Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 65 - Mailbag: Squat Mobility + BCAA's

Episode Date: August 28, 2020

In this episode, coach danny answers your mailbag questions. Today's topics are the efficacy of branched chained amino acid supplements and how to maximize squat depth.To submit a question for a future mailbag episode, click HERE!Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE! Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!---SOCIAL LINKS: Follow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

Hey everybody, welcome back into another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm your host, Danny Matrenga, and today I am coming to you live with my co-host, little TJ, the little puppy. And if you've seen my Instagram, you know I've been watching this pup for a little while, but he is actually sitting directly on my lap as we record this podcast. So, if you hear any, you know, ruffling or rustling, it's probably him. But I didn't have the heart to, you know, let the little guy move, so here we go. Today's episode is a mailbag episode.

So, a lot like a Q&A where typically I will field questions from my Instagram story when I put up those little question boxes, the mailbag episodes are fielded, or questions I should say, composed of questions fielded from my email. If you want to be featured on a Q&A episode, be sure to leave your questions on my Instagram story question boxes. But if you have a more specific, detailed question, and you'd like to see it featured on an upcoming mailbag episode, do be sure to click the link on my Instagram bio. Go ahead and scroll all the way down to the tab that says leave a question for the podcast. It's going to take you to a little form that you can fill out. It will ask your name and it will ask you to enter your question. And it gives you

a lot more space than does Instagram. So if you have a question that maybe has a little bit more detail or might be more specific, that's the place to ask it. So without further ado, let's get into our first question, which comes from Katrina Roman on the subject of squats and ankle mobility. And her question says, Hi Danny, I love your podcast because you get straight to the point. My question, I've sprained both of my ankles numerous times, so they are not very flexible. I, and I've noticed with my squats, I suffer a little bit. What do you recommend for ankle mobility and squatting with ankles that are super stiff like mine? I like to squat low, and I notice when I squat, my heels lift up a little bit. Is that bad?

Okay, Katrina, thank you for the question. But let's break it down here first and foremost with squats and all of the requisite mobility required to have a good squat. So ankle mobility has become a really popular talking point with regards to squat mobility in the last couple years. It is really, really important, and it plays perhaps the biggest role of any joint in the body with regards to having that nice deep squat, with the exception of, say, something like, of course, a more dynamic large-scale joint like the hip. But when we talk about squat mobility and descending into the bottom position of a squat, right, where our knees are fully flexed,

our ass is theoretically, quote unquote, to grass, our torso is somewhat vertical, there's a few main joints that we want to take a look at. So the first is that thoracic spine or that mid back, we need to have strong spinal extensors, we need to have muscles that help us stay upright, vertical, and we need a strong core. If we are weak through that thoracic area, you might see some collapse going on where we fall forward. That can often come from the ankles, the hips, and a weak core. Or we might see where the spine actually starts to flex or bend a little bit, which comes from, again, lacking that oh-so-important spinal extension, which can be

problematic. The other joint, of course, and I've mentioned it many times already, is the hip. So, the hip is a ball and socket joint, right? It is effectively a big cavity that accepts this ball that goes right inside of it, a true ball and socket. The shoulder acts more like a golf ball with a T rotating around it, but the hip is much, much more what I would consider solid. The acetabulum or the hip socket itself literally accepts the head of the femur or the ball that goes right into it. And it is so tight in there that when I actually did my cadaver labs in college and I was doing dissections, for those of you who have a soft stomach, bear with me here. But when you do those dissections and you actually see the hip inside of the acetabulum

or you see the head of the femur inserted into the acetabulum, the acetabulum, or you see the head of the femur inserted into the acetabulum, it's pretty dang impressive just how much strength is going on inside, or how much suction, I should say, is going on inside that tissue. So that joint has a lot of range of motion, but it's also really, really solid. And everybody's hip anatomy is a little bit different, but by and large, there's quite a bit of room for that head of the femur to roll around inside of that acetabulum. If you have a situation, and this isn't super common, but it does happen, where you have some restriction or just some anatomical variants that say, hey, maybe the head of that femur doesn't roll around super fluidly through that acetabulum. Maybe

there's a little bit of restriction. Maybe genetically there's not as much room to roam as say somebody like myself who has like wide open hip sockets. It's like the freaking grand planes in there. I could go for days. You're going to have to have requisite hip mobility for a deep squat. And then we get to the knee, of course, which is a very simple joint, and it tends not to be an issue for squats, quite frankly, unless there's an existing issue there. But the ankles, the ankles are a tricky tissue, right? So if we've checked off that the spine is chill, the thoracic spine is chill, the core is strong, and that it's not a hip restriction issue, we do tend to see the ankles being the primary issue when it comes to squat depth and

