30/30 Squat challenge

[Red1263]

Day 22 done!

 

Can I stop now? I feel like I'm hit with 10,000 needles! >.O

[Nuala]

Just 8 days left, no sense of stopping now

 

I was on fire (ants) yesterday. 20 minutes +10 minutes. Couldn't walk for a while after both sessions >_<

[Everstorm]

I'm calling yesterday a pass.  I timed 25 minutes, and I know I did a couple of untimed squats, too.  Close enough, right? 2/30

[Bill Clar]

Does this type of deep squat take time for your knees to acclimate?  I have the flexibility and can hold the squat for about 60 seconds, but my knees feel like they've been put through the wringer. 

[milythael]

Does this type of deep squat take time for your knees to acclimate?  I have the flexibility and can hold the squat for about 60 seconds, but my knees feel like they've been put through the wringer. 

 

Yes, your joints - knees, ankles, hips - will take time to acclimate.  By doing this daily, you are literally teaching your body at the cellular level that this position is a normal position, and your body will slowly adapt to make it easier and easier over time.

[Zarklin]

I may just have to give this a shot. Never to late to start right?

[Nuala]

Never, especially since I'll be here for 5.5 more weeks

[Everstorm]

Day 3/30 done early.  Woot!

[gsethi]

In for this - already completed day 2/30,

 

Will post a pic soon

[Red1263]

Day 23 sigh... done!

[Nuala]

I made myself a squatting desk. Well ok, it's just my laptop on a box but that was effective yesterday! I spend 20 minutes squatting and getting annoyed because none of my DVD were working on my laptop (f...... DRMs) and then watched a korean movie on youtube for 1 hour and half. Not everything was squatting, there were some deep lunges and Scale yoga pose training but I think I may have squatted for more than an hour yesterday. yay me!

[Reindeer]

I find it rather peculiar that people are viewing squatting as a form of workout when it's supposed to be a way of resting. I wonder if it's a good idea to force that 'burning' feeling at all. Even though it probably improves flexibility like crazy, isn't the point of it to be able to crouch down comfortably and rest there? Rather than aiming at sitting like that for half an hour, despite the burning, pins and needles? You guys who have gotten further than me, how do you feel about squatting before you reach that uncomfortable, off-balance phase?

 

Anyway, this is day three for me and I will skip the workout today. I got up from 40 seconds to 1 min, 20 seconds yesterday which seem like a major improvement, but I've overdone the stretching and am feeling way too dizzy to go at it right now. I can just hear my old physiotherapist in the back of my head, Professor Oak style: "Reindeer, there is a time and place for everything..."

[milythael]

I find it rather peculiar that people are viewing squatting as a form of workout when it's supposed to be a way of resting. I wonder if it's a good idea to force that 'burning' feeling at all. Even though it probably improves flexibility like crazy, isn't the point of it to be able to crouch down comfortably and rest there? Rather than aiming at sitting like that for half an hour, despite the burning, pins and needles? You guys who have gotten further than me, how do you feel about squatting before you reach that uncomfortable, off-balance phase?

 

You are right.  This is not supposed to be a workout.  However, for people with reduced mobility, developing the comfort, mobility, and balance required for the squat to actually be a rest position will probably take a lot of work.  The goal is to do the work to make it a natural rest position again.

[Nuala]

I dream of the day resting squat will be a resting pose, it feels better now than at the start of the pvp even if I still have elevated heels. Ankles flexibility, why you so hard to work on

[Reindeer]

You are right.  This is not supposed to be a workout.  However, for people with reduced mobility, developing the comfort, mobility, and balance required for the squat to actually be a rest position will probably take a lot of work.  The goal is to do the work to make it a natural rest position again.

 

Yes, but in that case, wouldn't it be an outright bad idea to force oneself into the discomfort of squatting? I've gone through enough physiotherapists in the past to have 'don't overdo it' pounded into my brain by now. Technically every single one have told me to NEVER go out of my comfort zone, simply because my body will never truly rest in a position it already associates with pain. Granted this is a little bit different from what I was doing with them, but I thought I would bring that point up and see other peoples take on that idea. I mean, if you can sit in a full squat for half an hour already, ass to the grass with good posture, to me that sounds like you should be flexible enough to sit like that for longer and without all that pain. Do you have to continue struggling with the pose after you've reached the three hour benchmark? Do you still struggle throughout the squatting itself?

 

Don't take it the wrong way, I have all the respect for those of you who've passed the 30 min benchmark! This isn't meant as criticism, I'm just wondering if maybe a gentler approach to flexibility would be right for me, since I'm pretty goddamn stiff at the moment and I tend to get sick when I overdo my stretching. 

[milythael]

A couple of notes in response to that, Reindeer.

