scottish hip

**jamiet** · 03-21-2016, 10:47 AM

Hey coach,

I've done some searches on the board regarding hip anatomy and can't seem to find much on this subject.

There is a well known spine doctor on the internet that puts a case forward that people with certain hip anatomy shouldn't be squatting to depth or they are risking impingement and back injury.

Apparently there are features of the hip that can make for very powerful squatters including things like where the acetabulum are arranged on the pelvis and there depth.

Do you think these variables would have a significant impact on an individuals potential strength gains considering that total body power is developed from the hips?

**Mark Rippetoe** · 03-21-2016, 11:25 AM

Our experience with many thousands of people does not make us concerned about this. Our method of teaching the squat accounts for any individual differences in hip anatomy, and over 10 years of holding seminars we have found about four (4) people who could not squat below parallel Saturday morning. These people were either very old or otherwise detrained to the extent that they were not strong enough to handle their bodyweight at depth. Quite simply, knees-out permits depth, and anyone who disagrees is welcome to attend our seminar to learn about this and see how it actually works for a very diverse group of people. But I understand that it's probably better to just continue writing about "the Scottish Hip" since T-Nation pays pretty well.

Now, if you'd like to pretend that some people can't get to correct squat depth -- and that you are one of these people -- in lieu of learning how to squat correctly, please proceed.

**trick_ster** · 03-21-2016, 01:22 PM

If you attentively read/listen to what you that certain well-known spine doctor says, you'll realize two things:

He says, and I quote, "Don't go quoting me saying 'Oh you are a Scot, you can't lift off the ground.'"
He talks about deep squat. That is actually way past squatting to depth.

**jamiet** · 03-21-2016, 03:02 PM

I wasn't attacking the starting strength model in any way as it's how I learned to lift weights and I totally understand how the teaching method mitigates any of these factors.

It just got me thinking about how some people are more naturally born to squat and can do things like squat with there feet together when others would fall on there arse.

And I suppose this is true in most sports, different skeletal archetypes are better at certain things i.e Olympic high jumpers usually have really long legs or jockeys are usually small. This doesn't mean that we all can't do these things.