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How To Squat Deeper: The Quick Fix

man learning how to squat deeper doing a deep bodyweight squat in a gym wearing a grey shirt

We all want a deeper squat, right? I think having a great air squat position is one of the best things you can do to for your health and fitness. So, how to squat deeper – quickly and easily? We will get to that in one moment.

But first…

Please understand I am not saying you should forget about mobility. It’s important to keep trying to fix any actual issues in your squat.  This is just a quick way to give your squats some variety and help hit full depth if your mobility is not there yet.

With that out of the way, here’s how to squat deeper:

It’s all in the ankles

Did you ever notice how when you squat down and are on your tippy toes, like a catcher, that you can bring your heels to your butt? But when you try to keep your feet flat on the ground then your butt doesn’t even come close to your heels? What’s up with that? 

That’s called ankle mobility and is probably the number 1 reason you can’t squat deeper. You can do ankle mobility exercises to improve your squat. Or, there is a super simple fix.

So how to get a deeper squat? Simply elevate the heels.

The right way and the wrong way to squat deeper

Obviously, you shouldn’t be loading a heavy squat and then squatting down with all your weight on the balls of your feet. This would be the wrong way.

The correct way is by taking something thin, such as change plates or a small strip of rubber matting about ¾ of an inch or so, and placing it on the floor. Place your heels on whatever your item is and now squat. 

Your squat should instantly be deeper. It should also give your heels a solid platform to balance on and push against. This helps you to come out of the squat. Doing this is essentially the cheap version of lifters.

What are lifters?

Lifters are shoes designed specifically to give you a deeper squat position. 

They are used in the sport of Olympic lifting as well as CrossFit and general training. These shoes are designed to be very tight fitting and rigid. The sole is made of hard dense materials. This lets the athlete press out of the squat  without excessive foot movement.

Lifters can be beneficial to some athletes. But, in the words, of Louie Simmons, “Don’t have $100 shoes and a 10 cent squat”. What he means is that it’s best to focus on your form and mobility in your squat before going and spending money on high dollar lifters.

But remember, squat deeper with your ankles

For the longest lasting and healthiest fix, concentrate on your barefoot squat and increasing mobility and range of motion. 

Using lifters or poor-mans lifters can be very beneficial, and is just one more tool in our toolbox. Just don’t become reliant solely on that one tool.  

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How To Do Burpees: The Buffalo Nickel Guide

guy wearing cleveland singlet knowing how to do burpees on an athletic track

Raise your hand if you love burpees! What? Nobody?! I agree. Even though I don’t love burpees, I also can’t say that I hate them. I actually don’t mind them at all. They’re not too bad, if you know how to do burpees.

I used to hate burpees. Yes, hate is a very strong word. In this case, it’s completely accurate. I considered burpees to be equal to the devil. They are one of the most challenging CrossFit core exercises.

If I’m being honest, I hated them because I wasn’t good at them and I just couldn’t ever get comfortable with the suck. If you know me, you know I don’t like it when things are hard for me. So, I set out to embrace them.

I embraced them by doing them. More specifically, I did a 100 burpee challenge. 

The challenge was set up to do one burpee on day one, two burpees on day two, etc.

If you miss a day or days, you have to make up ALL of the missed burpees plus the current day’s burpees to continue. For example, if you miss days 10, 11 and 12, then on day 13 you have to do 46 burpees. 

One day, I did over 300. One day I did over 400. One day I did over 600.

I completed the challenge, though, and today I don’t hate burpees. How could I possibly hate them when I’ve never again had to do 600+ burpees in a single day?!  

Here are a few things I learned about how to do burpees

1. They really aren’t that hard

Let’s be honest, they are nothing more than getting on the ground and then getting back up. When you’re up, get down. When you’re down, get up.

That day I had to do over 600, really made me see them differently. As soon as I stood up, all I had to do was get down. Once I was down, I just had to get up. 

Of course there is always technique, which I’ll address shortly, but the basics of a burpee aren’t hard. Get down and get back up.

2. You have to pace yourself 

That pace is going to be different for everyone. Things like fitness level, volume of burpees, whether you are combining them with other movements, etc, will determine your pace from workout to workout. 

Your pace should be the rate at which you can move as quickly as possible, without stopping. Burpees will get your heart rate up and your lungs burning so you have to find that point that you can continue to manage both without stopping.

Sprinting and stopping and sprinting and stopping is going to take you much longer to accomplish the same amount of work. Find that breaking point of moving as fast as you can, but not so fast that you have to stop…and then stay there.  

3. Technique is a key part of how to do burpees

There are many tips out there for how to do burpees. Here are some of my favorites.

When you get down, don’t stop in the middle, at the top of the plank, and then lower yourself. Rather, try to kick your feet back as you’re coming down and “catch” yourself in the bottom of the push up position. This is because it takes longer when you stop, it takes more effort to stop there, and you then have to do the decline of your push up, which is harder than just falling. 

