Tip The Very Best Low-Body Mobility Exercise Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip The Very Best Low-Body Mobility Exercise If you' re only going to do one mobility drill to improve your squat this should be it by Tom Morrison May 28, 2017September 16, 2022 Tags It Hurts Fix It, Mobility, Squat, Tips, Training The Ass Was Far Away From the Grass As someone who struggled with attaining squat depth, I've spent years researching different methods, theories, and reasons why my ass just wouldn't hit the grass. It's not that the methods didn't work, but it was sometimes like I was taking the scenic route. When I was teaching I found that sometimes people would have the range of motion, but there would be no strength in that range. Sometimes it wasn't sustainable and people were needing to use the same mobilization techniques every session. And sometimes the results were simply so slow that people just decided squatting wasn't for them and probably took up Zumba or something. You've probably seen this exercise before but bear with me. Even I initially overlooked it because I couldn't do it. It's in the application of the movement that the magic happens. If you have the range of motion, it's one of the most perfect warm-ups there is for opening the hips, knees, and ankles. Moving from leg to leg and playing with foot positions is a phenomenal way to build strength and awareness. But what if you can't even hit the position? Well, you can use a counterbalance to access a deeper range of motion. The key is to spend as much time being active in the position as possible to make it more familiar to your body, then ditch the weight and try to recreate it under your own core strength. Depending on the severity of your mobility restrictions you may need to start with a heavier weight and gradually decrease the load over a few sessions... or you could very well get lucky and have gained that movement permanently. Make this your go-to movement. Sometimes individual joint mobility drills have their place, but when you're training to move your body as one unit then applying the same methodology to your mobility work just makes more sense. Plus you're actually going to build muscle with this rather than sitting on a foam roller smashing your calves for half an hour hoping for some degree of dorsiflexion to magically appear. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip Do 10-Plus Reps for Upper Back Here's why you should train upper back often and with higher reps, along with the best exercise choices. Back, Bodybuilding, Tips, Training Lee Boyce May 2 Training Tip Bulletproof Your Shoulders at Home Get your shoulders ready for future big lifts with these simple, do-anywhere band exercises. Training TJ Kuster May 11 Training 4 Ways to Greatly Accelerate Recovery Here's how to heal and regenerate faster on off days so you can train harder, train heavier, and keep getting better. Bodybuilding, Soft-Tissue Techniques, Training Dr John Rusin September 19 Training Tip The Fighter s Lunge Step back with one leg. As you come back up, lift the dumbbell with the thigh: flex your hip and raise your knee just above a 90-degree angle with the floor. Bodybuilding, Exercise Coaching, Legs, Tips Nick Tumminello May 30