Fix Your Bad Knees AND Your Squat With This Simple HACK (MUST TRY)

If you have pain or discomfort in your knees you’ve probably cursed the universe and your ‘bad knees’ when you have to squat down or someone mentions exercise.

But what does it really mean to have ‘bad knees’? 40% of Canadians have dealt with some sort of knee pain in their life, but what if we told you there is an easy fix?

Dr. Rob has a quick, simple hack that could improve your knee pain AND your squat:

https://youtu.be/B2At95yezF4

Test it Yourself:

To find out how well you move you want to squat down as low as you can WITHOUT lifting your heels off the ground. In a perfect world your hips will go below your knees, but for many people this isn’t going to happen. It’s more likely that you’ll get stuck before you squat all the way down.

How to get even deeper in your squat is to elevate your heels on something like a board or two books that are the same height and then try squatting again. You’ll be amazed at how much deeper your squat can go!

Elevating your heels during a squat changes the mechanics by increasing the range of motion of your hips taking some pressure off of your low back by letting you stay more upright throughout the squat. If you have tight calves it also takes some off the stress off of your calves and ankles.

Dr. Rob can already get into a deep but he can get even deeper with his heels elevated:

This test is a great way to find out if you really have ‘bad knees’ or just need some tweaking for a better movement pattern.

It’s always amazing to see small changes like elevating the heels improve a movement so much. Let us know in the comments if your squat got deeper!

If this body hack improved your squat depth and fixed your ‘bad knees’ come see one of our amazing physiotherapists for personalized treatment and advice on how to improve your movement even more!

Check out all the things our physiotherapists can do HERE.