Movement Fix Podcast
Episode# 115

Squatting and Lower Body Training

Guest: Mike Boyle

In this Episode

It’s always a pleasure and learning experience speaking with Mike Boyle.

I’ve been thinking a lot about squatting as an exercise, especially after my discussions with Dr. Dave Marcu, and how/why to use it and why it may also not be the best exercise selection.

Mike has been open about why they don’t squat at his training facility and I reached out to him to see if he would come back on the podcast so we could discuss this in more depth, especially in light of the podcast with Dr. Marcu on hip joint anatomy and squatting.

We have squatting as an exercise and squatting as a movement.

When people squat as a movement, like the typical example of people in Asia relaxing in a squat, they aren’t using ‘form’. They’re just letting the hips, knees, ankles, and spine flex and going down into a relaxed position.

This is completely different from squatting as an exercise where we don’t want a lot of spinal motion if we are adding a lot of load.

My ongoing thoughts have been about what consequences may there be to squatting heavy without controlling and preventing the very end range of hip joint flexion. Could that be causing hip joint impingement and bony changes over time? I am not convinced one way or another on this yet, but I am personally (partly because of my hip joint anatomy) squatting heavy in a range where I don’t feel like I am getting to the deepest depths of hip joint flexion.

Mike and I discuss this in depth in the podcast as well as his take on squatting as an exercise, lower body training, and how they structure their lower body training sessions.

I hope you guys enjoy this episode!

About Mike Boyle