 Hey everybody, I'm Lance Coyke, and in this video I want to talk about buttwink, what it is, why it's a problem, and how to fix it. We'll start by going over the two types of buttwink and their anatomical differences so you can decide which category you fit into. Next, we'll discuss buttwink's negative impact on spine health, strength, power, muscle gain, and conditioning. After that, we'll run through the causes of buttwink to identify why it's happening and how to attack the problem. And lastly, I'll take you through some quick tests and mobility exercises to fix your buttwink. Buttwink is a rounding of the low back with a posterior pelvic tilt that arises due to mobility limitations. It's generally easy to correct with proper squat and deadlift technique, but anatomical differences do play a role. There are a few different ways that I've seen buttwink demonstrated and described on the internet. To me, there could be only one, but it's important to define the two because though we might call them the same thing, they're totally different. Our first type of buttwink is the reversed spinal curve. A reversed spine is both the most common and most concerning type of buttwink. To understand this problem, we first need to know what a normal spine looks like and how it can deviate from this normal. The spine has a wavy shape that dictates functional differences between the various segments of the spine. There are five segments in total, coccyx, sacrum, lumbar, thoracic, and cervical. The coccyx and sacrum pieces fuse as we develop into a human, so we usually only discuss the top three segments, lumbar, thoracic, and cervical. Normal spine curvature in standing is 45 degrees of lumbar lordosis, 40 degrees of thoracic kyphosis, and 34 degrees of cervical lordosis. This research article from 2018 examines individual differences in lumbar lordosis, if you care to dive deeper. In general, when we talk about a neutral spine position, we're aiming for this normal curvature. When these normal complementary curves of the spine are eliminated, the spine is straight and flat. This reduces mobility through the spine and every other joint in the body. Now, this posture is beneficial for supporting heavy weights like during squats and deadlifts, but detrimental for rest and recovery. When the spine's normal curvature is flipped, we say the spine is reversed. This happens when the back is flattened for stability, but then mobility is challenged past what is possible. This position is always undesired as it limits both mobility and stability. In fact, the reversed spinal curve is the essence of the buttwink, thoracic extension, and lumbar flexion. This curve is generally a product of poor technique. You see it most often in lifters misusing cues such as keep your chest up and keep your back arched. Excessive arch in the spine steals hip flexion mobility, so the lumbar spine ends up rounding in the bottom half of the movement. This allows the lifter to squat lower, but compromises their stability and spine health. Our second type of buttwink is the rounded back buttwink. This is not really what I picture when I hear the term buttwink, but it's far less common. I believe this variation has arisen partly from the public misinterpreting what they've read on the internet, but also partly from correctly interpreting misleading information. None of that's a big deal though. Let's just talk about it anyway. The round back is characterized by flexion at all sections of the spine. This is not a common standing posture because it requires too much energy to maintain, but it can be useful when doing abdominal exercises. Our general rule is that deviating from the normal neutral spinal curve reduces mobility, but is sometimes still desirable. For example, you want a flat spine when supporting heavy weights, but this will limit your squat mobility. Now, why is buttwink such a big problem? In short, buttwink is a detriment to joint health, strength, power, muscle building, and conditioning. We'll first discuss joint health. Research from Dr. Stuart McGill's lab at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada shed light on the truth to spine health. Their research shows us that repeated movements of a loaded spine introduces wear and tear to the intervertebral discs. The load that goes through the spine multiplies when moving off axis, making seemingly innocuous tasks more aggravating. Heavy squats and deadlifts with a buttwink are a version of this loaded spinal bending and are best to be avoided. It's important to remember, however, that spinal flexion and extension are crucial movements to have available, but it's generally best not to move into these positions while under load. Even common exercises like crunches have fallen out of favor with most personal trainers and strength coaches who have researched this topic. Though Dr. McGill retired in 2017, his research lives on. Plus, he's famous for his incredible mustache. The second major problem with buttwink is that it makes us weaker and slower. To demonstrate strength and power, we need an anchor point. Isaac Newton taught us that a long time ago. The ground serves as our anchor point for most athletics, daily tasks, and feats of strength. We drive our feet into the ground in order to manipulate our body and weights. For a squat, the push starts