Last night I watched Zero Dark Thirty, a good movie that told a very compelling story that made me even prouder of our military men and women. I doubt there is a more determined, well-trained, and brave group of people in the world.
But Americans don't do ALL things the best. Several scenes in the movies depicted Pakistani men in a full crouch. They were just sitting all the way down on their heels, and these were not young men. Definite grey beards squatting comfortably like two year-olds.
When I ask my patients to demonstrate their squat, it's alarming to see the results. Some look at me with a bemused look as if to ask, "Why would I ever do that?" Then all sorts of compensations and strained expressions emerge as they labor to get their butt to the floor. I'm not looking for power lifters here. I simply want to see how their joints move and what level of control they can maintain in moving them.
I recently listed to a teleseminar with Shirley Sahrmann and Gray Cook, two heavyweights in the field of physical therapy. Cook is co-founder of a movement screen called the Selective Functional Movement Assessment, with which a person's movement competency can be assessed. The screen includes a deep overhead squat assessment. The interviewer asked Ms. Sahrmann what she thought of the SFMA, and she sang it's praises, with one caveat. She questioned the practicality of asking her older patients to squat, postulating that it would be beyond their physical capacity. Gray countered, saying that with all due respect, Sahrmann was probably only thinking of screening Americans. He asserted that in other parts of the world, people can squat well into their golden years without issue.
Performing a squat is about more than just executing the movement. It is a great diagnostic indicator of potential physical problems. Yes, we all are prone to slowing down as we age, our tissues becoming more obstinate in their willingness to bend, stretch, and compress. But we CAN take some ownership in stemming the deleterious effects of the aging process by continuing to move the way we once did. Rather than accepting a perceived inevitable slowing down of your movement capabilities, stand up, squat down, and fight back!
I'll refer back to one of my very first blogs, when I wrote of the "rubber band in the back of the drawer". Keep those parts pliable and lubricated through motion, and they'll be more capable of responding when you need them most. You don't have to be a Navy Seal. You just have to move.
