Once again, the golf bag comes through as some added resistance!

The Sumo Squat is one of my favorite variations of the Squat.  In a traditional one, feet are placed at hip width apart and pointed forward or possibly slightly out.  In the Sumo, you take a wider stance with the feet turned out.  This places an even greater emphasis on the adductors, a very important muscle group that aids in stabilizing the lower body in the golf swing.  It also hits the quads, glutes, hamstrings, basically every awesome lower body muscle there is!

What takes it over the edge though is the placement of the golf bag…..or any other weight you may choose.  By holding the golf bag in a cradle position near your chest, it will provide a counter weight.  This forces the upper back muscles to activate aiding in thoracic extension and avoiding that not so great turtle shell that many people have when performing squats.  It also helps better enforce core engagement, a component that will help many people with their range of motion in the squat.

A few keys of creating the perfect Sumo Squat:

• Make sure you can actually squat properly first.  That means your heels stay on the ground, the knees do not pass your toes and also stay in alignment with your feet, and you are squatting to an appropriate depth for your ability
• If you do not have much range of motion, do not advance go, do not collect $200.  An important piece of information you need is why?  If it’s a mobility issue that can be resolved, you will want to take care of that before loading the range of motion.  If this is as much range of motion as your body has and no pain is present, you’re good to go.  There are a lot of reasons for why squats go wrong though, I always suggest having it checked out by the proper pro (like those at nwsportsperformance.com)
• Set the core prior to lowering by taking a deep breath from the diaphragm
• As you get to the bottom of the motion, breathe out and drive up through the feet
• Feel those glutes on fire at the top position!
• The body should return to where it started, if Fat Joe shows up singing Lean Back, chances are you extended through the low back instead of the hips!
• And just a cautionary note:  If you choose to start adding weight to this motion, always remember to leave two reps in the tank!  That means if you are doing 10 reps, choose a weight that lets you complete that amount with perfect form and the feeling that you could do two more if you wanted to.  If someone tells you that you’re not getting better unless you hit failure and fall on the floor on that last rep, run the other way.  There is a time and place for that, although I personally can’t think of many reasons why you would ever want to finish an exercise with terrible form and such a huge risk of injury.
• Last step is to pick a killer song, grab that golf bag and get to squatting!

Happy Friday everyone!

-S