at the ground, travels up through the torso, and ends in the barbell on the shoulders. If the torso collapses, we miss the lift. Buttwink reduces stability to use the spine for mobility instead. Every muscle in the body, however, is stronger when resisting a force rather than overcoming it. So when the lumbar spine flexes to achieve more depth, the lifter loses the stiffness that's so important for demonstrating strength and power. The third problem with buttwink is that it limits muscle gain. Moving at the spine removes load from the legs and moves it to the back. This reduces the mechanical stress placed on the glutes, quads, and hamstrings. Less stress means less stimulus to grow. The fourth and final problem with buttwink is that it increases fatigue and impairs our conditioning. A buttwinked position is actually a spinal curve that's totally opposite of normal. Holding everything together in that alignment takes tremendous effort. In fact, I have a story for you. Back in 2014, I was coaching at a USA weightlifting certification course. This course was two days long of lecture and learn-by-doing exercise. In this filled gymnasium, everyone had normal predictable problems. Feet are too wide, torso is too upright, etc. But there was one guy sweating like he was running across the Gobi desert being chased by the police and eating five pounds of meat. Dude was still shredded though, so props to him. I come over to help him and find he's been holding a butt-winked position for the Romanian deadlift we're teaching. He's probably been working on it for 20 minutes at that point, so I give him a little break, work on reversing that curve a little bit, and run off to help the next poor soul. But when I come back around, maybe 20 minutes later, he's sitting down. He's gassed out from staying bent over with an empty barbell. And he never jumped back in. I have no doubt in my mind that this dude was one of the fittest in the room, but no amount of conditioning can overcome the mechanical disadvantage of a buttwink. Okay, so we understand what buttwink is and why it's such a problem, but why is it there in the first place? Buttwink usually arrives from poor lifting technique. This is a very fixable problem, and you should be squatting without issue in no time. Some people, however, have anatomical limitations that require exercise modifications. Sometimes a buttwink can be totally attributed to a lifter's own unique anatomy. If there's one thing I learned during my master's program, it's that everyone is different. For example, the same artery might arise in two totally different spots and two totally different people. In this section, we will discuss the variations in anatomy that dictate our hip mobility, and therefore how susceptible we are to buttwink. We start with soft tissue restrictions and end with bony restrictions. The term tight hips is overused. Tight is a vague descriptor when it comes to diagnosing mobility problems as muscles can be tight for multiple reasons. Stiffness, however, is specifically addressing the stretchiness of a tissue. When something is stiff, our body tends to avoid it. This is like when we leave a room. We usually use the doorway instead of blasting through the wall Kool-Aid Man style. We take the path of least resistance. In the squat, a stiff posterior hip capsule prevents the lifter from sitting back, loading the glutes and hamstrings, and driving through the heels. This manifests as a forward shift where the shoulders cave, the buttwinks, and the heels rise off the ground. Quick side note, if you got stiff hips, check out this video where I run through my best mobility drills to loosen them up. When lifting heavy, the heels should stay firmly planted in the ground throughout the entire lift. If they don't, our weight shifts forward and everything falls apart. When watching a lift where the heels rise off the ground, it's easy to attribute the problem to tight calves that need to be stretched. But remember, we need to be more specific. There are three main reasons the heels will rise off the ground. Listen here from most to least common. Number one, something further up the chain has gone wrong and the ankles are trying to help out. I.e. a stiff posterior hip capsule pushed the body's mass forward and the calves kick on to prevent toppling over. Number two, the calf muscles and Achilles tendon are stiff and don't want to be stretched. And number three, the bones of the ankle joint don't allow for full dorsiflexion. Stay tuned for later where I'll discuss testing for tight ankles and what to do about it. Previous injury or poor rehabilitation after surgery can lead to lasting knee flexion limitations. If the knee can't bend when descending into the squat, either squat depth will be limited or the body will compensate with a twist. Deep hip sockets can be measured with an x-ray. The hip is what we would call a ball and socket joint, meaning one half of the joint is spherical and the other half receives that sphere. The shoulder is another notable ball and socket joint. Having a deep hip socket means that more of the ball shape is covered by the socket. Deep hip sockets are less mobile and require less muscular force to stay stable. People with deep hip sockets have trouble squatting low but are better at high force activities like powerlifting. Having