Squatting—Making Peace with Ground beneath Your Feet

A few weeks ago one of my clients confessed that she while she could still bend over to pick something up from the floor she could no longer do a full squat. As a matter of fact she couldn’t even remember how long it had been since she was actually able to do that maneuver. As many people have the same challenge I decided it was time to post a short video lesson to help people regain their ability to get down to the floor.  

Remember this is not regular exercise. You are doing this to reprogram your neuromotor system (the part of the brain that organizes movement). I have compressed the movements involved in the lesson into a 4 minute video. However, when you’re doing the lesson give yourself more time. Read an instruction, watch that piece of the video, pause the video and try it yourself before moving on to the next piece.   

Here are some tips to make your experience successful.

  • Go slowly and pause between each initiation of the movement.
  • Only do what’s easy. If you can’t do it as indicated on the video sit quietly and do that piece in your imagination.
  • Make sure you’re breathing and not holding your breath. Holding the breath indicates you’re using extra unnecessary effort to do the movement. If you find yourself holding your breath to accomplish the movement do less or do it in your imagination until you can do it easily.
  • You can also spread the steps of the lesson out over days or weeks. Allow your body and nervous system the time it needs to process and integrate each part of the lesson into your neuromotor system. 
  • Most important of all, have fun.

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