I heard the phrase “learn to squat, change your life” from Scott Herrera, the President & CEO of Legacy Sport & Wellness Center (legacyperformwell.com) when I traveled to Dallas, TX in early March, 2022 to take a 2-day course about the squat. I thought to myself, “2 days learning about the squat? Why so many hours and how is this going to change my life?” Scott was right!
Learning about the importance of squatting, the benefit of consistently doing the exercise and then physically experiencing how to do the proper squat with all of the many progressions was truly eye opening and life changing.
I learned how to properly do a basic “gravity line” squat in a wide stance and a narrow stance. I did split squats, tight rope squats, Hindu squats, front squats facing the wall, back squats with a weighted bar, wall sits in various positions, and more.
I must have done over 1,000 squats in 2 days. I felt amazing!!!
I was shocked that both my core and postural back muscles were sore after squatting.
I assumed my leg and glute muscles would be super fatigued and tight, but that wasn’t the case, because we had properly warmed up our bodies prior to doing the various squat exercises, followed by several myofascial stretches and then finished with the ELDOA exercise L5/S1, which is arguably the the most popular and one of the best ELDOA positions for good spine health.
I almost didn’t take this course, because it required me to be away from my family for a longer period of time, plus I had to change my work schedule. Boy am I glad I added this course to my training at Legacy in Dallas.
Now that I learned the proper way to squat, I feel stronger overall and my posture is even better since I’ve incorporated squats regularly into my workout routine.
It takes time to build up your stamina and be strong enough to execute many squats within your workout. Progressions are key to understanding the correct way to squat.
Experiencing these progressions first hand has provided me with the tools to be able to do over 150 squats easily on a regular basis.
Stay tuned for part 2 of my post on the squat where you will view the proper squat alignment and learn about the benefits of this full body exercise that will change your life!
????In the meantime, join my weekly Pilates & ELDOA class where I incorporate the squat and other exercises that help to facilitate a great gravity line.
Also, check out my blogs on how to properly warm-up – click here and here.
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