Following hot on the heels (see what I did there) of my post about knees over toes,  comes the equally as protected debate about heel lifts during squatting  – should you, shouldn’t you, and what does it actually do…..?

My thoughts on whether you should or shouldn’t really come down to the answer to the question of do you understand why you’re doing it.

So long as we understand that the heel lift is giving some free dorsiflexion, and that in a mechanically able individual we are also looking to address that dorsiflexion – then my opinion is we will see greater benefits from performing the squat with this assistance, than not performing it at all.

My full thoughts on this are explained on the video below:

If a client is unable to squat due to restrictions at the ankle joint we can either give them some assistance and get them moving, or we can confine them to corrective exercise purgatory!