When Is a Squat Not a Squat

We know the squat builds the quads. But how do we actually know that?

If your client has been squatting for years and their quads haven't grown, at what point do we stop blaming effort and start asking a different question?

Their squat looks solid. Depth is there. They're in control. But watch from the side, and you might start to see where the differences are.

Two Squats, Two Exercises

Two clients. Both squatting.

The first one goes down and their knees travel forward, hips shift back, and they lean forward a little - but not too much. It looks balanced. Controlled.

The second one looks different. It's more like they're sitting back into the squat. Their hips shift all the way back, their spine folds further forward, and honestly it looks a bit like they've got tight ankles.

So what's going on?

It might be ankle mobility. If one client has more ankle range, their knees can travel forward more freely - and if the knees travel forward, the hips don't have to shift as far back to keep everything balanced.

Or it might be proportions. If one client has a femur that's twice as long as their tibia (I'm exaggerating, but stay with me), the hips get driven further back relative to the knee. The only way to keep from falling over is to fold the torso forward to compensate.

Either way, the body is solving the same problem: don't fall over. The nervous system is figuring out how to keep their centre of mass over their base of support. And the way it solves that problem changes based on what's available - joint range of motion, limb lengths, and a bunch of other things.

Which means the muscles being challenged during that squat are different too.

Seeing Torque

When we're analysing an exercise, we're looking for the torque demand. That means we need to see the relationship between the line of force and the axis within the joint.

In the squat, the line of force is a vertical line that runs through the foot. So when we watch the squat from the side, we can see how far the knee and the hip each travel away from that line.

The client whose knees shift forward - their knee joint moves further from the line of force. More distance, more torque demand at the knee. More quad challenge.

The client whose hips shift back - their hip joint moves further from the line of force. More distance, more torque demand at the hip. More hip challenge.

Same squat. Different distances. Different demands.

When the Squat Is a Deadlift

We had a client like this. Strong, experienced, had been squatting for years. Frustrated that his quads never grew the way he expected. Watched him from the side and it was obvious - his squat was a deadlift. A hip hinge with knee bend.

We shifted his quad work to leg press and split squats - exercises where we could control his torso angle and make sure the knees were actually doing the work. The difference was immediate. Not because he wasn't trying before. Because the exercise he thought he was doing wasn't the exercise his body was performing.

The Name Isn't the Exercise

The squat is just a name. It's not a specification. And anatomical differences - the things your client walked in with, the things you can't change - influence the outcome of every exercise you program.

So when you watch a client squat, are you seeing what the exercise is supposed to be? Or what their body actually creates?