Tony Gentilcore turns in this great piece on improving your squat: Squat Like You Mean It. A bunch of useful mobility exercises that should help you (and hopefully me) get deeper.

Sorry about the dearth of posts, I'm in a bit of a transition period...

First, a link: Mackey has a great post on squatting up. Go. Read. Watch THE CLIP.

Second, to the Nationals-bound Ultimate players out there, good luck in Sarasota! Wish I could be there, but now I get to join in the trick-or-treat fun. As my daughter told me going into Regionals, "it's a win-win!" And right she was.

Finally, do me a favor? Drop me a line if you find this site useful. You can post here or e-mail me. I'm handing over my oldest, dearest site to a fellow ready to give it a long overdue update, and this site piggybacks on it's framework, so will have to change one way or another. Anyway, I've always been curious about who my readers actually are, so if you're willing (no pressure, of course), just a quick ping: your sport, your team (if applicable), and what you've picked up from here. Thanks!

This T-Nation article, The Third-World Squat, is the second time I've seen this particular stretch touted. First time was at the end of Mark Sisson's beach sprints video (more sensitively referred to as the Indigenous People Stretch). The Crossfit boards also picked up on these articles. Anyway, it's definitely one of the perfect stretches. Hits a lot of different muscle groups, proficiency will help with form/flexibility issues you might run into squatting or deadlifting, and you don't need a lot of room. I like to get out of my office chair every once in awhile, squat for a bit, then hit the camel pose (watch your back on this one, esp. doing it cold). To me this combination seems like the quickest and most efficient way to stretch out a lot of the stuff that shortens up when you spend too much time sitting.

Oh, one tip I don't think anybody has mentioned regarding the squat: if you can't get low while keeping your heels down you can roll up a towel and put it under your heels. That'll make it easier to get lower. After a few days, as you get comfortable, unroll the towel a bit. Repeat until you don't need the towel any more.

I found this excellent series of videos on squat mechanics and tips a week or two ago, then lazily sat on it without posting it. Straight to the Bar is on the ball, though. :-) I'll be quicker next time. Really, excellent videos. At least check out the first one. Every winter I try to get around my dodgy knees to learn a proper squat, but they don't cooperate. Maybe this'll be the year. I hate to skip such a key exercise.

Another excellent Crossfit video linked to from the WOD: the air squat. I really must resume my hamstring stretching program.

• I enjoyed Keith Scott's simple explanation of the hows and whys of foam rolling. Then I noticed his blog is good across the board. « via Joachim Bartoll »
• From "The Genius in All of Us": How Beckham Bends It. Be sure to check out the highlight reel he links to.
• Two videos: an impressive jump, and the Crossfit women display impressive Tabata squat prowess (you'll have to click through to the video).

I've mentioned this before, but Jim at Beast Skills really does incredible work both in the gym and on his weblog. Top-notch tutorials. Happy day, he has a new One-Legged Squat (Pistol) tutorial up!

Isn't this handy? Following this discussion on squat mechanics, Crossfit posts a video laying it all out. A must-watch, and contains yet another reference to the importance of hip action in elite athleticism. It is striking how often that theme is repeated in my reading and surfing.

My only complaint about the video is that it ends too soon.