a shallow hip socket means less coverage, more mobility, and more force from the surrounding musculature. People with shallow hip sockets are more susceptible to joint degeneration due to higher pressure inside the joint and they tend to enjoy low force activities like yoga. A severely shallow hip socket is often called hip dysplasia. The term hip impingement can be confusing because it can mean one of two things. One, bony restriction of movement secondary to joint position for example a hip that's completely flex cannot flex no mo. Or two, bony restriction of movement secondary to excess bone formation around the joint that is a cam pincer or mixed impingement. If your joint can't move because it's out of space you can free up the joint by moving the impeding bone out of the way. Another option however is simply changing the demands of the movement. For example if the hip won't allow you to squat deeper, don't squat deeper. Extra bone grows because forces at the bone tell it to. Hip impingements are common in ice hockey goalies because they spend so much time in forceful hip flexion and abduction. The neck of the femur and the rim of the acetabulum repeatedly and forcefully bang into each other. This stimulates instability and the extra bone forms to restrict movement at the joint helping prevent dislocation. There are surgeries to shave off the excess bone in a cam or pincer hip impingement and this might be a reasonable option for athletes looking to maintain their performance. Keep in mind however that bone grows back after trauma so if you don't fix the underlying problem you may find yourself back in the operating room in a few decades. If you want to dive deeper here's a research article on how a radiologist examines hip impingement. Anaversion and retroversion describe the resting orientation of the hip joint. An antiverted joint is more open in the front while a retroverted joint is more open in the back. For each of these there are two subtypes, a femoral, a twisting of the shaft of the femur, and acetabular, a twisting of the hip socket. To achieve maximum stability in the hip joint the leg has to rotate which may negatively affect the knee, ankle, and foot alignment below. Therefore a lifter with retroverted hips may require greater toe out and a lifter with an averted hips may require greater toe in. It's worth mentioning that a normal pelvic bone still has slight an aversion. As the orientation of the bone changes so does the an aversion angle this means it's possible to affect the hip joint's function with simple positioning exercises. More on this to come later. If you want to dive deeper here's a research article on acetabular retroversion and another one on femoral an aversion and hip osteoarthritis. Coxavera is a decreased inclination of the femoral neck and head. Coxavelga is an increased angle. These changes lead to altered hip mobility and function. Now that we've exhausted our list of anatomical limitations that might contribute to buttwink let's move on. Our second major cause of buttwink is a consequence of not appreciating the anatomical limitations we just described. If the hips knees and ankles don't allow for a full butt-to-heel squat then the body will have to compensate when doing a full butt-to-heel squat. Too often I see lifters squatting deep because some article on the internet said they had to or else they were a wimp. This is not smart training. Smart training would be tailoring a program or exercise to fit the lifter's needs and full depth back squats might not fit the lifter's needs. There are other ways to build strength muscle and fitness. Our third major cause of buttwink is fatigue. Sometimes the technique is there but only for a short while. We'll talk about how to test this later on to determine whether there's a lack of strength or endurance. Our fourth and most common major cause of buttwink is poor lifting technique. Up until this point most of the stuff we've talked about is hard to change. Without lots of stretching the hip capsule's stiffness won't change and without surgery the shape of the hip joint won't change. Technique however can change in an instant. The tough part is knowing what cue to focus on. Then the even tougher part is implementing it while you're mid-set, sweaty, and exhausted. Now that we've got a solid understanding of the fundamentals let's figure out the specifics. What do we do to fix buttwink? In this section we're going to walk through the six scenarios that can cause buttwink when squatting. Each subsection will have a test to determine if this scenario applies followed by recommendations on what to do. First up is knee flexibility. Knee flexion and tibial internal rotation are required for squatting. The deeper the squat the more the knee has to bend. To test it we'll do a standing passive knee flexion test. Stand on one leg next to a chair or wall to use for balance. Grab the hovering foot and pull it all the way to the glutes. Repeat this on the other leg. We're looking for the heel to contact the butt. If the knee does not bend until the thigh and calf are touching then knee flexion is limited. If knee flexion is limited reduce squat depth to avoid unattainable amounts of knee bending. Next up is hip mobility. Hip flexion is required for squatting. The deeper the squat the more the hip has