It looks like there’s a kind adage for all the pieces in health, particularly for widespread workouts just like the squat. Hold your chest up. Put your weight in your heels. And cease the butt wink.

Wait, what? If that final one threw you for a loop, you’re not alone. Whereas the butt wink won’t be within the vernacular of the on a regular basis gym-goer, it’s a reasonably in style subject on GymTok and different social platforms. There, trainers and coaches are captioning movies with phrases like “fixing,” “correcting,” and “mistake”—main whoever’s scrolling on by to naturally assume this squat method must be averted in any respect prices.

However as we’ve all realized the onerous manner a time or two (or 10), social media isn’t at all times probably the most dependable supply of intel. In order that raises the query: Is a butt wink actually that dangerous? We dug in to seek out out.

Wait, what even is a butt wink?

First, let’s get clear on what this actually means. A butt wink is when your pelvis tucks underneath on the backside of your squat. This causes your decrease again to spherical ahead or flex, quite than keep upright—it’s what’s formally often called a posterior pelvic tilt. A butt wink is a kind of issues that’s onerous to elucidate, however jumps proper out for those who see it in a photograph or a video. The movement itself can appear as if a mini booty twerk, which can clarify its enjoyable title.

You’ll be able to butt wink with plenty of various kinds of squats, together with entrance, again, weighted, and body weight, and there are a number of doable components driving it. One is your mobility: In the event you don’t have correct ankle dorsiflexion, or the flexibility to convey your toes nearer to your shins, it could be all however unimaginable to maintain a straight backbone when sinking right into a squat, Carrie Pagliano, PT, DPT, spokesperson for the American Bodily Remedy Affiliation and adjunct professor at Marymount College, tells SELF. Tight hamstrings is also a perpetrator, since they’ll pull your pelvis right into a tucked place, bodily therapist Nicole Haas, PT, DPT, founding father of Boulder Physiolab in Boulder, tells SELF.

How you’re squatting might matter, too. In case your stance is simply too slim, it could make it more durable to maintain an upright backbone as you decrease down, Dr. Pagliano explains. Squatting previous parallel (the place your butt is beneath your knees) may enhance your possibilities of butt winking. Sinking to that depth challenges your stability, and may trigger your pelvis to naturally tuck underneath as a solution to stop you from falling ahead, Craig Secor, PT, DPT, a Richmond, Virginia-based bodily therapist, tells SELF.

Or it is also easy anatomy. Some people, due to the form of their hip sockets, usually tend to butt wink in a slim stance, or conversely, in a wider stance, Dr. Haas explains. Others who’ve a naturally extra flexed ahead posture, or who have a tendency to face in a posterior pelvic tilt—say, their butt tucks underneath quite than stands proud or stays impartial—will most likely even be extra doubtless to take action whereas squatting, Kellen Scantlebury, DPT, CSCS, founding father of Match Membership NY, tells SELF.

Okay, however is a butt wink really dangerous?

Right here’s the factor: The butt wink is a little bit of a divisive subject—not solely on the web, however amongst trainers and bodily therapists, too. Some specialists, like Dr. Pagliano, say it’s NBD. She doesn’t imagine there’s something really dangerous or harmful about it; quite, it’s extra only a kind quirk, which some individuals are merely extra liable to than others.