How Does Heel Elevation Work?

Everyone wants to squat deep, but few realize that the ability to squat ass-to-grass is highly constrained by the physics of how individual anatomy interacts with the implement you’re squatting with and the floor you’re squatting on.

Heel elevations are one of the most effective tools to individualize the ability to squat.

How does heel elevation work?

1. Putting something underneath the heel increases the distance between the knee and the floor. This effectively makes the tibia “longer” so the femur becomes “shorter” in its relative length. As many of you likely know, people with relatively shorter femurs have an easier time squatting more deeply than those with relatively longer femurs.

2. Using a heel elevation puts the ankle into a more plantar-flexed position - where the front side of the ankle is more open - which affords more total range of motion at the ankle.

3. Heel elevations move the center of mass backward, making it easier not to fall forward as one descends into the squat.

If the above sounds like mumbo-jumbo to you, imagine two scenarios:

1. Squatting facing upward on a hill.

2. Squatting facing downward on a hill.

Which is easier to manage?

Using heel elevations to squat is a great way to make a squat more “squatty” if that's part of your goal.

In general, this allows an individual to squat in a way that recruits more of the quads relative to the hips and lower back.

Using a heel elevation is not a “crutch” as some may claim. It is simply a way to alter the physics of a squat to individualize the motion more precisely toward your goals.