Should We All Be Squatting More?

I was recently on a vacation with a friend that involved a great deal of walking around a new city. During a moment of respite, I noticed she dropped into a deep squatting position, rather than plopping down on a nearby bench like I did. When I asked why she wasn’t sitting, she joked, “I’m trying out the Slav squat.”

The pervasive “Squatting Slav” or “Slav Squat” meme refers to images of Slavic-appearing men wearing tracksuits and hanging out together in a deep squatting position with their heels flat on the ground. Searches for this meme often direct people to the notion of the “Asian Squat” as well ― a nod to the ubiquity of deep squats in many Asian cultures.

But in the U.S., squatting is considerably less common (such that in my informal poll of friends, only about half were even able to assume this position without holding onto something).

“We squat as children and in our teens, but as we in the Western world get older we completely stop deep squatting in our daily lives unless we intentionally do it as a form of exercise or in yoga,” said Bahram Jam, a physical therapist at Athlete’s Care Clinic in Toronto. “A true sign of aging is the inability to squat or sit on the floor and be able to get up independently again.”

But should we be hanging out in a deep squat for prolonged periods of time? What’s the optimal approach to the squat? Below, Jam and other experts break it down.

What does squatting do for your body?

“When you squat, your joints are at the end range of motion ― ankle, knee and hip,” noted Bryan Ausinheiler, a physical therapist, personal trainer and nutritionist who’s developed an interest in the deep squat and the cultural differences in how people move their bodies.

Maintaining a deep squat