Trainer Mark Ottobre runs an ex-military client through six movement tests: squats, hinges, backbends, overhead holds, knee stability, and single-leg balance. The results show weak hip stabilizers and foot instability from years in high boots, but no reason to avoid overhead pressing or deadlifts.
Do a bodyweight squat for me. Yep. Right, now I'm going to get you to reach down and touch your toes. All right, and then I'm going to put your hands on your hips and I'll get you to do a backbend like that. And that's pretty good, great. Um, then I'm going to grab the stick. Okay. And then I'm going to get you to do a bodyweight squat. Hands up over your head. All right, it's pretty good. So I'm going to take off your socks and shoes. I'll just have a look at your knees. Very unstable. All right, and switch legs. Yeah, they're both pretty weak. All right, now I'll tell you what it means. Bodyweight squat range of motion, A, right? Not A+, but A. Everyone thinks when I get them to reach down, touch their toes, I'm looking at flexibility. I'm not looking at flexibility. I'm looking at the pattern of how you hinge naturally. So you use a lot of lower back. That's your default. So your hinge pattern, we're probably going to need to work on. However, I pair that with something else. Which is the backbend, right? You've got no contraindicator that lower back is going to be an issue. Let's say, for example, you move like that and you're very stiff, then we're not going to get you any overhead pressing. We're not going to get you deadlifting because it indicates that you move poorly through your hips and you don't have range of motion and strength through your lower back. In terms of active range, you're pretty good, but you do lean forward a little bit, which does indicate a little bit of— Well, it's when I say weakness, it's not saying that you are weak. It's just more that, again, everything in the body works in antagonist-protagonist relationships. This is very strong. This just isn't as strong as it needs to be. I agree. The minute we get you into this position, your tibia is rotating, which indicates that there's not a lot of stability. Most people from military have a high boot. Yes. You've been using high boots. So the calcaneus is supposed to slide. In high boots, it doesn't slide, which then does create a little bit of atrophy in the feet. In the sense that the job of the foot is no longer done because the boot is strapped in, and that's probably just years and years of wearing a high boot. And then the other one, when I put you on the floor, the minute you take one leg off, your hip dips in. Overall, there's no real contraindicator for me to say there's nothing you can't do.
