I just came across a very interesting article on the tree climbing ability of pygmies and the extreme ankle flexibility that allows them to do it. I know, this is something you have always wondered about.
I think it sheds some light on a couple of common debates relating to the impact of the modern environment on our movement capacity, such as: the effect of wearing shoes as opposed to bare feet; and the effect of sitting in chairs as opposed to the ground or in a deep squat.
The Twa have tree skills
Check out this member of the Twa tribe climbing a tree. How does he make it look so easy?
Part of the answer is of course practice, practice, practice. The other part is that these guys (and most other people from tree climbing cultures) have a huge range of motion into dorsiflexion. They can get their foot almost forty five degrees to the shin. (The normal range of motion for a westerner is about ten to twenty degrees.) This allows them to get their body weight closer to the tree which makes climbing much easier.
The key to the Twa’s extreme ankle flexibility is apparently not so much in the bony structure of the ankle, but the length of the gastrocnemius muscle. The authors of the paper believe this difference is environmental not genetic, partly because the foot bones of the Twa are not any different from other feet. (He also mentions that it is known that wearing high heels can shorten the gastroc muscle.)
This is an awesome example of how function changes form, which then allows better function. Wolff’s law and Davis’ law in action.
Here’s another video of an amazing girl who had to put her feet to a very different use than the average person. Which caused her to have very different feet. Check out how Tisha Unarmed puts on make up:
Awesome! I like her style.
Did you notice that her feet are just a little unusual in where they can bend and how far? That is not your average foot. She has obviously undergone some significant structural changes as a result of the unusual demands she has placed on her feet.
For me, these two videos provide some strong evidence that how we use our bodies during development will have a major impact on our structure as an adult.
And this has direct relevance to two issues that I have heard debated recently on the internets. First, whether barefoot running is preferable to shod running, and second whether we should strive to sit in a deep squat “like a baby.” I’ll address each issue in turn.
The barefoot running debate
There are many aspects to the barefoot debate that I won’t comment on here. But I want to make one point which is often neglected, and which I think makes the others almost moot as a practical matter.
If you compare the feet of someone who spent their childhood in shoes to the feet of someone who spent their childhood barefoot, you will see two very different set of feet structurally. Personally, I didn’t grow up making peanut butter sandwiches with my feet, walking up trees, or running around barefoot all day, and I have the feet to prove it.
I have no doubt that humans are adapted by natural selection to run barefoot and that it is preferable to spend one’s youth in bare feet rather than shoes. But once you spend the formative years of your life in shoes, guess what. You are now adapted, not by evolution, but by Wolff’s law, to running in shoes. The bones, the ligaments, the muscles, the fascia have all formed in relation to a shoe. Whether you will benefit from switching to bare feet at this point is a complete toss up that depends on the individual. Some will benefit some won’t.
The squat like a baby debate
Nick Tuminello recently wrote a great article on this subject. He pointed out many anatomical differences between adults and babies which makes deep squatting much easier for babies. The one point where I disagreed was in relation to his discussion of the fact that in many Asian cultures, adults commonly sit in the deep squat position with ease. I saw this for myself in Viet Nam, where I observed old men and women sit in the deep squat as easily as an American in a lazy boy. Nick hypothesized that the superior squatting ability of these cultures was related to genetic differences in hip structure.
There may be some truth there, but I doubt genetics is the true limiting factor for Westerners. I think a more likely explanation is that most Westerners simply stop deep squatting by the time they get to elementary school, and then lose the ability to do so after 10-20 years of neglect, partly due to adaptive changes in the structure of the hip and ankle.
Below are some videos of other cultures with different genetic backgrounds, Africans and South Americans, squatting like champs. I love to watch this stuff because it gives insight into how humans move without the negative influence of sedentary chair life.
For example, check out this video of the Hadza squatting around the fire enjoying some delicious monkey. This was filmed by none other than Frank Forencich, and I discussed it in another post here. Pay close attention to the guy on the right of the screen moving sideways while in the squat:
Do these guys squat like a baby? No, they squat better than a baby. They maintained all the mobility they had as babies, but added strength, stability and skill. They never stretch, never do yoga or pilates, never engage in any corrective exercise, yet they all move effortlessly in an out of positions that most Westerners cannot even get into.
