Any advice on crouching?
Yesterday I went picking capers, and so spent a long time crouching. After a while I started feeling pain in my lower back and the muscles there were working so hard they became sour. I changed to hip-hinging, which was quite comfortable but put me in a weird angle relative to the capers.
I think crouching is common in traditional cultures, no? How do they do it?
Crouching
June 4, 2009 - 11:31am | 9 posts
#1
Crouching
41 min 13 sec ago
09/10/2008 - 8:36pm
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41 min 13 sec ago
09/10/2008 - 8:36pm
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41 min 13 sec ago
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08/01/2014 - 12:23pm
Hello, Mrs. Gokhale :-)
I am so grateful for your work and have finally gotten your book! In searching the index I don't see anything about squatting, so I hope you'll clarify this for me here. I am just 21 and have shifted from an athletic lifestyle (in my childhood) to a sedentary (as a teenager) to athletic one again for the last year, during which I did CrossFit, which involves the low squat as a regular stretch. Since then I have incorporated this into my movements, although I do not hold it for much more than a minute (just a stretch and to pick up something low). Since I quit CF I've lost some flexibility and haven't hip-hinged as well as I could when I did deadlifts, but I'm planning on gaining my flexibility back. I'd really like to switch to squatting toilets in the near future and get my fiancé to do it with me. He is not flexible much at all, however, so this worries me (he is 20). I want our children to be able to squat; God forbid that their bones ossify as those of us westerners do!
So what do you think? Am I young enough to keep doing the low squat? Bodyweight regular squatting (just below parallel) is a good workout for me; I know I can do that. I can produce a low (Asian) squat, but sometimes my ankles are a little pained (can you elaborate on ankle pronation?). My fiancé cannot yet even do a normal squat. But is this really something that cannot be worked on? My younger brother, just 11, cannot form a squat in his present state, yet he is extremely athletic and would surely just need training. (And they look equally awkward!)
Lastly, about the Asian squat form, I know for these cultures it is a resting position. So it seems one should rest the back of the upper legs on the back of the lower (hamstrings on calves, basically), but when I get low enough to feel this relaxation, it seems inevitable that my pelvis is slightly tucked and back curved, even though I start with correct squat form. And it looks as though Asians do this, not keeping a J-spine. Also, there is actually a video of Mark Sisson demonstrating the squat in which he has his back from the outset very curved. It frightens me! What do you make of all this?
Thank you very much.