Arina Hunter

Tools to aid in finding your pain free functional squat:
Using a box/seat/chair/bench
Using bands, Pilates ring/circle, or an exercise ball

These tools are great for tactile feedback which is a wonderful way to help find new patterns in our bodies.
Tactile feedback aids in finding and feeling center and where we want our body to start to move.
It is very common that people have no idea that their body is doing funky things. That they are shifting into the right hip as they squat.
Or that their knees are falling into the middle.
Or that their shoulders are rounding forward.
Or that they are twisting and creating additional tension and imbalance.
The tactile feedback of a seat, bands, a ball allow the body to get feedback on where balance is, where center is, and to feel more easily if we try to shift back into our current habits.
We do squats daily in life: they are how we sit and stand, get on and off the couch, chair or bed, and part of bending down to grab things.
Through these daily patterns, it can be easy for our body to start doing funky things, especially when we are experiencing pain.

These tactile tools are a great reset and check in tool. Take your time. Go a little slower so you can actually feel what is happening.
We check in and reset then use that feedback to go into free standing squats, front/goblet, back squats, deep, weighted, and lifting heavy.

Pop back for two more tools to aid in finding your pain free, functional squat.

Let’s create a quick check list to check in and adjust your squats:
Where is/are your:
Pelvis,
femurs/knees,
feet,
shoulders/chest/torso?
Are you breathing?

Your pelvis:
When you squat down, does your pelvis go backwards or straight down?
At the top, does your pelvis stop in neutral in line with your shoulders and feet?
Does your pelvis thrust forward, swaying your lower back?
Does your pelvis stop short, before your glutes actually engage?
Do you shift more weight into your right or left leg?
Do your pelvis twist or rotate?

Femurs/Knees:
Do your knees fall in or out?
Your knees are coming from your femurs! What are your femurs? That lovely big leg bone in your upper leg that goes into your pelvis as a ball and socket joint, and all the way to your patella/knee.
Do your knees go forward past your toes?
Do your knees stay relatively over your feet?

Feet:
Do your toes point in the same direction?
Are your feet in line with each other? Is one foot slightly in front of the other? Is your right toes pointing out to the diagonal and your left toes pointing straight forward?

Shoulders/Chest/Torso:
Do you learn your torso/back as one controlled piece, like a plank?
Or does your chest round or back arch?

Breathing:
Are you breathing?
It’s actually really common that people stop breathing!
A general base rule is exhale through the up, inhale on the down or in between.

Use this as your starter check in list.
Do a quick run through and take note what you notice for yourself?

In the next video I’ll talk through ways to start to implement and put into practice your functional squat 😊

A little reminder that that number on the scale is just a number until we assign value to it.
My client’s almost three year old saw the scale and decided to step on it.
He looked down at the number and gave his best approximation of what he knows it is right now.
Then he asked mama to go on the scale.
She obliged.
He read out the number he thought and she softly muttered the number that it was.
Then he stepped back on the scale and he said the number that he just heard her say.
Because that number is just a number until we choose to assign value to it.
He heard that number and thought, awesome that’s my number too.
And, that almost three year old, your little one is not going to remember the number on the scale.
He is going to remember watching his mama work out,
How strong she is,
Getting to workout with her,
Mimicking her workout motions and telling her which ones he wanted them to do,
That it is fun to get to move your body,
Getting to play within the space as she got her workout in.
And that mama is strong and so is he.
It is an easy thing to feel that we need to be a certain number on a scale. Or that it being a certain number means x, y, or z about us.
Yet, there are many other things that that scale number does not show or give credit to.
Such as:
The way you feel in your body and self.
The way that your clothes are fitting.
The things that you are capable of doing.
The pain that has reduced or changed.
The muscle that you are building or any body decomposition that might be happening.
The way that our bodies change over time and throughout the day/week: water retention, menstrual cycle, gut health, etc.
The scale is just a number if we let it just be a number.

How to squat with less pain:
First, what is a squat?
When you think squat, what motion is your body doing?
Are your knees bending? Your hips? Does your chest go forward? Your shoulders? Your whole torso? Where are your feet?
Now this connects to, why are squats important?
Squatting is sitting and standing.
It’s sitting at the restaurant and being able to get back up.
Using the toilet.
Getting on and off the bed.
The couch.
Into the car.
The airplane seat.
It’s part of bending down to grab things and pick them up. Part of moving about and through space.
And, thinking about this sit to stand motion is a fantastic way to find your pain free, functional squat.
To squat pain free, we first have to understand how a squat moves,
which allows you to then feel better, lift heavier, and get stronger.
Pop back, in the next video I’ll give you a quick guide for how to check and adjust your squat to relieve pain.

If you do something that supports your goals, your health, your wellbeing for 5 minutes three times this week,
that is 15 minutes more towards your goals than you would have been.
now if you continue that next week,
it’s 30 minutes,
if you did that for the coming 5 months that finish this calendar year, it would be 330 minutes!
just if you kept doing only 5 minutes three days a week.
now do that for the coming year,
and you are 780 minutes built into the life, the goals you want to be experiencing.
And,
if along the way you built off the small and mighty momentum of it feels good to do the things I said that I would,
and you added into just 15 more minutes each week,
you would be 1,560 minutes invested into your self, health, and wellbeing.
Small is mighty.
Little things add up.
That tiny little moment of showing up for yourself is absolutely worth it, especially over time.
Something is far far more than nothing (and continuing to wait til you can do more, waiting for perfect or all in, is nothing until you stop waiting and take action)
What’s your five minutes you can make happen this week?

Knowing that I can do the things I want or need to while traveling. I can lift my luggage or my dog. I can walk and hike, even when it is difficult and I am tired. That I could do the fun activity like row a boat, or run off a cliff to paraglide, go paddle boarding, swim or float in the pool, walk on a icy glacier.
Many of those travel, vacation activities are things you might be doing in daily life as well!
Fitness, strength training, and health habits are for our long term self; so we can live as well as we can as long as we can.
And your workouts, your current health actions are also for right now; so you can travel, explore, do the fun activities, try a new hobby, and just feel good in your body and self right now.
Having things to look forward to are a big motivator for my clients and myself.
That can be big things like a trip, an event, a big birthday. It can also be little things like the way you feel in a dress or pair of pants, in photos, or being able to do something. Or tiny things like a walk or talk with a friend, a nice dinner, a great read, an empowering workout, great music, or a new thing in your routine.
The habits, foundation, and progress you build in the gym, in your health, for your nutrition, and wellbeing support you in everyday daily life and when you go out and do the big and exciting things: travel, celebrate, enjoy an event, do a fun new activity, check off your bucket list, and just show up for yourself.