Here’s a video of some Yanomamo people, where they demonstrate some baby like squatting at 2:40 and 4:20:
And here’s a longer video showing a day in the life of the Kung San people. Notice how often they interact with the ground.
Imagine that every time you sat into a chair and looked at a computer, you instead squatted down to the ground to inspect an animal track or dig up some tubers. Big difference, and I have no doubt we are paying the price.
So is it wise to try to squat like a baby?
My answer is very similar to the one I gave in respect to barefoot running. I definitely feel that deep squatting is a very natural move for humans, and that our movement is likely to suffer if we lose it. But the question of whether we should try to recover it once it is lost is different. Prevention is always easier than cure, so movement that has been lost will require more work to recover than to maintain in the first place. The attempt at recovery may be more trouble than it is worth, and may even cause pain and injury. So whether an adult will benefit from trying to recover a deep squat will of course depend on the individual.
For me, I think I get some benefit from directing a good deal of my mobility work towards getting comfortable and coordinated in the deep squat position. Works for me, and I am making some good progress, but that is just me. And let’s face it, I will never be one of the boys sitting around the Hadza fire.
What do you think? How comfortable are you in the deep squat? Have you made any major improvements? Let me know in the comments.
I teach people to rest in a squat with adequate support, since most people can’t squat comfortably without it. I have them use an adjustable prop that allows them to squat easily with both feet flat. For some of my clients, this means having a prop that is quite high, sometimes as much as 20 inches or higher. I emphasize that the squat is meant to be a resting postion, not a stretch. One should be able to squat for 10 minutes (at least) and then get up and walk without any residual stress or pain. Also, he/she should be able to easily get into and out of the squat without stress.
Over time the prop can be lowered to accomodate the changes.
So far, most of my clients who’ve tried this have appreciated the sense of having more relaxed hips, knees and ankles.
Gary,
Great ideas thanks for sharing.
Great post Todd,
I love how the lower spine of these squatters loses its lordosis and their knees translate past their toes. Two big assumed faults in our rehab and strength and conditioning communities. We seem to too readily accept rules of function that arent adequately vetted.
Greg
Hi Greg,
Thanks for stopping by. Yes that is nice isn’t it? Even better is that the knees track to the left and right of the toes quite frequently.
As usual a great post. Don’t know if I agree with the barefoot running comments. The technique has nothing to do with shoes or no shoes. This issue is heel striking or fore foot striking. Give me a minimalist shoe and you can feel which is the natural way to run.
Thanks Ross,
Could you clarify your points on the barefoot issue a little?
Barefoot running is a style of running landing on the forefoot and comming off the big toe. Modern running shoes are designed for a heel strike off the big toe style. Fore foot strike uses the muscle structures of the entire leg for shock absorption. Heel striking uses the bones for absorption. That is why runners that heel strike continually have problems in the joints from the ankle up to the low back. Modern shoe makers now are making ‘minimalist’ soles shoes for the increasing number of runners switching to a forefoot style.
Always squat, always have. Always found it interesting that some people thought it was impressive that I could, when to me, it was because I always had. I think I am made this way too. Wanted to answer your question . Love this post! Hope to comment further!
When I used to weight lift I went all the way down, or as far as I could. It just seemed to make sense.
I can still squat with my butt on my heels (or nearly so.)
One thing I couldn’t used to do was kneel with my bum on the floor between my feet. Now I can. Took a lot of practice. I teach yoga so my job helped me to practice.
My point with that last is that if someone wants to they can learn.
They can learn to bare foot run. They can learn to squat.
I think the key is how you teach them.(Or how they break things down so that they learn them)
Then the question might be, why squat, why barefoot run? If you are happy in sneakers or happy with limited mobility then stay where you are. Personally I like being able to squat and it is really cool to be able to sit with my bum on the ground between my feet, especially as before I couldn’t. Same with splits. Why learn to do splits? Because its fun. And if you couldn’t do it before you can appreciate it when you get there.
Plus I like learning kung fu and tai ji. It’s easier when you are more flexible. Lots of squatting involved.
And that brings up a final point. One of my kung fu teachers told me why he has a low bed. Getting out of bed involves squatting. One to get better at squatting? Lower your bed is one possible suggestion.
For flexibility in general, try bending over and tying your shoes.
Great post Todd.
