Desperately seeking my squat

After months of recovery, it’s hard work to relearn this basic functional position

MY new year resolution: learn how to deep squat again. Yes, you read it right – and you might be even laughing at me. What, you are Asian and you can’t squat?

Indeed, it is known as the Asian squat because it is a position that is popular and natural in many Asian societies. It’s also called the primal squat, the resting squat, the Hindu squat, the African squat... you get the picture. This squat is very much a non-white people position and there are reasons for it.

When you go into this position, your bum hangs close to the ground, your feet are planted flat, the knees jut over the feet and the hips are lower than knees.

That’s how the Internet describes it, making it sound very complicated. Indeed, if you check out YouTube videos on the topic, the physiotherapist or trainer – usually Caucasian – will tell you it involves ankle dorsiflexion, hip and knee flexion, external rotation, anterior tib muscles, etc, to successfully achieve the position.

And suddenly it doesn’t seem such a natural thing to do.

But my dad deep squatted until he was in his 80s.

I used to squat all the time, too, but last year all that changed because of my meniscus root tear in my left knee.

After the knee became too painful to bend deeply, I instinctively adjusted my squat to put more weight on my good right leg when I needed to get down low to, for example, look for things in a bottom drawer.

I have shared my experience with the surgery and the post-operative issues and, in passing, I mentioned how my orthopaedic surgeon, during my consultations with her, told me in no uncertain terms: “Do not squat. Ever.”

At that point, I was so shaken by my busted knee, I was ready to do anything to save it and protect the still good right one.

And so I stopped squatting for the most part of last year.

It’s been eight months since my surgery and I have been quite diligent in my physiotherapy to strengthen my leg muscles and protect my knees. I am doing quite well and, apart from a bit of tightness, the left knee is holding up pretty well and there is no pain whatsoever.

I can do half squats very well, going down quite low but not the full so-called Asian squat. After eight or nine months of avoiding this position, it’s as if I have lost the muscle memory on how to do it, compounded by my fear of doing it.

Yet, I miss this simple and useful position that allows me to get down low without having to sit on the ground or contort my body like a crab. And so I started scouring the Internet to find out if the Asian squat is really bad for the knees.

What I gathered is that it is bad if your body and the required muscles to achieve the position are not flexible and strong enough, and it should be done “properly”.

That flummoxed me because I never thought I did it improperly before my knee bust because it was so natural.

And surely after months of working on my quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes and flexing my ankles and knees, I could be ready to squat again.

I found the YouTube videos of Matt Hsu, who describes himself as a corrective exercise specialist and a strong Asian squat advocate, to be quite informative.

In essence, the Asian squat isn’t inherently bad for knees and doing it daily can even promote joint health by moving the synovial fluid and hence improve mobility.

But like most things, especially if one has existing knee issues like I do, the key is to gradually train the body (and knees) to assume the position correctly and not cause injury. Since my muscle memory is gone, I suppose I have to relearn how to squat.

I will also admit, while I am Asian living in an Asian country, my lifestyle is certainly Westernised in which sitting is very much the preferred resting mode. If I was tired and needed to rest, I would look for a bench, chair or stool to sit on.

And even when there was no place to sit, I would not automatically deep squat, which is supposed to be very restful even for long periods. The squat is also the default position to assume before sitting toilets took over.

We still have the occasional squat loo in malls and other public places, and I used to use it quite comfortably in the past.

After my surgery, I haven’t dared to use one. That makes me like the Caucasians I have seen in public loos who will not enter a squatting loo and prefer to wait for a stall with a sitting toilet.

Since I am on the topic of loos, I will confess I am quite desperate to be able to deep squat again because I want to visit China this year. Friends who have been visiting all warn me that the squatting loo still reigns supreme even in major cities there.

That surprised me because I thought the public toilets would have improved since my last visit to Beijing in 2016. I wrote about my experience in a column titled “Going potty in Beijing”.

My most memorable experience during that short visit was in a public toilet. I recounted how these are everywhere, tucked into whatever little spaces there are in the city, which was a good thing.

But entering a women’s loo was a shock for me.

Inside were three open squatting toilets with no partitions or doors. Neither was there a lock on the main door. I had to decide to pee or leave, but since I was alone, I decided to do it. As I squatted over one, a woman walked in and without any hesitation, pulled down her pants and squatted next to me.

Guys may be used to peeing next to each other at the urinals but for us gals, we like our privacy. I finished as fast as I could and bolted. I didn’t wash my hands because there was no sink.

As I concluded that column: “That’s a first for me: peeing with a total stranger. It is not an experience I wish to repeat and while I believe open toilets have been replaced by stalls, from all accounts, the common commode is still the squatting loo.”

So, if I am to visit China – I have a few trips in mind this year – I had better learn how to squat again.

It is, after all, a most basic functional movement of human beings, which is why Matt Hsu says it should be called the human squat!

The views expressed here are the writer’s own.