07/07/2026
Repost from Naudi
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The fitness industry has convinced people that the deeper your squat, the healthier and more functional you are. The problem is that the squat isn’t the foundation of human movement. It’s a derivative of it.
At FP, we’ve found that if you improve the mechanics that actually matter, standing, walking, running, and throwing, your squat often improves as a byproduct. This was the case for Dalton Swenson and his results featured in this post. Better gait creates better organization throughout the entire body, and better organization makes squatting easier, stronger, and more efficient.
The reverse isn’t true.
Chasing a deeper squat doesn’t automatically improve your gait. In many cases, people force themselves into positions they haven’t earned by stretching indiscriminately or compensating through the feet, knees, hips, pelvis, and spine. They may achieve a deeper squat, but at the cost of degrading the very mechanics they rely on every time they take a step.
That’s why we don’t treat the squat as the goal. We treat it as feedback.
If your gait is improving, your body is becoming better organized for the movement patterns that have mattered most throughout human evolution. Squatting is simply one expression of that improved organization, not the thing that creates it.
Focus on improving the mechanics your body was designed around, and everything underneath the umbrella of human movement has a better chance of improving along with it.
Stop chasing positions. Start improving the system that produces them.
