Squatting position

Squatting is a posture where the weight of the body is on the feet (as with standing) but the knees and hips are bent. Squatting may be either:

In contrast, sitting, involves taking the weight of the body, at least in part, on the buttocks against the ground or a horizontal object such as a chair seat. It is possible to squat with one leg and assume another position (such as kneeling) with the other leg. may involve squatting, kneeling or a combination of the two. Among Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Eastern European adults, squatting often takes the place of sitting or standing.

As a verb - early 15th century. Squatting in the sense of "crouch on the heels" is from the Old French words esquatir and escatir. Squatting in the sense of "compress, press down, lay flat, crush" is from about 1400. Meaning "posture of one who squats" is from 1570s. Act of squatting is from 1580s. Weight-lifting sense is from 1954.

Young children squat instinctively as a continuous movement from standing up whenever they want to lower themselves to ground level. One- and two-year-olds can commonly be seen playing in a stable squatting position, with feet wide apart and bottom not quite touching the floor, although at first they need to hold onto something to stand up again.

Full squatting involves resting one's weight on the feet with the buttocks resting on the backs of the calves. It may be used as a posture for resting or working at ground level particularly where the ground is too dirty or wet to sit or kneel.

Most western adults cannot place their heels flat on the ground when squatting because of shortened Achilles tendons largely caused by habitually:

For this reason the squatting position is usually not sustainable for them for more than a few minutes as heels-up squatting is a less stable position than heels-down squatting.

Catchers in baseball and wicket-keepers in cricket assume full squatting positions. Australian wicket-keeper Sammy Carter (1878 to 1948) was the first to squat on his haunches rather than bend over from the waist (stooping).

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