“Butt Wink” Squat Myth (EVERYONE HAS IT)
The butt wink is considered a major squat flaw. While learning about how to squat properly & correctly you’ve probably been told to avoid this posterior pelvic tilt at all costs. Although a really exaggerated butt wink position can hurt your lower back most people don’t know that slight butt wink is caused more by the depth of your hip sockets & your genes rather than from mobility or flexibility issues. Watch this video to learn more.
Timestamps:
What Is A Butt Wink? 0:28
What’s My Problem With Butt Wink? 1:08
My 2nd Problem with Butt Wink 2:55
We Should All Squat 4:00
Spinal Flexion and Butt Wink 6:34
Stretching The Hamstrings 7:40
Whatsup guys in today’s video I’d like to talk about the butt wink. And if the title hasnt already given it away, this is not going to be like other butt wink videos that you’ve seen. I’m not here to tell you the same information that you’ve heard over & over again like it’s a mobility issue, it’s a flexibility issue, or even that it’s bad. I understand that some of you may disagree with me right away, but stick with me through video, hear me out, and feel free to comment below & share your thoughts. First let’s define what “butt wink” is for those of you that are watching the video that may not know. The term Butt Wink is referring to that moment in a squat where the pelvis rotates backward. So imagine your tailbone tucking in & rotating inward as you get low in your squat. This is also known as a posterior pelvic tilt which is the opposite of an anterior pelvic tilt. Now the problem with butt wink is that when your holding a heavy weight load like in a squat for example & your pelvis rotates backward there is a lot of extra tension on your lower back & your disks. This could lead to an injury to the lower back, especially when you really exaggerate this posterior tilt of the pelvis. So what’s my problem with “butt wink,” well i actually have multiple problems with the idea of butt wink. Fist I think it’s been taken out of proportion & any sort of tiny posterior rotation of the pelvis is now considered bad form. The truth is that there isn’t only a backward or forward rotation of the pelvis, but there is also a natural neutral spine in between these two positions. Usually when someone begins a squat before even starting they exaggerate the forward tilt in their pelvis. This isn’t wrong, in fact I have my clients start with almost an anterior pelvic tilt on multiple exercises like squats, dead lifts, and rows. I even give them cues like stick your butt out & stick your chest out when they’re performing these exercises. The reason why we want to tilt our pelvis forward before starting these movements is because as soon as you’re holding a heavy weight load in exercises like squats or deadlifts for example that weight is putting tension on your lower back & it’s causing your pelvis to want to rotate backward & your spine to want to flex forward . So by starting off with our butts rotated out & by keeping all the muscles in the lower back tight when the weight load we’re lifting is added to the equation & it’s pulling on our spine in the opposite direction we wind up having more of a neutral spine. A neutral spine is actually what we want in order to protect our lower back from injury. So my first problem with butt wink is that as soon as most people see a slight backward rotation of the pelvis while going down during a squat they call it butt wink when in reality it’s simply the spine switching from that exaggerated extended position to a neutral position. Now when this happens the solution that most trainers & physical therapists recommend is the implementation of corrective exercises as well as stretches. Which brings me to my second problem with the general notion of butt wink, it’s not always caused by a flexibility or mobility issue. In fact it may be more genetic then anything & nobody ever considers that. The depth of your hip sockets will actually greatly effect how soon you’ll experience “butt wink on your way down for a squat. If you have really deep hip sockets the sooner your thigh bone & pelvis will come in contact during hip flexion as you get lower in your squat. Once your thigh bone & pelvis meet, the range of motion in the hips locks & the only way you’ll go further down in to the squat is by flexing the spine. On the other hand if you have shallow hip sockets you’ll have a lot more space before the thigh bone & pelvis meet allowing you to squat deeper before your spine is forced into flexion. My point here is that you can do all the mobility work, corrective stretching, and practice perfect form but it’s not going to change the bone structure of your hips. So does this mean that those of us with better squating genetics should squat while the rest of us?
