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Where Should I Point My Toes?
Probably Not Where You Think.
By Coach Jan
Ever hear a coach cue you
to "shove your knees out"? Other similar cues include "Spread
the floor!" or "Screw your feet into the ground!" Likely this
coach's thought was to create more torque through your hip and to more evenly
distribute the force across your leg musculature. Harnessing this torque will
create a more stable, stronger squat, which will have major carryover into
every other movement involving your lower body. (Which is like... EVERY other
movement in CrossFit.) You should always try to "grab" the floor with
your feet and corkscrew them into the floor.
Not to geek out too much, but in essence, shoving
your knees out properly is the act of screwing your leg into your hip socket,
to create a rotational force. This creates even force along your hip and leg
musculature, allowing you to squat more effectively and more efficiently. You
will use your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and all the other smaller muscles more
effectively, and in sync. From a safety standpoint, without torque at the hip,
there is much less stability, because essentially the rotational force removes
any "slack" from the system. Without actively creating torque, your
body will rely on the quads and hamstrings primarily, which are only good at
forward and backward movement, as opposed to rotational movement. This will
likely lead to some inward knees and ugly squats. Inward knees or
"knock" knees are NEVER a good thing. (Think collapsed knees, torn
ACL, damaged meniscus, all those bad things nobody wants.) Put simply, you are
much "tighter" with torque, and we should all know, the tighter you
can get your WHOLE body, the better and SAFER you will ultimately be. To
illustrate this, think of what would happen if you didn't brace your ENTIRE
body while performing a max effort strict press. Surely there would be some
back pains and bruised egos. Think of your body as a chain. You do not want a
single weak link during ANY movement.
Okay, we know now that torque is a good thing. How
can we all improve upon this whole concept? Initially, every single athlete in
our box will learn the foundational "air squat". My first cue in the
setup is "feet shoulder width, SLIGHTLY toed out". Many coaches will
preach a fairly wide toe angle, about 25-30 degrees out, sometimes more. While
this is not wrong by any means, it certainly will be less effective at creating
that torque through the hip, and while slightly safer in the air squat, when
you start putting a loaded barbell on your back, you will definitely feel the
difference. Try this out:
-Stand with your feet shoulder width and forcefully corkscrew your
feet into the ground. (Hopefully you aren't wearing only socks, you need to be
able to grip the ground.)
-Try the same thing with your feet at 10, 20, 30, 40 degrees turned
out from completely straight.
-Likely you will notice a difference in "tightness"
through the entire hip girdle, with the smaller toe angles being tighter.
That's the difference in torque with the different toe angles!
To keep it short, if you aren't already around the
5-15 degree toe angle, bring your toe angle in! There is no universal angle for
everyone, just bring your toes as narrow as possible into an angle that will
allow you to maintain proper body mechanics and reach full squat depth. This
will be different across the spectrum of athletes, because of mobility,
previous instruction, and anatomy.
If you already put up big weights on the various
squats with a wide toe angle, all you are doing is leaving pounds and kilos on
the table, and you are likely too lazy to work on the mobility or technique to
further improve your squat. Neglecting mobility or further mastery of any
movement because you THINK you're already successful is blatant ignorance and
laziness. Always strive to make yourself "prettier" each day. (In
your movements, at least.) Shove your knees out, fix your toe angle, and
mobilize the heck out of your hips, legs, ankles, etcetera etcetera! Always
strive for virtuosity in every movement, whether that's improving mobility to
get a better position, or making technical tweaks to your movement patterns.
What have you done lately to bring yourself closer to virtuosity in the squat?
Monday
Metcon
21-15-9
Row (cal)
Sumo Deadlift High Pull 75/55
Med ball clean 20/14
Thruster 75
Wall ball 20
Burpees
Tuesday
Metcon
Fight Gone Bad
In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute.
This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed
before repeating.
The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of
"rotate," the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good
score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each
calorie is one point The
stations are:
- . Wallball Shots: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
- . Sumo Deadlift High-Pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
- . Box Jump: 20" box (Reps)
- . Push Press: 75 pounds (Reps)
- . Row: calories (Calories)
- Beginners
Hang clean
Clean and jerk
Metcon
20 AMRAP
"Cindy"
5 Pull ups
10 Push ups
15 Air squats
Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any
excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant. -
Anthony Robbins
Post time and number of rounds completed to comments.