to bend. Hip flexion mobility is largely determined by the position of the pelvic bones. A strong anterior pelvic tilt steals hip mobility while a posterior pelvic tilt allows for deeper squats. To test it we'll do a quadruped rock back. Start on hands and knees with knees directly underneath the hips and toes pointed away from the body. Align a neutral spine as if squatting. Push the butt backward as far as possible without allowing the spine to move. We're looking for the butt to rock all the way back to the heels without a change in the spinal curve. If there is a visible arch in the low back the spine is too extended or if there is a rounding in the low back either hip mobility is limited or there is a lack of spinal stabilization when bending the hips. If the spine is too extended practice squatting with the hips tucked and the belly button pulled in slightly. Squat slowly while making sure to maintain this neutral position. If the spine rounded during the rock back practice squatting with the hips tucked and belly button pulled in slightly while paying close attention to squat depth making sure to stop before the spine bends. This means reducing the range of motion. Our third test is for ankle flexibility. Ankle dorsiflexion is required for maintaining an upright posture when squatting. If the ankles can't bend the lifter will bow over in an effort to squat deeper. Ankle mobility is largely affected by balance. If the body's weight is shifted forward the calves stay active to prevent falling forward. This contractures steel's ankle mobility. To test the ankles we'll do a half kneeling ankle dorsiflexion mobilization. Remove any footwear and kneel on one knee with the front foot flat on the ground six inches away from the kneeling knee. Push the front knee forward as far as possible while aiming for the pinky toe and keeping the heel firmly pressed into the ground. Repeat on the other side. We're looking for the ankle to bend at least 30 degrees without compensation. Ankle mobility is limited if any one of the following three things happens. One, the ankle doesn't bend to at least 30 degrees. Two, the knee drives inward over the big toe. Or three, the heel leaves the ground at any point during the test. If ankle dorsiflexion is limited practice squatting with firm pressure throughout the entire foot paying close attention to the heel. Front-loaded movements like goblet squats and front squats will help because the load serves as a counterweight forcing the lifter to stay upright and not shift forward. Our fourth test will be a bit of a change of pace. Instead of testing a single joint, we'll now test how all those joints work together. Motor controls by far the most common cause of buttwink, but this is good news. It means you can fix buttwink instantly with just a few cues. The cue of keeping your chest up throughout the squat or deadlift is perhaps the most overused, unhelpful cue in any lift. Superficially, it makes sense to keep your chest up if it's collapsing. Once your upper back starts to cave, everything else tends to fall all the way up until you're stapled into the squat supports or, worse, the ground. Now don't get me wrong, chest up can be helpful, but success is rare unless the lifter is inexperienced and stuck in a swayback posture which we talked about earlier. It can be helpful in heavily suited powerlifting as well. The problems happen when you take this cue too far. Massive thoracic extension is the opposite of a normal spinal curve. When this happens, the lumbar spine has to reverse and the lifter loses hip mobility. Lumbar flexion then makes up for this loss of hip mobility, and we call that buttwink. Collapsing the chest is bad, but over-elevating the chest is also bad. As with most things, we want a happy medium. After a decade or so of coaching, I can spot buttwink before it happens with roughly 90% accuracy just by watching a lifter set up for the squat. We stabilize our joints by compressing them with gravity or muscle contraction. Ideal spinal mobility occurs in neutral at rest or possibly with a slight flattening of the spine when under load. We outline those postures earlier. When a lifter doesn't know how to stabilize in a roughly neutral spinal position, they accentuate their curve and increase compression with the paraspinal muscles. This muscular activity locks down the spine and only gets worse when beginning the squat. So when a lifter sets up with an extended back posture, it's super likely that they will have a buttwink at the bottom of their squat. The squat starts with the feet. Mobility in the foot and ankle is necessary for achieving proper range of motion, but stability in the foot and ankle is necessary for being strong and lifting heavy weights. Therefore, the most important cue in squatting is to keep your feet flat. We don't want the toes flying around and we don't want the heels off the ground. This promotes the optimal balance of mobility and stability. So first, when squatting, think feet stay flat. Strong footing is important as we've just outlined, but it's not always as simple as queuing keep the feet flat. For stable feet, the torso must be stacked on top of the hips. Most lifters need a slight posterior pelvic tilting to bring the hips back to neutral. Watch how the rest of Allison's body morphs as she does a posterior pelvic tilt. Remember, everything is connected. If this is news to you, check out my previous video on quad stretches where we take some time to coach through the posterior pelvic tilt. You should practice proper technique in all squatting variations, but the heels-elevated goblet squat is a good first-step teaching tool. Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, heels-elevated 1-2 inches on a firm surface and a comfortable weight held in front of the chest. Tuck the hips into a neutral position where the heels are firmly planted in the ground. It helps to drive the elbows forward and the belly backward. Squat down as low as possible without losing neutral hip and spine alignment, then return to standing. We're looking for a squat without hip, spine, or ankle compensation. If the tailbone sticks out backward, slow down and make sure to maintain the hip tuck. If the low back rounds, slow down and attempt to stay long from head to tail. If the arms get tired or the body rounds over right away, reduce the weight. And if the heels get light or leave the ground, reduce the weight, push it away from the body on decent, and drive through the heels all the way down and all the way up. The quickest way to learn how to squat is to just try it and then fix whatever is wrong. We don't have the luxury of a coaching session here, so I will attempt to outline the most important pieces of a squat. Feet stay flat, spine stays neutral from tail to head. Hips are centered between the legs. Knees are in line with hips and ankles. Back and shins are parallel at the bottom. This is an unpopular opinion, but I believe squatting with a bar on your back is overrated. Putting the bar on the back demands bending forward, which uses up hip and ankle mobility. Lifters can generally squat deeper in safer positions when front squatting simply due to the normal position of the joints. I don't mean that back squats are useless, I use them with my clients occasionally, but using them all the time leads to stiff hips and achy backs. Alright, so we've discussed how to execute the squat, but sometimes execution isn't enough. In these cases, we need to examine our programming, endurance, strength, and ego. Endurance is necessary to maintain technique when fatigue. In my experience, most lifters who prioritize strength neglect endurance. We're looking for a lifter whose technique is unaffected by fatigue. If technique degrades as the set goes on, programming should begin building endurance immediately. This is such a common issue that I developed a four-month program designed to build strength and endurance while preparing the body for any training program that may follow. It lays a foundation upon which fitness can then be built. Strength is necessary to maintain technique as weights get heavier. We're looking for a lifter whose technique is unaffected by load. If technique degrades as the weight ramps up, the lifter should lower the weight to where technique stays at least 90% perfect for every rep. A lifter can build strength, sure, but the real problem here is the ego. It's commonly said that a personal record never looks pretty. This toxic mindset leads a lifter to chase PRs spending their time testing strength instead of building strength. PRs are a fun and necessary piece of training. I love when people get stronger and I think the world would be a better place if everyone could pick up at least 135 pounds. If, however, more time we're spent training with great technique, then even the slowest of PRs will actually look pretty good. It's tough, but rewarding. A nice balance can be sticking with perfect technique most of the time, but really pushing the challenge on the fourth or sixth week of a program. This gives the joints time to recover while allowing the lifter to push hard and hit new personal records often. We've gone through a bunch of things that can cause butt-wink and how to fix them. Here's a short summary of what to do. Make sure that knee, hip, and ankle can bend if they don't limit squat depth. Squat with a neutral spine and whole foot pressure in the ground. Consider priming good technique by using a heel elevation or weight in front of the body like in the heel's elevated goblet squat. Lower training volume if fatigue negatively impacts technique. Keep training weight reasonably challenging so that exercise technique remains at minimum 90% perfect. Alright, so hopefully you feel more confident about what is causing butt-wink and how to fix it. It's a surprisingly complicated topic, but now that you understand some of the nitty-gritty details, you can make better decisions for yourself and maybe, hopefully, even some of your friends as well. If you learned something, hit the like button and leave a comment below so I know you found it useful. And if you're new here, subscribe if you want to watch more stuff like this. Make sure to hit the bell to be notified when I release new videos. If you need more help with butt-wink, check out my full article on the topic. And if you don't trust yourself to solve the problem, you could hire me for coaching as well. If you need something else to watch, check out my previous video on quad stretches to learn why they're probably a waste of your time. That's it for me. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you all in the next one.