7 Ways to Keep Your Heels on The Floor on Squats
Mar 10th, 2008 by Mehdi Tags: Injury, Squat, Weight Lifting
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Squatting with your heels off the floor increases the torque on your lower back, stresses your knees and can cause plantar fasciitis. Squatting with your heels off the floor can also make you lose balance.
You must keep your heels on the floor during Squats to minimize risks of injury. Many of you struggle with this. Not anymore. Here are 7 ways to keep your heels on the floor on Squats.
1. Curl Your Toes up. Simple trick to keep your heels on the floor when doing Squats. Your heels can’t come off the floor if you curl your toes up. The weight automatically shifts to the center of your feet.
2. Keep Balance. Your heels can come off the floor if you Squat with the bar in front of the center of your feet. Keep the bar above the center of your feet.
- Bar Position. Put the bar low, on the muscles of your back shoulders. Below the bone at the top of your shoulder-blades.
- Squatting down. Move your hips first, not your knees. Squat down by bringing your hips back before moving your knees.
- Squatting up. Bringing your hips forward will push your knees forward. Bring your hips up, not forward.
3. Improve Hip Mobility. Your heels can come off the floor if you have tight hip flexors. This is your feet compensating lack of hip mobility. Do Reverse Warrior Lunges & Split Squats to improve your hip flexor flexibility.
4. Glute Activation. If you have tight hip flexors, you also have weak & dormant glutes. This is Reciprocal Inhibition. Anterior pelvic tilt and bad Squat technique are possible. Do Glute Activation exercises.
5. Improve Ankle Mobility. Bottom Squat position needs dorsiflexion flexibility. Tight plantarflexors inhibit optimal dorsiflexion. Your heels will come off the floor to compensate lack of ankle mobility. This can cause plantar fasciitis.
Increase your ankle mobility using Ankle Mobility Drills & Pike Calf Stretches. You can Squat with a wider stance in the meanwhile. Your ankles bend less with a wide stance as your shins are more perpendicular to the floor.
6. Proper Footwear. Running shoes with air or gel filling impair stability. Wear shoes with a hard, incompressible sole and good heel support. Flat soles work best for low bar parallel Squats.
- Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars
- Adidas Superstars or Sambas
- Wrestling shoes
7. Strengthen Your Posterior Chain. Heels coming off the floor can mean your quads are stronger than your posterior chain. Make sure your routine includes exercises for your glutes & hamstrings: Deadlifts, Power Cleans, Back Squats, …
Never put a plate under your heels to work around the problem. Find out why your heels come off the floor during Squats and fix it.
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As an addition to tip 6: Squatting barefoot works even better!
I have used all of those shoes other then wrestling ones sambas take a while to break in you will get blisters. All stars are alright not my favorite to run in. The converse work alright put some powder in them so you feet don’t slip when they get sweaty. All shoes have pros and cons get the ones you feel are right for you.
I agree about the shoes, I think that is the most overlooked area for people. I am looking to purchase new shoes but want something that I can also wear other places besides the gym…the chuck taylors aren’t the most fashionable for me
I can sit comfortably in the squat position when my legs are shoulder width apart and my feet are slightly facing out but I can’t sit at all without lifting my heels when I narrow the distance between my legs like the kid in the photograph, and when my feet are pointing in the direction that I am facing. Is this because my quads are stronger than the posterior chain or is it something else?
@Adam
It’s easier to go deep with a shoulder-width stance, your torso is not in the way. Also, your feet must point outwards so your knees point outwards (knees & feet always aligned, it’s safer on your knees). This is just technique.
I agree with the shoes. They definitely make a difference in lifting as you can “feel” if you use your heel or not during a lift. In addition to the Chuck Taylors and Adidas shoes, I’ve found that Onitsuka tiger shoes are perfect as well. Especially the ones designed for fencers as the shoe is completely flat.
I use to have such a tough time with squats because of this but after realizing the important and practicing, I lift through the heels perfectly. You mention feet pointing outwards in that one response.
There is a dysfunction if you feet point to far outwards. It creates a synergistic dominance.
Barefoot… I will have to try that sometime. Maybe the day when I get my own gym.
@Mehdi
Just wondering, but does all of this information apply to Front Squats as well? The only thing I see that would be different is the bar position, but that’s just off the top of my head.
Front Squats are all I do, mostly because in Secondary School our weight coach was HUGE into power cleans. He made me train for a full month on an empty bar with wooden plates on it for the correct height. Three months later I saw a guy try to ‘reverse curl’ a clean up to his shoulders because he couldn’t keep it close enough to his body and I understood why I did all that form training. His forearm snapped like a twig.
I posted about my shoes earlier in the forum, and I was going to go back to edit, adding that the Converse shoes seriously help with this. The *very* first thing I noticed with the flat, simple soled shoes was my heels staying down. The extra heel padding in my trainers was pushing me on to the balls of my feet.
