Increasing your movement in everyday life - The squat and hinge
Welcome to the weekly warble where this week we're talking about...
INCREASING YOUR MOVEMENT IN EVERYDAY LIFE - THE SQUAT AND HINGE
One of the things that we are really passionate about here at Ideanthro Movement is making the movements that we learn and train in the gym directly applicable to daily life. But more than that, it's about showing you how to use those movement in daily life, because the thing is, the exercise that you do in the gym is not the only movement that counts towards making you fit and healthy, it's everything we do in any part of our day. The more quality movement we can weave into our day, the better off we are.
So with that all said, let's talk about squatting and hinging and how to weave more of these movements into our daily lives in a way that will make us fitter and healthier.
First, let's check that we're on the same page about what a squat and a hinge are, and what makes them different from each other.
This post contains two photographs with barbells. In one, the barbell is on Jack's back. In the other picture, the barbell is on the ground and gripped in the hands. The image with the barbell on Jack's back shows a squat. Notice how Jack's hips, knees and ankles are all bent a moderate amount and his chest is quite upright. Contrast this now to the other picture where both people have bent primarily at their hip, and less so at their knees and ankles. Notice also how their upper bodies are less upright than in Jack's squat. These two people are hinging.
Now, some of you might be thinking "I thought that 'hinge' was called a deadlift?"
You are absolutely correct. When you hinge over to pick something up, it's commonly called a deadlift. However that's not the only reason that you might want to hinge, so we're choosing to use the more general term 'hinge' to refer to this pattern used for any reason, rather than 'deadlift' which applies solely when used to lift something.
Now it's time to return to our original question.
How do we weave squatting and hinging into our lives to help us become fitter and healthier?
The great thing about both of these movements is that they both have the potnetial to improve our strength and flexibility in ways that many people are lacking. if you practice these movements mindfully and with good technique in your daily life, then your strength and flexibility will improve.
Let me give you some examples:
1) If your child leaves their plate on the floor you may choose to tidy it up. At present, you probably bend over mindlessly to do it. If you have learnt good hinging technique you can do this mindfully in a way that improves hamstring strength and flexibility. It doesn't look exactly like the deadlift that you learnt in the gym, but it embodies the key principles.
2) You go to put dirty clothes in the washing machine. It's a front loader. At present you mindlessly bend over to do it. If you have learnt good squatting technique, you can do this mindfully in a way that improves ankle and knee flexibility and general leg strength. It doesn't look exactly like a conventional gym squat, but it embodies the key principles.
It's beyond the scope of this warble to teach what constitutes good technique, but I hope you take the point that if you learn good technique (whether through personal training, group classes or onlines videos etc) then you can take that movement back into your daily life and use it there. This enhances the effect of your training. If you move one way in the gym, but another way at home then it's like driving around with the handbrake on. Take that quality movement home, modify it to suit the real world and you'll see massive benefits.
That's it for the main warble today, but I am going to include a little bonus section to finish. So if this is heaps of information for you for now, then finish here and go apply that quality movement in your daily life (or take the first step to learning quality movement). On the other hand, if you're keen to dig in deeper, here's some bonus stuff for you.
BONUS INFO - HOW DO I KNOW WHETHER TO SQUAT OR HINGE?
Like most similar movement questions, it really depends on context. The environment that you are in and the reason why you are squatting or hinging greatly affects which is going to be the most efficient and effective movement pattern.
For example, a very low object is more likely to require some element of squatting to get down low enough to pick it up; whereas a higher object is much more likely to be reached using either a squat or a hinge.
But today I'll give you a way to think about this that you may not have considered before.
One way to distinguish between a squat and a hinge is that in a squat, you lower almost your entire body towards the ground, whereas in a hinge, it is only your upper body that is lowered.
Another way to distinguish the two is that in a squat, assuming that you have the mobility to sit at the bottom comfortably, it can be quite a passive and restful position, whereas a hinge is always an active position with load placed on the posterior chain (glutes, hamstrings etc).
For these two reasons, squatting is often a better choice when you are spending prolonged time in the bottom position and only moving position irregularly, whereas hinging often works better when you regularly need to move up and down.
If I were gardening for example and I were to need to spend a prolonged period of time weeding a particular small part of the garden, squatting might be a good choice, but if I simply need to bend over to pick a single bok choy, then the hinge might work better.
But of course, there are other contextual demands that come into play in the real world, so these are only interesting rules of thumb, and not hard and fast rules.
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And that really is it for today's warble. See you next week. Happy moving!