One thing I have noticed in deep squats is that often ankle flexibility is blamed as one of the limiting factors. When you look at the videos of the deep squatters however, you see that at times their shins are almost vertical leaving the ankle flexing to a bare minimum. Easily within western body limitation. The bigger limitation looks to be how close the femur is able to get to the tibia /fibula. Well I guess all can contribute but my two cents nonetheless.
I agree with that. Squatting ability is often put down to ankle flexibility but my husband pointed out that my ankles were more flexed than his yet I couldn’t do the deep squatt. I worked out that stretching the adductors, hamstrings and glutes helped.
Great article – thanks.
Great article. I believe most people have the structural capability to do a full squat, but their movement patterns are so deeply grooved and their muscles often so extremely stiff that it takes a fair bit of work to resolve. I think it’s pretty stupid to suggest we genetically can’t squat and pre the seated toilet we’d have be in some serious trouble if we couldn’t.
I’ve spent some years working on my squat and have a very comfortable deep squat now. I also work with my clients to develop the squat and basically consider the inability to do it to be a deficiency in core function in 80% of people. I’ve had great success with exercises like the dying bug combined with some hip mobility drills as well as a bit of targeted massage.
Most people respond very quickly whilst a few who are usually very heavily patterned take a more focused manual intervention to improve.
Horticulturalists and ecologists (I’ve done both) need to squat regularly to check out plants/soil/small creatures, so I can do it pretty well. I generally find it very valuable to be happy with getting close to the ground!
Only time it’s a problem is when my knees are playing up, as they sometimes do. Although I suspect it’s the fear of the pain that’s more of a problem than the actual movement.
Thx Todd!! I read the climbing article a few days ago. There are some ‘AY’ lessons which relate to tree climbing but with ‘wrapping the legs’ more around the trunk so your knees are out to the side rather than in front.
I remmber seeing video of Pakistani men squatting to get under collapsed buildings after a terrible earthquake – their shins were almost resting on their feet, their squats were so low.
I am determined to do a full squat (bucket list). It is healthy for spine, for internal organs, for sense of well-being.
And BF etc running. I started, older, not having been a BF child. My feet will never thicken as much as I would like them too, but I LOVE the experience, & my feet are getting more ‘resilient’. Toes getting more mobile, more ‘balanced’ as I run, though I’ve done a lot of mind/body thinking about it. Fun article in SF Chron mid December about BF running, featuring me.
And I so agree that our lifestyles (too much sitting is a huge detriment) determines how we develop and how we learn to use ourselves, the activities that we can do …..
….. and I have an innate repulsion towards ‘exercise’ which feels like some fake thing we have to do to try & circumvent the horrible sedentary lives we live. A baby doesn’t exercise yet it is incredibly strong. My 13 year old cat doesn’t do push ups but she can run up her 6- level condo & rabbit-punch me with her back feet. I don’t really know what the answer is unless we adapt our lives to be able to keep on the move in lots of different ways & keep soon the activities we always used to do – which of course gets harder as we get older, if we are trying to restart them. At least I’m walking around as I type & thinking about squatting & bending my ankles ….
So much to do, so little time ……
Drat, another comment – there is a Japanese style of theatre called Suzuki that includes very powerful stomping (great for alignment – tremendous to do & to watch), and also moving across the floor in a squat position (though not necessarily flat-footed, but maybe that’s a Western adaptation ).
Utterly fascinated by your insights. I have fantastic ankle fex (hyper mobile I’m told.) but have FAI hips, would LOVE to know your thoughts on this fast growing (or becoming understood) condition. I was sporty as a child and early teens and super active in my 20′s then struck down in my early 30′s with FAI. I now have several support groups, there are clear patterns of destruction in FAI: inflammation, then the shutting down of certain muscle groups, drastic loss of mobility and ability. But the hip arthroscopy correction surgery, though logical, seems significantly hit and miss. I have had 3 hip arthroscopys, by the best: and yet after assumed success (recovery of 6 months) now massive deterioration. Many follow the same route as myself. Would love to to hear your thought on FAI sometime? Check out http://myfaihippain.blogspot.co.uk/ and https://www.facebook.com/groups/FAIhip/
Commenting again as my name didn’t show up in my comments above timed at 9:27, 9:49 & then the ‘drat’ comment. Conducting an experiment ……..
Jan
Fascinating article with some wonderful images.