range of motion. Now, Katrina, specifically for your issue, with regards to having sprained ankles, I can speak to this in actually quite directly. During my basketball career in high school, I actually sprained my ankles many, many times going so far as to fully rupture some of the ligaments. When we talk about sprains, we're talking about tendons and ligaments. When we talk about strains, we're talking about muscles. So if you say, I sprained my hamstring, that would be incorrect. You would strain your hamstring. If you said, I strained my tendon, that would be incorrect. You would say I sprained my tendon. So I had many sprains going into a full-blown tear of some of the tendons

on my ankle. So I had some stability issues and that actually ended up increasing my mobility because there was really not a whole hell of a lot going on there. But a sprain that leaves the tendon or ligaments intact that could perhaps cause inflammation and then lead to guarding and tissue restriction has a high likelihood of inhibiting your long-term mobility through that joint. Interestingly though, it appears as though the tissues that have the greatest potential to really minimize the ability for that knee to travel forward over the toe and for the squat to look like we might want it to where it's astragalus the torso is upright isn't actually anything on the lateral aspect of the ankle where i had my injury and where most people sprain their ankles

it's coming from the posterior or the back aspect of the lower leg the gast gastrocnemius, the soleus, the Achilles tendon tend to be really, really tight. So some of the tissue that you can focus on if you have had ankle problems and you think that they are, you know, of course, conducive, or I shouldn't say conducive, rather I should say that they are a big piece of why you're struggling with your squat, is to actually look at your calves, right? The gastrocnemius and the soleus and the Achilles tendon. Apply your mobility there first. So what does this look like, right? What do I recommend for ankle mobility? That was your question. I would say prior to squatting, do some foam rolling or some acute tissue preparatory work on the calves, followed by some static calf stretching. So that would be,

of course, like I said, the gastrocnemius and the soleus. Something I've done with clients that actually works really, really well is I have had clients do sets of body weight, full range of motion calf raises, followed by like one to two sets of some eccentric focused calf raises where we really, really get into that stretched position. we add a little bit of weight to enhance the stretch and that opens up some of that tissue you'd think that training those calves would tighten them up but if you do just some body weight stuff to get them moving and then you really focus on the eccentric and lengthening them out a little bit it tends to work really well so the ankle mobility protocol i have for basically everybody out there with tight,

restrictive posterior leg tissue, the calf and the gastrocnemius, the soleus, the Achilles tendon, is start with some foam rolling, then move into some static stretching, then maybe do one set of 20 to 30 full range of motion standing calf raises, and then maybe one set of full range of motion, maybe seated calf raises with load where you focus on the eccentric going for about 15 to 20 reps. That should help you quite a bit with regards to improving the range of motion on your squat. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever

platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. There's two other things I want to talk about as well. And the first is load. So when you're loading your squat, in general, the heavier you squat, the greater the the impetus is going to be to not squat so deep. For most of us, the less weight on the bar, the easier it is to get through a full range of motion. So while you're working on these things, I would recommend using submaximal weights. I wouldn't go straight to trying to max out

because as you open up and, quote-unquote, unlock some of this range of motion, it's really nice to put it to use with some degree of load, but you don't want to go straight up so silly, stupid heavy with it that you can't even use or go into the range of motion that you just, as I said, quote-unquote, unlocked. The other thing that I think is worth talking about here is you might be a candidate for something like a squat shoe, which are effectively weight room specific shoes that are designed for the squat and for Olympic weightlifting. They're nothing sexy, but what

makes them different from a traditional shoes is basically two things the sole is very very hard which is great for producing force and pushing downward into the ground that's something that we like to see there's a lot less cushion and then second there appears to be a little bit of a heel built into most squat shoes how big that heel is kind of depends on the shoe the brand the make and the model and to most people you might not even see it that's why i say it appears that there's a little heel. If you look closely, you can see that there is a rise towards the back end. That little bit of elevation encourages greater forward knee travel. And these shoes act almost as what I would call artificially enhanced ankle mobility.

So while you work on these things, if you want to reinforce that deep squat and potentially prepare the hips, the thoracic spine, and the core for that range of motion, doing that work and then squatting in a squat shoe is probably going to help. A lot of people are like, hey, I don't want to become dependent on a squat shoe. I don't want to use them as a crutch. I totally respect and understand that. You could do the mobility work on its own and probably see great results. But I do think for people who have an existing mobility issue, if you want to get the most out of your squat and a $100 to $200 pair of squat shoes isn't obscenely out of the realm of financial feasibility,

I would go for it. All right. So that covers that. Moving on to the second question, and this one is from Diana Linares. The subject, BCAAs. Diana asks, I saw your answer on an Instagram question saying BCAAs are not worth taking. Why is that? Is it not beneficial during your lifts? Are they overhyped? Or is it a waste of money? And so the short answer is all three. But let's really break this down first by talking about what exactly are BCAAs. And if you call them BCAAs, I'm going to find you, I'm going to hunt you down, and I am going to kill you. Not really, but I might make you drink some. I'm kidding. So BCAAs is an acronym that stands for branched chained amino acids. And the branched chained amino acids are three amino acids that have a unique structure, hence the term branched chained.

