I want to ensure OP receives the most well-informed advice possible. I believe that requires a good understanding of movement mechanics and exercises, as well as healthy discussion. So far, you’ve given me neither.
No-one is recommending OP drops squatting. We’ve recommended adding things as adjuncts to improve his squatting. Every intervention recommended thus far could be applied and return meaningful benefits in around 10 minutes or less. Goblet squats and overhead squats are great patterning tools, and even 2-3 sets of just one of those is useful (as I’m sure you’d agree with). Bracing is a vital skill for squatting, regardless of butt-wink. Ankle mobilisations take all of around 30s per leg.
Maybe, depends on what someone’s limitations and goals are. By your logic, hip thrusts and RDL’s would be the primary assistance exercises of Olympic lifters, sprinters and high jumpers. Let me tell you, they’re not.
I urge you to articulate your years of practice to everyone in this forum, so we can better understand your thought process and perhaps be able to apply it to different scenarios. You mistake me for being combative, whereas I’m just trying to ensure OP gets the best advice and understand how you’re approaching this issue.
I doubt Dave Tate would say that bracing isn’t an important way to optimise squat form. Also your article doesn’t back you up as well as you think:
- The article recommends zercher squats, which I definitely agree are brilliant to improve squats mechanics (but really only for the same reason that goblet squats are good). You recommend zercher deadlifts, which involve a fairly large degree of spinal flexion out of the hole, which is exactly what we’re trying to avoid for OP. Zercher deadlifts could actually make the issue worse, but I do agree that a true zercher squat could possibly make things better
- Dave said shit all about glute bridges
- This article doesn’t specifically implicate butt wink
If you’re going to make claims like this you need to have some way to back them up. Explaining the mechanism is one, but it doesn’t have to be the only one. Are you a coach? Have you dealt with butt wink yourself? Have you helped others improve their butt wink?
How is this advice more useful or practical than learning to brace and taking a few minutes to check your ankle mobility?
You preach basics and simplicity, yet your recommendation is probably the most extreme yet.
I’m not disagreeing with you, just asking for your thought process.
FWIW, so I don’t come across as a hypocrite for calling you out.
Here’s why bracing works:
Butt wink usually occurs when the lifter runs out of true hip flexion, and flexes lumbar spine to compensate. The main reason one would run out of flexion would be bony impingement of the femur into the hip socket. This bony impingement can be brought on earlier in hip flexion ROM if the pelvis is anteriorly tilted, what Duffin in the video describes as “the open scissor.” Bracing correctly requires you to stabilise the spine with a more posteriorly-oriented pelvis, effectively increasing your available hip flexion ROM. Additionally, the descended diaphragm position will take strain of psoas major, potentially reducing the forward translation of the femur. This will also delay impingement of the femur in the hip socket, increasing hip flexion ROM.
Here’s why improving ankle mobility works:
Another reason someone may experience butt wink is a failure to keep their center of gravity over their base of support due to insufficient dorsiflexion (knees over toes). If one descends into a squat but is unable to dorsiflex sufficiently, the only way they can gain depth is by letting their pelvis move back, rather than downwards. First, this increases hip flexion demands, but it also may lead to centre-of-mass being forced to shift posteriorly. If the body lacks the hip flexion required to reach depth with limited dorsiflexion, then it will round the lumbar spine to compensate. Secondarily, to maintain centre-of-mass over the base of support, the body will be forced to either lean forward a LOT (like Layne Norton’s squat) or be forced to round the lumbar spine. Neither situation is ideal.
