In April, I set a goal to achieve a deep, flat-footed barefoot squat. I said I would report back in May, so this is my report. My goal was to be to hold the squat for one minute.
The first two weeks of April is where I gave it the most attention and also made the most progress. By mid-April, I had acheived my goal. My only remaining issue was that my feet and knees had a tendency to cave in due to limited flexibility (in other words, it was very difficult to do with feet pointed straight ahead). I tried some solutions on that, but honestly I got busy with other things.
The good news is that the improvement in mobility appears to be permanent. I purposely took a couple days off and then tried the deep squat again. It was no problem. So two weeks of dedicated practice seems to have produced a permanent increase in mobility - that seems like a good deal to me.
At some point, I will work on the squat again and try to get that last area of flexibility straightened out. Overall, this was a successful experiment. Putting a timeline on it, and also making the goal public helped me get it done.
The photographic evidence is below. (I would put up a video of me holding the squat for one minute, but that would have to be the world's most boring video.)
In April, I set a goal to achieve a deep, flat-footed barefoot squat. I said I would report back in May, so this is my report. My goal was to be to hold the squat for one minute.
The first two weeks of April is where I gave it the most attention and also made the most progress. By mid-April, I had acheived my goal. My only remaining issue was that my feet and knees had a tendency to cave in due to limited flexibility (in other words, it was very difficult to do with feet pointed straight ahead). I tried some solutions on that, but honestly I got busy with other things.
The good news is that the improvement in mobility appears to be permanent. I purposely took a couple days off and then tried the deep squat again. It was no problem. So two weeks of dedicated practice seems to have produced a permanent increase in mobility - that seems like a good deal to me.
At some point, I will work on the squat again and try to get that last area of flexibility straightened out. Overall, this was a successful experiment. Putting a timeline on it, and also making the goal public helped me get it done.
The photographic evidence is below. (I would put up a video of me holding the squat for one minute, but that would have to be the world's most boring video.)