this makes getting deeper into the squat easier too.
In summary, if someone is experiencing any low back, hip, knee, or foot pain, it makes a ton of sense to take a look at how well those ankles move, as they can be causing compensation all throughout the body.
For more details, also check out my Instagram post on this topic.
Need any help? Contact me at Activcore Bernardsville to help you feel and move better.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this post are based on the opinion of the author, unless otherwise noted, and should not be taken as personal medical advice. The information provided is intended to help readers make their own informed health and wellness decisions.
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