That said, I suggest that lamenting western inability to duplicate the observed movement patterns shown or aspiring to help others move in similar ways is pointless without making major changes to daily lifestyle. As the author points out, these are not “achievements” of a training program or class. They simply reflect a way of life. How functional / useful is squatting like a baby for the office worker or taxi driver? It’s like barefoot running… If you wear heels 39 hours a week in the office, what’s the point in trying to run in minimalistic trainers? The lesson I take from these videos is that health, injury & recovery are all products of daily lifestyle, not time spent in the gym.
I was born in 1952. Until 15 or so years old, I never saw western style toilet, meaning one to sit on, like a chair. All the toilets are Japanese style, meaning we need to deep squat for defecation. As I age toward 20 years old, I already had difficulty in deep sitting. I had to raise both heels off the floor, which makes defecation very difficult thus developed hemorrhoids、I think. However as Japan get a little richer, we see more of western style toilet and I forgot the importance of deep squat. I am gradually regaining it by Feldenkrais way.
I would love to be able to go into a deep squat as well as rest my butt on the floor between my feet. In the end, I hope it helps me move better when I’m upright, particularly running. As a student of Feldenkrais, I would love to know what lessons I can do to get me to the squat and child pose sit position. Any suggestions?
Interesting point – and I’ve read elsewhere that squatting is a much better position as it allows us to properly get rid of the stuff we’re trying to get rid of! I believe chronic (ie, long-term) bowel problems are much more prevalent in societies that “sit” on the toilet as opposed to the more natural squatting position, and that there is probably a connection between these two.
Hi, if you haven’t read Phillip Beach’s work, you may find it of interest. http://www.phillipbeach.com/archetypal_postures.html
Well, there is a tendency to complicate these things beyond any useful examination. I’m a 1952 model also and given the mileage I have on me, I could quite easily not be able to squat or tie my shoes for that matter. The advantage of being a 1952 model is I have had time to either quit or figure it out. Keep the movement despite injury,degeneration,and mind games. If you have lost it, get it back progressively, while aknowledging your individual challenges.There are lots of details but it starts with one of the central themes of this blog which is awareness in movement.
Thanks for the squat awareness. It is one of those movements think is essential for healthy kinetic chain. I do agree that easier maintained than gained and progress can be made or modified to improve not just the squat but the functional motion of getting there and back.
My 70 something Mom can squat like these guys, she has been doing it to garden for as long as I can remember. I believe this ability has kept her resilient in her body and do what she wants to do. I wish this ability for all of us-why not start now? Put a prop under your heels and gradually ease into and out of the position if you are tight and be gentle with yourself!
As far as solving the sequencing, to prevent injury in gaining these motions, Aston Kinetics has the tools and concepts that helps people function optimally. I am jazzed on it because I am in Day 4 of 5 day training.
I used to live in Japan (not exactly a culture of tree climbers) and the sight of young men deep squatting with heels on the ground at a train station platform (sometimes wearing a business suit) was fairly common and was a clue to me that my stiff hips were, in fact, too stiff.
Once I really dedicated myself to stretching and strengthening my hips, especially after sitting for any period of time, my hips started getting the idea.
Good luck on your deep squats!
Thanks Matt. Cool story on the guys in biz suits.
I think that by now most people view a forefoot strike as the most efficient due to its inherent reliance on muscle and tendon for deceleration rather than bone/ligament with a rearfoot strike. Therefore, it likely is not important whether the person is wearing shoes or not, but rather how their foot hits the ground.
awesome!
i agree that the ability of Asian to squat comfortably is NOT genetic. (methink it’s due to squat toilet)
cheers,
ps. another tidbit about why i do not think it’s genetic.
once in Long Fist class, a Chinese American youth (about 17 old) was just amazed how another lady & i we old ladies could out squat him so easily. we both looked like the villagers in the clips. (she grew up in Hong Kong. i grew up in Taiwan.)
the teachers made us squat while lecturing us, 5 – 15 min, almost every morning. so i got plenty of practice.
although to maintain a village squat comfortably, one probably has enough ankle flexibility. otherwise, it is pretty tiring.
regards,
Throughout human history, running barefoot was the natural way to run, and cultures such as the Tarahumara people in Mexico still practice it today. The structure of the human foot and lower leg is very efficient at absorbing the shock of landing and turning the energy of the fall into forward motion, through the springing action of the foot’s natural arch. I think you are right on Todd. I will be trying this next time I go for a run!