On TikTok, persons are testing their lower-body energy and mobility with the deceptively troublesome “shrimp challenge,” usually with fail-tastic outcomes.
Taking a knee for this newest viral health problem includes much less Smirnoff Ice and possibly extra falling and laughing. The take a look at doesn’t contain seafood, both. As an alternative, it’s a tackle the shrimp squat, which is a squat executed on one leg, whereas holding the foot of your different leg as much as your butt behind you.
The shrimp squat is difficult sufficient, however the shrimp problem takes it to a different degree.
What’s the shrimp problem?
The take a look at first circulated in 2022, but it surely began to go viral in mid-April and continued to select up momentum after some bodily therapists posted a video making it look all too straightforward.
Now, basketball gamers, ballet dancers, fitfluencers, and common individuals alike are attempting the problem—with solely a choose few truly in a position to do it. Yep, not the entire tremendous sturdy professional athletes or ultra-bendy ballerinas can do it.
However in case you’re keen to provide it a shot, here is methods to do it:
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- Begin in a half-kneeling place with one leg bent in entrance of you at a 90-degree angle and your different leg kneeling on the ground behind you.
- Seize the foot of your again leg up and raise it as much as your butt (such as you’re doing a quad stretch).
- Whereas nonetheless holding the foot of your again leg, lean ahead barely and press into your entrance foot to come back as much as standing. Your again foot will keep bent behind you.
What the shrimp problem is definitely testing—and why it is so dang laborious
The problem “requires a high level of strength and mobility of the hips, knees and ankles, mainly targeting the glutes and quad muscles,” explains bodily therapist Jacob VanDenMeerendonk, DPT.
In different phrases, simply being actually sturdy or simply having good mobility (vary of movement in your joints) gained’t lower it. You want each components to efficiently shrimp it up. Certainly, partaking your muscle tissues whereas stretching them is not any straightforward feat.
“You’re placing your standing leg in a disadvantaged position in the bottom position of a squat, which then requires a great amount of strength to stand back up, and simultaneously you are holding the opposite leg in a position that requires a full stretch on the quadriceps muscle and maintaining that stretch while executing the return to standing position,” Dr. VanDenMeerendonk says.
“The shrimp squat challenge is a fun movement to aspire to being able to do, and also an excellent exercise to perform if you’re looking to make some higher level mobility and strength gains in the quads and glutes.” —Jacob VanDenMeerendonk, DPT
What does it say about your health in case you can—or can’t—do the shrimp problem?
Dr. VanDenMeerendonk says to not fear in case you can’t full this problem. It’s very superior, and there are many different methods you may strengthen, mobilize, and stretch your decrease physique that don’t contain falling over.
“You can achieve strength and mobility gains of the same muscles and joints required in performing a shrimp squat as you would in a split squat, Bulgarian split squat, or even a forward or reverse lunge,” Dr. VanDenMeerendonk says.
On the identical time, in case you do end up finishing the problem once you strive it, or are in a position to work as much as it, what it says about your physique is that you just’re killing it within the realms of energy, mobility, flexibility, stability, and even physique consciousness.
“The shrimp squat challenge is a fun movement to aspire to being able to do, and also an excellent exercise to perform if you’re looking to make some higher level mobility and strength gains in the quads and glutes,” Dr. VanDenMeerendonk says. “Those who can perform the shrimp squat have excellent unilateral balance and coordination, as well as higher level hip and knee mobility. They likely have strong quads and glutes and a good understanding of their center of gravity.”
Wish to give the shrimp problem a strive? Take into account getting some padding to your knees on the bottom—and bear in mind to not beat your self up if it’s a no-go! You possibly can all the time work as much as it with some lower-body energy and mobility strikes, like on this 15-minute exercise video.