Can you squat?

A friend recently directed me to this YouTube video. The video shows a Frenchman going around Paris getting people to squat and everyone seems unable to do it except someone who is a Kung Fu exponent. You need to understand the Mandarin spoken by the Frenchman in the video in order to understand that. That video was quite a surprise to me because I've always thought anyone who has no disability could squat.

Apparently, that video went viral in Taiwan and it was even reported in the Taiwan newspapers. Here's a link to Taiwan's English newspaper report.

I decided to put it to the test. My triplet brothers are still around and so I got them to squat with me. Apparently, all of us can squat.

I've done some research as to why some people can't squat and there are two explanations. One is an urban myth and the other is a proper scientific explanation.

We'll examine the myth first. First the full squat where your heels touch the ground and are not lifted above ground is commonly called the Asian squat, presumably because it's believed that Asians can do it. People who have the need to do the Asian squat for the first time in their lives are travellers who go to underdeveloped Asian cities where there are only squat toilets. So they draw the conclusion that people who can do the full squat have the ability because of the squat toilet.

This is a generalisation that I find quite amusing because Asia is a huge continent and it has the most diversified groups of people - far more so than any other continent.

The first time I encountered a squat toilet was when I was in the Himalayas in Nepal and I was already in my 20s. I've asked my kids and the first time they saw a squat toilet was in other parts of Asia - my daughter saw her first squat toilet in Cambodia when she was there on a school trip. It's a myth that the squat toilet is ubiquitous in Asia; one forgets how large Asia is and how different the national wealth of each state is. For people in my part of Asia, we have to do quite a bit of travelling before we get to see our first squat toilet.

Even if we confine ourselves only to countries where there are squat toilets, it's ludicrous to think that the governments of Nepal and Cambodia, for example,  deliberately designed the squat toilet that caused a whole generation of Nepalese and Cambodians to stumble and fall repeatedly before they got the hang of it and could teach their children the art of squatting. No, of course it must be that these toilets were invented because people in these countries already could squat. Just as my children and I could use the toilets when we visited these countries even though we had not seen such toilets before.

Now, let's look at the scientific reason. In my search, I found an explanation given by a physiotherapist most rational. He says people who can squat have flexible ankles. People who have inflexible ankles will have to go on their toes when they squat and that's not the correct form of squatting the video talks about. The 'Asian squat' as it's commonly called requires your entire feet especially your heels to touch the ground.

Why then do some people have flexible ankles and some don't?

Here's my theory:  If you come from a culture where people traditionally sit on the floor, children in such a culture will grow up with flexible ankles - the ankles will have to flex more when you get up from the floor in order to stand up. Sitting on the floor is very much a part of most Asian cultures: the Koreans, Japanese, South East Asians and Indians all have floor sitting as a part of their culture. The Chinese are the exception. In a traditional Chinese family, sitting on the floor is considered highly inappropriate. You are required to sit on very uncomfortable super hard rosewood chairs, the backrest of which is too far back for you to lean back comfortably. It's deliberately designed this way so you can't lean back and relax and you have to sit upright.

But most Chinese people are able to squat and that's because it's very much a part of Chinese culture to put children through exercises that give some flexibility to the legs and feet. I was trained in wushu or Kung Fu as a boy. But these days, most children do not do Kung Fu because it's too time-consuming. Most children in my country take up Taekwando (a Korean martial art) or Karate and Judo (Japanese). All martial arts that require you to kick will most certainly make your ankles more nimble.

But I think I am also generalising here. I'm sure there are people who can squat without having grown up sitting on the floor or taken up some martial art. Perhaps the video is a hoax - the people pretended they couldn't squat. I posted the video just a couple of days ago on another site and two of my friends have told me that they can't squat. They are perfectly healthy people. One of them is an athlete. They are both Asians and one of them comes from a floor-sitting culture. A friend also referred me to an article on the internet that talks about the 'Asian squat' and apparently Slavs can do it very well. They even appropriate the name for themselves and they call it the 'Slav squat'.

Perhaps there are just no reasons for this. Some people can squat and some can't. It's just like wiggling your ears. Evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne talked about this once and he demonstrated to the audience that he could wiggle his ears. You either can or you can't. It's in the genes and it's not related to ethnicity or culture.

My brothers and I are all able to kick quite well. Does that make our ankles more supple and hence we are able to squat? I really don't know.

Here's a pic of two of us doing the high kick. Because the kick is super fast, it's very hard to capture the moment when both our feet are at striking position. The third triplet took the photo which is why there are only two here.

We didn't want the third to be left out so here is a solo shot of the third triplet. This is a better kick - it's easier when the photographer concentrates on only one person.

It's difficult to photograph a kick properly because a kick has to be like a whip. You strike and withdraw all in a split second. It's very hard for the camera to snap a pic at the right moment. Even for this last pic, the precise 'strike' moment is not captured. The photo captures the moment just as my foot is being withdrawn.