Mehdi
I am comfortable squatting in the position you describe and that is what I try and do when performing the squats. This method also alows me to go below paralell and use the glutes when pushing up. My query is a general one in that I cannot sit like the kid in the photograph without lifting my heels and without feeling a lot of strain on my shins. Do you think this is down to any particular reason or will this resolve itself the more I squat?
Barefoot is the only way to go. My kettlebell trainer said barefoot, socks only or aqua socks. Something as close to barefoot as you can get. It makes it easier to interpret the messages your body is sending to you via the natural pressure sensors in your heels. From his website, “Another good reason not to wear squishy shoes is called the positive support reaction. This reflex is caused by a sensor in your heel that senses the pressure of a heavy weight. It basically sends a signal to the body that says, “HEY, THIS IS HEAVY, TURN ON THE STRENGTH OR WE WILL BE CRUSHED!”
This highly scientific explanation means that the body will sense the pressure of a heavy weight supported by your feet and will cause your leg muscles to contract harder. Wearing squishy athletic shoes
diminishes this response and will sacrifice the amount of strength you can summon.”
Have any of you tried Vibram Fivefingers? I read about them on another website and was curious if any of you have tried them.
By the way Mehdi, this is a terrific website. A friend introduced me to it a week ago and I absolutely love it. I have lifted weights for 10 years now (I’m 27) and always did the typical gym workout. I was in really good shape in my upper teens and low twenties, but I had some injuries and a desk job and I am no where as strong and fit as I use to be. Recently I have been searching for a different type of workout, but I didn’t know what I was really looking for. I train for triathlons, but I love strength training as well, so I am trying to find a weight training program that will help me gain a lot of strength, but not hurt my endurance too much. I am not going to be a pro triathlete and I refuse to have no upper body strength. I am basically looking to be strong through out my whole body, but look on the thin and cut side, as oppose to looking bulky. I started your 5×5 workout this past Thursday and I think it is going to give me exactly what I am looking for as far as getting my strength back to where it use to be and even better. So please keep up the good work and I will do my part in reading and telling my friends.
@Dan
Better feet too far forward, then feet straight and knees out. That will create injured knees.
@Shoebox
Bar position is different on front squats, but these tips apply too yes.
@Adam
In that case you lack mobility in your lower legs & hips. Refer to the posts on ankle/hip mobility. The stretches will probably feel uncomfortable, which mans you need them.
@SmellyOrc/Perry
I’m a big fan of barefoot walking at home. I also like barefoot lifting for deadlifts. But I prefer my chuck taylor’s for squats.
lol what a cute kid in the picture.
can you put something underneath your toes/balls of feet to force you to stand on your heels? There are these planks of wood at the gym near the squat racks, and I’ve wondered if that’s what they’re for.
I also squat and deadlift barefoot and i dont have problems with my heels comming off the ground.
@Greg
Thanks!
@Matthew
No. Putting plates/plank of wood under your heels doesn’t solve the problem at all.
@Mehdi
My question was about putting the plank of wood under the *toes/balls of feet*, not heels.
Your answer might still be the same, though
Mehdi
I’ll continue to do the stretch/mobility exercises for ankles and hips and hope I can squat comfortably. As I’ve just started the 5×5 program and need increased flexibility, I’m doing the stretches on the days I’m not training.
@Matthew
Same answer indeed.
@Adam
On recovery days is good. If you can do the mobility exercises pre workout, do it.
haha that pic really made me laugh!
Mehdi,
I was going to check out some Chuck Taylor’s this weekend. This is probably a stupid question, but does it matter if you get the high top or low top version of the shoe. Your link has the high top version of the shoes, but I know they also have the same exact shoe as a low top. Just curious if that matters at all.
Thanks,
Greg
@Greg
Lacing them all the way up can get in the way of ankle mobility. I have high tops, but don’t lace the top part.
I work out using proper weightlifting shoes. These are unlike trainers; their entire sole is wood so there is absolutely no “give.” Note however that these are not flat; weightlifting shoes have a pronounced heel in fact. They also have at least one full tarsal strap and rubber or creep soles. The design allows maximum heel “push” and ideal balance as the athlete cleans or snatches, while maximizing ankle mobility and completely eliminating any movement of the foot inside the shoe or of the shoe itself either laterally (wiggling) or vertically (the bouncing or compression one might feel when attempting to lift with gel-filled soles).
Chuck Taylors etc. or wrestling booties are good, in that their sole does not compress and they do grip, but they are not as good as a correct, Olympic weightlifting shoe for moving heavy weights. The Oly shoes do make a bit of a “statement” too, so if you lift in a fitness club, forget it.
Will Vans be just as good as Converse?