They have a particular branching chain on their structure that makes them unique. These three amino acids are isoleucine, valine, and the most important of the three with regards to muscle growth and performance, leucine. So BCAAs, leucine, isoleucine, and valine, and they all play a very important role in muscle growth, recovery, and development, but perhaps none more so than leucine. So leucine is the amino acid that triggers mTOR. It really seems to upregulate protein synthesis, and it's quite important for us to have as weightlifters. Here's the thing, and here's where BCAAs become a little bit tricky. If you look at the research at surface level, there are a lot of studies that show BCAAs

have a very positive effect at increasing muscle growth and increasing performance and recovery. But here's the one issue with these studies, and it's a really glaring issue. The people in the studies are not always eating adequate protein. When you look at the other studies, and there are many of these that show the almost negligible to non-impactful effects of BCAAs, they are using populations in which protein has been equated. Meaning, if you look at a study where you have one group that's not eating adequate protein and they do get their BCAAs, they get results. But if you look at the other studies where they make sure people are eating enough protein and then you add in BCAAs, they get results. But if you look at the other studies where they make sure people are eating enough protein and then you add in BCAAs, they get no additional benefit.

So let's talk really quick about why that is. So first and foremost, like I said, the BCAAs are a trio of amino acids that come from, of course, protein. All proteins are made from amino acids. If you eat adequate protein meaning you get enough in your diet from food you are already going to get enough bcaas one of my favorite memes is a guy he's swimming in a pool a pool of water and he's drinking water out of a water bottle and the meme is like this is what taking bcaas is like like swimming in a pool of water but needing to dump a little bit of water on yourself to the meme is like, this is what taking BCAAs is like, like swimming in a pool of water, but needing to dump a little bit of water on yourself to like, he's like pouring the water on his face, even though he's in a pool. And it's just kind of funny, because if you eat

adequate protein, you're going to get adequate BCAA supplementation. And the fitness and supplement industry has done a really fantastic job of selling BCAAs to a population that gets the most protein of any athletic population out there. If anybody in America is hitting their protein total reliably, it's bodybuilders, powerlifters, performance and strength athletes, the people who they're selling the BCAAs to. So, you know, the question and the verbiage here is, are they not, or you said, Diane asked, is it not beneficial during your lifts? So sipping on BCAAs across your workout might have some benefit by virtue of increasing the amount of fluid that you take in. But if you wanted to get the absolute best benefit of an amino acid supplement, you should take an EAA or an essential amino acid, which contains a full spectrum of amino acids and has been shown to potentially have benefit even in protein-equated

diets. BCAAs have not. That being said, if hydration is an issue and you like sipping on BCAAs, BCAAAAs, how many times did I say that? If you like sipping on BCAAs, uh-oh, there he goes. AAs. How many times did I say that? If you like sipping on BCAAs. Uh-oh, there he goes. I warned you. I let the bark in post-editing. This is me coming to post-editing because I thought it was cute. Like, when do you ever get a little guy howling in the middle of your podcast? Raw, unedited, unfiltered. This is so cool. No, I'm kidding. But BCAAs, right? If it helps you increase your overall water intake, I could see some utility there. But overall, I'm not a huge fan of it. And that's why I would say it's not very beneficial during your lift.

Are they overhyped? Absolutely. Are they a waste of money? If you're eating enough protein and you're unaware of the, I guess I should say, if you've been duped by the supplement industry, then yeah, I would consider that a waste of money. Amino acid supplements range anywhere from $20 to $40 per tub, and the servings can be anywhere from, you know, 15 to 60 servings, but that's a lot of money to pay for something that effectively does nothing but enhance the likelihood of you drinking some more water. If you're not getting your protein in, that could be an issue. Vegans might be a population that I would recommend BCAAs for because a lot of the plant-based protein sources people tend to choose are low in leucine, isoleucine, and valine.

So I would strongly recommend an essential amino acid supplement for vegans, but I guess a BCAA would be okay, although it would be far from ideal. And I think tertiary to something like a well-constructed plant-based protein powder. So guys, that does it. That wraps it up for this week's quick mailbag question. I thought this was a great one. These were two that I really wanted to hit on. I don't answer all of these, but these were two that I get a lot of questions on a lot of the time. So I felt like there was a high degree of relatability for anybody listening. So for all you coaches, enthusiasts, and hobbyists, hopefully this gives you some skills and gives you some things to do when it comes to either looking at your own ankle mobility

and squat depth, as well as hopefully saves you from the BCAA monster moving forward. I am going to take Little Man for a walk now, but thank you all so much for listening. If you haven't already, do me a favor, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, on Spotify, on Stitcher, leave me a five-star rating and review on iTunes. Please share this to your Instagram story so nobody else gets duped by the BCAA monster, and I hope you guys all have an awesome, productive rest of your day. Have a good one.