What Muscles Do You Use To Move In And Out Of Utkatasana Or A Squat?

Transcript of: What muscles do you use to move in and out of utkatasana or a squat?

Hey everyone! Welcome to this month’s question of the month. I’m David Keil. I answer a question every month as you know. If you’ve got a question, a burning anatomy question, go to yoganatomy.com/myquestion. I will do my best to get to it and answer it as soon as possible on a video. This month’s question comes from Kyle and it’s about which muscles you use when moving in and out of utkatasana or a squat.

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The Question:

My question is about utkatasana, and specifically movement in and out of the pose. I suppose the topic can be broadened a bit to describe the most efficient and mindful way to move in and out of a squat. I’m of the mind, supported by one of your comments from several years back, that the eccentric contraction of the hamstrings is a significant factor in stabilizing and supporting the move into utkatasana. Do you agree?

On the flip side, what muscles [and] actions do you consider the prime movers in rising from utkatasana [or a squat] to, say, urdhva hastasana, [DK: basically, returning back to standing] like in a modified surya namaskar B? Thanks for being willing to weigh in on this.

The Answer:

Alright, Kyle. Good question. Let me go step by step. God knows what comment I made a few years back about utkatasana and the hamstrings. I’ll assume your recollection is correct. You know, let’s step back for a second.

Muscles involved in utkatasana or a squat

Anatomically speaking, there’s a lot of complexity when you do utkatasana or a squat and come back up. It’s not a hard thing to do, of course. But in terms of the hip—when I say hip, I mean the acetabulofemoral joint, your actual hip joint where the ball and socket joint is. The dynamics that happen there, down the femur, and then of course at the knee joint are complex. The reason I say that is because you have the quadriceps on the front, one of which, the rectus femoris, crosses both the knee and the hip. And the hamstrings cross both the knee and the hip. And then you have the gluteals. We’ll just refer to them as a group. When you go down into a squat and come back up out of a squat, of course, gluteus maximus is also going to be involved.

Types of muscle contractions

You mentioned eccentric muscle contraction. So, for anybody watching the video, you have concentric contractions, where a muscle—during a contraction phase on a cellular level—the overall muscle is also shortening in its distance. However, there is also eccentric contraction. This is where, during cellular-level muscular contraction, the overall length of the muscle is increasing. The muscle is lengthening during a contraction.

Eccentric contraction example

You do this all the time. If you slowly lower yourself into a standing forward bend, your hamstrings are lengthening, and yet, they are also contracting slightly to slow down the flexion. They’re resisting flexion while allowing it to happen. That’s another way of saying the same thing. So we all do this all the time. If you need more than that dig into the book. Look it up on Google. No problem: concentric and eccentric contractions.

Lowering into utkatasana

Now, because you have one of the quadriceps and all the hamstrings crossing both joints, there’s a particular dynamic that happens there. So, as you’re lowering into utkatasana, or a squat, your knees are bending. Your knees are flexing, right? And you’re controlling that movement. You’re not just dropping into a squat. Therefore, your quadriceps at the knee end are doing an eccentric contraction. At the same time, the hamstrings extend the hip joint. Your hip joint is flexing, therefore your hamstrings are also doing an eccentric contraction. They are working synergistically with the quadriceps to lower you into the squat, in this case, utkatasana. On top of that, gluteus maximus, a very powerful hip extender, is also going to eccentrically contract to slow down the pace of the hip flexion at the same time.

Coming out of utkatasana or a squat

Therefore, when you stand up, these same muscles work in the opposite way to bring you out of utkatasana or a squat. They then concentrically contract, the quadriceps at the knee, hamstrings at the hip, and gluteus maximus at the hip joint as well. They are concentrically contracting in order to bring you back up to standing. That’s it in a nutshell.

In terms of efficiency, the good news is you don’t need to tell each of your muscles to do this. They just do it based on the resistance that they sense. If a muscle has no resistance, gravity takes over every time. It’s pretty consistent. If you want to slow down a movement, that’s the only intention that you need. I want to slowly lower myself into utkatasana or a squat. All the right muscles are going to contract. You don’t need to specify. You don’t need to focus on any particular one. I don’t recommend practicing that way.

Anatomy while practicing

I’ve been asked the question many times: how do I think about anatomy while I’m practicing? I don’t. I try not to unless I’m struggling with something. I’m thinking about the technique perhaps on a pose that I’m working on. Other than that, I wouldn’t be thinking about anatomy. I would be thinking about the totality of movement and anatomy. I’m not sure how I went down this rabbit hole.

Alright, Kyle. I hope I answered your question. I hope it was clear. Anybody else, of course, if you have a question, go to yoganatomy.com/myquestion.