Thank you for tuning in to today’s livestream where we spoke about safe squats you can do to improve your back pain. If you’re doing squats as part of the Back In Shape membership area then this video should be really helpful for you!

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Squats are a fantastic exercise as it’s a compound movement. Practicing it can help you with everyday activities, it engages both the upper body and lower body muscles.  To perform a squat, you need to first make sure you’re engaging your core muscles. You should have a neutral spine with your lower back curve maintained. As you can see in the video, as you lower you may pivot slightly forward but you shouldn’t be rounding the spine at the lower back where it tucks under. This is where the stretches we recommend are helpful as if you’re stretching your hips, hamstrings and glutes you should find you are able to perform the squat with good form much easier - you’ll be able to go slightly lower without rounding the back. The depth at the beginning is not important, good form is more important. What you need to avoid is staying too upright as it drives the knees forwards and can be quite irritating for them.

Something that people often do, and this can get worse as you age, is using your arms to support your body as you get up from a chair. You should be able to get up and sit down without using anything to support yourself. You shouldn’t also be launching yourself back into a chair, it should be a controlled movement.  Another common mistake with a squat is that the knees come in as you lower. You knees should follow the direction of the feet so pointing slightly out.  If you can’t quite balance while doing the squat with all these tips in mind, using something to help you get the movement correct. You can use a door frame for this or you can use a support as we show in the video. This can help you build up strength and get the movement correct first before you move on to doing it unsupported.

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