09/08/2026
TRY THIS TUESDAY:
What can your squat tell you about your body?
Quite a bit, actually.
A squat is more than an exercise. It’s a simple movement that requires your ankles, knees, hips, pelvis, and trunk to work together. When one area doesn’t move well, your body often finds another way to get you down and back up.
That compensation can give us clues about what may be restricted, weak, or working harder than it should.
TRY THIS:
Try a comfortable bodyweight squat and notice what happens:
---Your heels lift off the floor
This can point toward limited ankle dorsiflexion, meaning the ankle isn’t allowing the shin to travel forward adequately. Tightness or restriction through the calf and ankle can contribute.
---Your knees have trouble traveling forward or you can’t squat very deep without falling backward
Again, ankle mobility may be part of the picture. If the ankle can’t provide enough motion, the rest of the body has to compensate.
---Your knees collapse inward
This can be related to how the hip, knee, and foot are controlling the movement. Hip strength and stability, foot mechanics, and ankle mobility can all play a role.
---Your knees barely move outward or feel “stuck”
Restriction through the hips, particularly hip rotation or the muscles surrounding the pelvis, may be limiting the movement. Ankle mobility can also influence the position of the knees.
---One knee moves differently than the other
Now we’re especially interested. 👀 An asymmetrical squat can suggest a difference in mobility, strength, stability, or previous injury from one side to the other.
---Your feet turn dramatically outward
A little turnout can be completely normal. Excessive turnout, especially if it happens more on one side, can sometimes be the body’s way of finding motion it doesn’t have somewhere else.
---You shift your weight to one side
Your body may be avoiding a restriction, weakness, discomfort, or instability on the opposite side.
---You can’t get very low without your balance changing
Don’t immediately assume you have “bad knees.” Your ankles, hips, trunk control, and even the proportions of your body can affect squat depth.
The important part:
The place where you see the compensation isn’t always the place causing it.
Because a knee that moves poorly may be responding to an ankle that doesn’t move enough. A hip may be compensating for the foot. One side may be doing extra work because the other side isn’t contributing normally.
That’s why simply treating the spot that hurts doesn’t always solve the problem!
At RPM Neuromuscular Massage Therapy, we look at how the body moves as a whole, not just where it hurts.
Sometimes a simple squat can tell us where to start looking!
