well, you seemed pretty convinced of doing so, seeing since there was some reference to bodyweight or Ben Fury has pretty much been in every post,
I don't agree with Ben on everything, but I found that what he posted in this case matched my own experience and was helpful in both squat sitting and squat exercises and that it helped someone else too, so I thought it worth posting. If you didn't find it helpful, that's fine too. My general philosophy is to find what works for me and when other people have asked for help I have tended to encourage them to do the same.
...with not much else dealing with the actual content of what I posted.
I must admit that I have had difficulty understanding some of the content of your posts in this thread, despite making an effort. I attribute this to mental deficiency on my part rather than any fault of yours, and apologize for my difficulty in fully grasping what you're trying to convey.
I accept your mistake and am not otherwise upset, I just wish you actually responded with any specific evidence that address what I wrote, or accepted that I had any experience or knowledge on the subject.
Thanks for believing me and I'm sorry that you didn't find value in my posts. While your experience doesn't match my own, I accept your experience as being valid for you and don't think it means you have no experience or knowledge on the subject. We can each share and maybe some people will find that your experience is helpful to them and maybe others will find that mine is helpful and maybe some will find both or neither helpful. To each their own.
If you hadn't questioned the validity of what I wrote,
I only question whether
some of what you wrote necessarily applies to
everyone, as not all of it applies to me. I didn't question that it all applies to you. I found much in DJR's posts in this thread that matches my own experience and found them very understandable. Did you get anything out of his posts?
again, I supplied pics, particularly of interest I think is the one with my ass completely on the ground, unable to get my upper body over my knees without engaging my abdomen. You can see raising my ass form this point would be impossible, and the other postures that are hold-able to be ridiculous. Unless you can make specific comments that might be helpful, or provide other relevant links or references, you can see how some random guy coaching a housewife from falling over just moving up and down - when I've done way more challanging squats for years - is not vibeing well for me to say the least.
I must confess that I'm not sure I fully understand what you're trying to say with these words and images, and I'm concerned that any comment I might make on your images and descriptions might not convey to you what I intend, which I'll write off to inadequacy on my part and distractions.
Ben is no more a "random guy" than you are. He's a frequent poster at the Dirty Carnivore forum and formerly at the ZIOH forum. His posts are just as relevant to me as yours and others have found them useful even if you don't. Again, that doesn't mean I vouch for everything he has written or ever will or that I think it will all apply to you, but he hardly deserves to be dismissed so readily by someone who apparently knows little about him. If you find anything wrong in the stuff of his that I linked to, feel free to share specifics. No offense intended, but so far I've found his writings on this subject to be more useful to my particular experience than your posts on it (but that doesn't mean I think the same would be true for your experience, of course).
This was pretty much what I too was trying to say in my posts: "my only purpose in the thread really was that these things are factors not that tall or fat people or myself are hopeless" (
http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/journals/journalistica/msg36843/#msg36843). In other words, just because you have some physical limiting factors doesn't necessarily mean you should give up and maybe you might find something useful in what has helped other folks--or maybe not--and maybe you'll find your own solutions. No two people's experiences or problems are the same and I certainly didn't mean to imply that. Maybe we're just on different wavelengths, or maybe my error in quoting the wrong text at one point raised suspicions in you about me--I don't know. I certainly didn't mean any harm.
I found Paleo Donk's points here to come close to my own thoughts after viewing your images and comments -
http://www.rawpaleoforum.com/journals/journalistica/msg36842/#msg36842 - and you don't seem to have had an issue with them, so maybe I can re-emphasize them here without causing any problems: "Yea, your leg to torso ratio seems to be greater than the asians I have seen squatting and your legs are probably a bit more muscular which as you mentioned will not help either. Seeing that you are already pretty flexible it seems doubtful that you'll be able to comfortably asian squat but you never know what practice can do. Are Asians known for having particularly long torso's? A quick googling says so." [Yes btw, I believe Asians do tend to have shorter legs and longer torsos, on avg, though there may be exceptions, since not all Asian peoples are alike. However, the ancestors of all human beings likely squat-sitted fairly commonly before the invention of chairs, so this shouldn't be turned into an excuse for people to not try squat sitting or exercising when it is safe to do so.] You even responded with what I have been trying to convey: "I'll continue to try various things." I never meant that anything I posted should be taken as a guarantee that it would work for you or anyone else--just try various things and find what works for you. That is the philosophy I have posted since I first joined this forum. Like PD said, you already look very flexible and come quite close to doing a full squat sit as it is, and maybe it's not possible with your body to go any further (as Gokhale mentioned in the article I linked to--not everyone can do a full squat and she even offered an alternative modified squat--did you see that?), and you shouldn't expect to necessarily do things precisely as Asians or anyone else does them, so I wouldn't fret over it. If it will help you get over the Asian hangup, use images of people of European or African descent instead of Asian (
,
,
,
,
,
). Unfortunately, few people of European descent regularly squat-sit any more, so such images will be much harder to come by. These images may not be exactly what you're after, but maybe they provide a more realistic example of what you can achieve than a slender Asian fellow.
If you want to do even better than you're already doing, then go ahead and try various things and see what helps. If you desire further input, maybe PD can help you on this better than I have been able to. I've had a lot of distractions lately, so I'm probably not the one to give good focus to you at the moment--sorry.
I think this difference is larger than a "bit different" (in comparison to djr's 6'3 height with 34" inseam). ...
Yes, I think KD's ratio is unusual and may partly explain why he is less able than some to more fully squat (but he still squats rather well in his images--much better than my mother
) and his body thus may not be an average representation for all people of European descent. Maybe it could be a factor in Kurite's squatting limitations too. I have close to 6' height and 33" inseams and can easily fully squat-sit with heels flat myself, but KD's ratio is more extreme than mine and I'm very thin.
Again, different people have different bodies, so folks should not get discouraged if they can't mimic perfectly what someone else does, nor should they assume that they can't necessarily do any "better" than someone else. AFAIK, the benefits of squat-sitting and squat exercises accrue whether one does them with the feet fully planted and arms in a certain way or not. Of course, one should avoid unhealthy postures, but excessive perfectionism should probably also be avoided if it is going to discourage someone from even trying. Hope this helps someone. If not, then I hope folks will try to find what works for them and not get too discouraged just because what has been posted here didn't match their own individual experience.
Topic: Cant do asian squat! (Read 58458 times)