Do you notice a hip or weight shift when you squat? It’s one of the more annoying things in the gym. It sits between people who don’t re-rack their weights and kipping pull-ups in terms of irritations. It’s fairly common and usually harmless; most people don’t notice it unless they’re regularly filming their squats. When you do see it, it’s natural to want to figure out why and prevent it from causing trouble down the line.
A CASE STUDY: HOW TO ADDRESS A HIP SHIFT DURING THE SQUAT
I received an email this week from someone asking if they could send videos for a squat assessment. They’ve been leaning to the right for some time and can’t pinpoint why. They’ve followed me for years and trust my judgment. I said yes, and they added: Some initial feedback would be great. Before watching, a few notes:
– Although subtle, my left hip sits lower than my right on both the descent and ascent.
– My right hip flexor/quad tends to be tighter than my left.
– My left glute has always been tighter than my right.
– I have a history of SI joint hypermobility, but I haven’t had issues for over a year. I used to have sacrum shifting problems that were painful.
– I don’t have pain with barbell squats or semi-sumo deadlifts, but I do feel the unevenness when I squat.
FOR STARTERS
The squat actually looks pretty solid. After reading her comments before watching, I expected a mess, but the squat is fairly decent. Still, given her past injury history and the sense of unevenness, plus a subtle rightward weight shift with each rep, I had a few thoughts.
I looked back at an old post I’d written about the idea of “feeding the dysfunction,” a concept borrowed from Gray Cook and Lee Burton. The gist is this: if you see a weight shift, you wrap a band around the person’s waist and pull toward the shift as they squat, essentially training the nervous system to correct the movement. It’s a valid approach and can be effective, but I’ve moved away from using the word dysfunction. The term can imply something broken that needs fixing, which isn’t always helpful. People move differently, and with seven billion people on the planet, it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to squat the exact same way. The goal is functional movement, not perfect symmetry.
So, what should be done? I gave two practical options:
1) Lean into the asymmetry
I suggested externally rotating (opening up) the right foot a bit more and watching whether the weight shift improves. If it does, that hints at a structural difference—likely that the right hip socket is more retroverted and needs a bit more external rotation. For many people, insisting on a perfectly symmetrical stance is like forcing a square peg into a round hole. The body is diverse, and training should reflect that. She tried it and, not surprisingly, saw an improvement. Acknowledging that some people may worry about future issues from an asymmetrical stance, I’m not convinced a few sets with a slight asymmetry will cause lasting harm. If a stance feels better, more stable, and powerful, it’s reasonable to lean into it. The broader course would still include balanced training, including single-leg work to address any gaps.
2) Listen to Katie St. Claire
This approach reminded me of something Katie discussed with a client who also had a right-leaning squat. She recommended doing 15 hip bridges on the left side only. Why left-side bridges for a right-sided issue? The idea is to promote more posterior rotation and nutation on the left, helping the right side load correctly. In practical terms, when you squat deeper (where hip flexion peaks), limited internal rotation on the left can push you toward the right. So, loading the opposite side with a lot of bridges can help re-balance the mechanics. Try this on one side and see if it shifts the load more evenly.
Try both options and see which helps. In many cases, one approach will make a noticeable difference.
In the end, the takeaway is that a small hip shift isn’t uncommon and doesn’t have to derail your training. If a tweak makes the movement feel more solid, it’s worth pursuing. And yes, sometimes a little humor helps—she seemed to remind me of a certain action-hero vibe, which I’ll take as a sign to keep helping her train.