 

First, the body adapts at the cellular level to the demands we place on it.  If you never place demands on it, you will stay the way you are, or worse, move progressively further from where you want to be.  Katy Bowman has some excellent posts on this subject on her blog, Katy Says.  Here is one.  As always, you have to make educated choices with regards to your own body, but I don't agree completely with your physiotherapists.  Having said that, I don't believe the goal in this challenge is to achieve the maximum duration squat, nor should it be pushing into the pain.  Both Katy and Ido Portal agree that doing shorter duration more often is better than doing a marathon of stretching once a day.  30 seconds at a time, 60 times throughout the day will create a more effective physiological adaptation in the body.  I do longer squats primarily because I'm too lazy to time lots of shorter squats all day long.  I let the 30 minute recorded goal distract me from the real purpose of doing this, and I know that I can make myself squat 4 times, but that 60 times seems hard somehow.

 

Personally, I have had the mobility to do good squats basically my entire life.  I'm fortunate that way.  I've used squats to rest when I'm tired as long as I can remember.  I'm really only working on switching to the flat footed Asian style squat over the up on the toes, unbalanced American squat.  I still have the habit of going up on my toes when I don't pay attention.  And I don't have a goal of do a single 30 minute squat.  I would, however, like to be able to do 10-20 minute squats without circulation problems as I wait that long for buses rather frequently.  I know I'll never get there if I never do squats that long, so I will do longer squats periodically.

 

I have pretty much stopped working on this challenge though.  I have 5 days left, but the frequency of timing myself in longer squats hasn't been good for me.  If I can get up the motivation, I'll try to do 5 days of timed squats no longer than 2 minutes at a time, spread out over no less than 8 hours.

[Elastigirl]

Good thoughts Reindeer. Gold Medal Bodies, when talking about stretching, talks about not stretching so far that it hurts. Not sure what their philosophy on the squat is. And then yesterday I was listening to a podcast with a guy (can't remember the guy or the podcast,so yeah take this advice as you will) and the guy, who sounded like he knew what he was talking about, said that we should stretch under the radar. For the exact reason you stated, that our nerves start telling us this is a painful position. Anyway, I used to always stretch until it hurt and never gained flexibility. I switched to doing it until you could just feel the stretch, and I think I am gaining flexibility.

 

I am about 15 days in this challenge, and every bit of the squat still hurts. I was just coming on here to post about how frustrated I am with it. Maybe I will do do the stealth mobility and just do about 60-120 seconds, until my body says it is done. Hard thing about that is to make it to 30 minutes

 

Ok. The guy  I listened to  was on GarageWarriorpodcast and the speaker was Adam Steer

[Everstorm]

Totally skipped this yesterday, but got day 5/30 done.

[Nuala]

Focused flexibility uses this squat as a test exercise but in a more strict way. Ido allows you to rest your back, widen or shorten your stance and so on. FF asks for a shoulder-wide stance, parallel feet and open chest. No need to say it's WAY harder.

 

Also, you shouldn't worry too much, some people just love to complain (that's me ) but we still know the difference between "ohmahgawd such pain, my joins are breaking, more and I'll end up at the hospital" and the "arg, it hurts, my muscles are stretching in the right way for once and they are not used to it"

 

Of course squatting was "painful" for me at first, my shins were burning like any muscles would hurt with a similar training. That's why I only kept the stance for a few seconds/minutes. Now that I found a better posture and that my shins became strongers, I can last 15 minutes without feeling any discomfort, maybe it's a bit weird to have to work out to get into a resting pose but considering that I have spend years with a bad posture, it's no wonders that my ankles and shins were destroyed.

 

(on a semi-unrelated note, I noticed yesterday that I can hold the pistol squat pose on my right leg when I wear my shoes, not there yet with the left leg but that's a huge improvement!)

 

[edit]And done for today already: 15 + 5 + 10 minutes. Getting easier

[Elastigirl]

Great work Nualla. I always try the pistols barefooted. Going to try with shoes on and see if that helps. I know it is actually easier for me to squat with shoes on.

[Urzie]

I so did not finish this.. My last week, I squatted maybe 10-15 minutes a day, but no more. I might consider starting over again.. I like squatting now.

[Everstorm]

I missed 6/30, but completed day 7/30.  Getting in my time is a lot easier now that I discovered my ottoman is the perfect height for squatting on while perusing NF on my laptop.    I don't even notice the time passing.  Much more like "resting" squat.

[Guzzi]

Wow! I wish I'd seen this when it was posted, sounds like a brilliant idea.  I'm going to try and incorporate this into my day from now on

[Reindeer]

Hey guys, I found this video in the depths of youtube! So far this seem to be the best stretch routine I've found to ease into a proper squat. 

 

[alienjenn]

Hey guys, I found this video in the depths of youtube! So far this seem to be the best stretch routine I've found to ease into a proper squat.

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPwG2hqnOx0&list=PL12Bsd6W8l82-vbA293S6KFIWI1GoEigp&feature=share&index=1

It says it's blocked in my country on copyright grounds

(sent by the phone. .. all mistakes are the phones fault)