Squatting Our Way to Health, Moving Our Way Back to Life by Houston Deck
[Houston Deck is a recent graduate of Florida Atlantic University and an Athletic Development Intern at Athletic Lab] What's the largest organ in the body? Unless you're playing Jeopardy, skin isn't the answer. Doctor of bioenergetics Andy Galpin says, To be an endocrine organ, signals must be sent. And as of recent studies, muscle is actually our biggest organ. Muscle is sending signals to the brain, liver, immune system, nervous system, and skeletal system (Galpin, 2015). Because of this, overall muscle function and development is a direct link to our overall quality of life. Typically the more severe the chronic disease, the more sarcopenia and muscle atrophy we see; ultimately affecting our quality of life. With that being said, pound for pound (literally and figuratively), the back squat is one of, if not the best, resistance training exercises we could do for ourselves. But is it for everyone? What about your grandmother? What if I've had a back injury? Now, degrees of intensity and volume are an entirely different subject but the fact of the matter is everyone should squat to some degree. Dr. Andy Galpin made a fantastic point, if we stopped relying on prescriptions to aid in the heart's performance in elder adults and focus more on resistance training, reliance on the prescriptions and dosages would be affected drastically (Galpin, 2015). Why? Simply put, for many elderly individuals even simple tasks are a max effort attempt! Standing from a chair may take an elderly individual all they have because the muscles are so undertrained and resistance training isn't event being considered as a modality. That's why the heart rate spikes to drastically just to stand up, it's a max effort attempt! Let's look [...]
