Squat Is The Solution

Plus, fancy-pants hip internal rotation and what pain actually is.

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I stopped asking “how’s the body?” months ago.

Now he informs me as part of our greeting.

“Good morning … man, I’m feeling those squats.”

“Squats, huh?,” I say. “You mean the ones we did five days ago?”

He nods, starting into CARs. He’s talking about his knees. The hot ones that brought him to me a while ago. The same knees that are back to running, squatting, and even jumping.

“When did you feel it?,” I ask. Adding, “Did it hurt, then?”

“No,” he says, tugging a leg to his chest in a way he never could have a year ago. “A couple of days after. And not pain, really. I can just feel them?”

Days. As in at least 48 hours. And not pain. Just a … sensation?

I’m a failure.

How could I have educated this athlete so poorly?

After everything I’ve tried to teach him, how can he possibly make that connection? That’s like saying you slipped on the stairs today because it rained last week.

I go through my sensation-versus-pain speech, explaining how it actually works against all our efforts to blame specific exercises — especially ones that are days old.

Once more, elegantly, I explain how it’s impossible to pick out a single squat from the thousands he’s done since.

Especially when he “felt great during.”

He smiles, no doubt ignoring me once more. I know that face. I like it, in fact. I’ve spent more than a year learning it.

It says, “I’m still not sold.”

It says, “Come up with a better argument.”

It says, “I may never believe you.”

“Let’s squat,” I say. Because belief requires evidence. And the more he squats, the more proof we have.

Fancy-pants Hip IR

Grab a box and a bell, watch the clip above, and get to work!

Mix Tapes 2: What Pain Actually Is

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