Using Force And Pressure To Cue The Squat

As a company invested in sports performance, we’re always interested to see how experts first react to a new technology like BodiTrak. We had the opportunity to introduce Chris Frankel (Head of Human Performance at TRX) and Kelly Starrett DPT (Founder of MobilityWOD) – two of the most influential thought-leaders in fitness – to BodiTrak at Kelly’s San Francisco CrossFit headquarters. Almost immediately, they turned their attention to the feet, specifically using BodiTrak to evaluate how an athlete is maintaining stability and where they are pushing from.
Though any fitness professional will acknowledge the importance of the feet for performance in movement or sports, it’s one of the most under-cued body part in a typical session. Prior to the data that BodiTrak provides, it has been difficult to observe (much less quantify) the interaction between foot and ground in a commercial gym setting. We wanted to highlight a few observations made by Kelly and Chris and share how they relate to what is being taught in the industry.
1. MAINTAINING YOUR ARCH TO MAXIMIZE STABILITY

“You cannot effectively engage the posterior chain if you allow your arch to collapse.”
– Kelly Starrett
When squatting, we want to create a tripod between the forefoot and the heel.
By using pressure Kelly and Chris are able to help an athlete associate a movement with a feeling. Rather than external cues related to movement, they – in Kelly’s words – “normalize an intrinsic feeling.”
In addition to creating a more stable base to move from, reducing excessive variability can have an impact on durability and the incidence of pain. “Losing an arch” may sound trivial, but it has significant consequences up the chain. Here’s Jeremy Ethier of EliteFTS describing what happens when we allow our arches to collapse.
When an arch is collapsed, the heel kicks out laterally and causes the foot to pronate and the tibia to rotate inward. This inward rotation of the tibia creates an inward torque on the knee, which becomes a significant problem when a load is added (such as during a squat). It completely misaligns the lower extremity and can not only cause issues in your knee and hip, but can create problems in your back as well.
A great way to practice maintaining a stable and consistent arch to do use Kelly’s “27 Squats Protocol” demonstrated here by MobilityWOD’s Jami Tikkanen.
The idea is to squat with 27 different foot positions (wide, narrow, normal… feet in, out and square). It was designed as a warm-up, but can offer tremendous feedback on BodiTrak.
“If I’m on the BodiTrak, even though I’m changing my foot position, my pressure should be normalized. I want that pattern of foot pressure to remain constant in any variation… It’s hard for me to be wide and balanced, but I should see limited variability in the pressure in the foot.”
– Kelly Starrett

2. OFFERING THE RIGHT CUE FOR THE RIGHT ATHLETE
One of the more popular squat cues we hear is to “push through the heels.” While this might be appropriate for some athletes, it can be very misleading for others. Watch this excellent video from Squat University:
Applying force through the heels will cause the center of pressure and the center of mass to move posteriorly. In order to keep from falling backwards, the athlete often compensates with excessive flexion of the trunk in order to move the barbell anteriorly and counterbalance their center of mass. This is a sub-optimal movement and may have been initiated by a misunderstanding of a cue.

“I don’t want to do things just because I think they are working well, I want immediate feedback for myself and my athlete that tells me they ARE working well.”
– Chris Frankel
Here’s Dr. Beau Beard offering a solution on BodiTrak:
“If we’re giving credence to the fact that whole foot is important to the function of the athlete, we should be making decisions about athletic stance based on function and pressure.”
– Kelly Starrett
“Feedback with a technology like BodiTrak allows a coach to communicate by saying less. The role of the coach is to create an environment where the athlete can learn better. Sometimes that means the coach needs to be quiet and let the athlete find their way.”
– Chris Frankel
Using force and pressure in training doesn’t just offer an additional datapoint, it provides confidence that the athlete is reacting to how they are being coached. It’s a common language. As Dr. Greg Rose says, BodiTrak allows me to step inside your body and know what you are feeling.