When you get up, jump your feet wider than your hands and throw your hips up as you bring those feet up. When you go to stand up, go straight into your jump. Don’t stop at the stand, and then jump. Let your stand and jump be one fluid movement. 

Move as little as possible. I am all about efficiency and accomplishing a task with as little effort as possible. Flow as many movements together as possible. Step up and step down if you have to. 

4. Burpees are mentally taxing

It can be a real mental game for a lot of people.  There were far more people who started the 100 day challenge than people who completed it.

The burpee is very repetitive and it takes a lot of effort to complete just one, and they never go as fast as you want them to go so it can be frustrating. When you accept them for the challenge that they are, you can just get after it. 

Final thoughts

If you think burpees suck, embrace them. 

Embrace that you’re burning calories and getting a full body workout every time you do them. 

Embrace them because you’ll never need the Life Alert, if you’ll just do them. You’ll be able to get on the floor and play with your kids, your grandkids, your dogs, or whatever, and not have to worry about not being able to get up. 

So, the next time you see burpees programmed, embrace them. After all, you’re just getting down and then getting back up. 

By Kari Reed

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What Is Butt Wink And Is It Bad?

man in black t shirt doing butt wink squat on a box

There are a few topics in fitness circles that have polarizing sides and can cause major arguments. Sumo vs conventional dead lifts? Is CrossFit dangerous or not? Is butt wink bad? These are all touchy subjects.

Butt wink, as it is so lovingly called, is when someone goes lower into their squat (hopefully after they pass parallel) and their hips rotate and tuck under them. Basically, this allows them to get into a deeper squat position. The controversial aspect is around if butt wink is dangerous, or causes back problems.

If you don’t want to read and learn, here is the short answer. It depends, but most people have some degree of butt wink and are okay.

Here’s the long answer.

Why does butt wink happen?

Basically there are two schools of thought here. The first is that butt wink is an anatomical thing that is more prone to happening to certain people. The other perspective is that butt wink is a mobility issue and can be fixed. 

Most people, myself included, fall to the anatomical side. With that said, I do think having better mobility can help. But mobility can only do so much. It can’t move your anatomy.

So what are the anatomical reasons? Believe it or not, people are different. Some people have wider/deeper pelvic bone structure than others. Others have longer/shorter femurs, and the femur head might sit higher or lower on the hip. The femoral neck can also be shorter or longer on some people. Your femur length to torso length ratio also plays a factor.

Basically there are tons of anatomical reasons that a person might have butt wink. 

But what about the mobility part?

Like we said, mobility can help you squat in a better position but it can’t do anything to change how your hips are built. Your mobility won’t change your femur to torso ratio. 

However, a major player in the mobility game during a squat is your ankles. If the ankles are tight and immobile then a perfect squat is going to be very difficult or maybe not possible. By increasing ankle mobility and range of motion, you’ll be able to squat in a much healthier way.

But is butt wink bad?

It can be. Once again, most people have some degree of butt wink somewhere in a full “ass to grass” squat. That doesn’t automatically make it bad. However, it also doesn’t mean it is totally acceptable for every person. This is especially true if you have lower back issues.

The ‘bad’ part of butt wink is that any time the spine is loaded and rounds then you open yourself up for injury. You might get lucky and be okay for a while but after many many reps where this is allowed to happen, your chances of injury increase.

If a person who does not have any previous lower back issues does a squat with no load (i.e. bodyweight) then the risk is relatively low. But the heavier the weight and the sooner in the squat the butt wink occurs, the more likely there will be lower back problems and pain. 

For a person who already has lower back issues, even a bodyweight squat or high reps of bodyweight squats can cause pain.

What to take away

There are a few things to keep in mind.

  • Don’t just forget about mobility and blame your butt wink totally on your genetics.
  • Video yourself squatting, or have a coach who knows what to look for watch you for multiple reps.
  • If you have pain or issues, stop. That is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong.
  • Work on increasing your mobility first, before worrying about anything else, unless it is pain.
  • Be okay working with some lighter weights while your body is adjusting and breaking bad habits.

How I deal with my butt wink

For me, I get butt wink just below parallel. If I sit all the way into my squat, it is pretty pronounced. My ankle mobility could be better, but I do try and work on it every week. I don’t squat massive weight, or even anywhere near what most other males my age and size do. I don’t have pain or low back issues and generally I feel fine in my squats.

Now, if I were coaching myself here is what I would say: You should focus on improving the ankle mobility and core strength (to help keep the chest up in heavy squats). As long as you don’t have any pain or discomfort you are probably okay to continue just like you have been.  But if something does cause you problems, let me know and don’t just think it will go away.

If you have any questions with the squat, butt wink or anything else please let us know. We love to help!

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