Ask someone to point to their hip. I bet you’ll get a different response each time. Some will point to the low back, or to the pelvis, the groin, and so on. If you were to connect an imaginary line from front to back pocket, that would essentially be your hip joint.
With the hip joint in mind, it is important to consider the role it plays along with its genetics when performing a deep squat. This is, according to Dr Stuart McGill, director of the Spine Biomechanics Lab at the University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in order to perform a squat.
According to the doctor, genetics play a key role in understanding whether a person can handle squatting. A genetically shallow hip socket, for example, could mean a person suffers from arthritis (hip dysplasia). People from Poland have the highest chance of hip dysplasia because people of Polish descent have in their genetics, shallow hip joints.
However, shallow hip joints also mean a greater range of motion in the squat, and we can see this by the champion Olympic weightlifters often coming from Poland and neighboring countries. On the other side of the coin, we examine people from Scotland, and their hip sockets are deeper, allowing for walking, standing and rotating. But they have little power at the bottom of a squat.
In Celtic and French populations, they again have deep sockets making ranging of motion less, and this is why we see higher pain levels in the hip this type of ancestry.
Bottom line, identify your ancestry. If you have shallow hip joints and come from that type of descent, you might be better off avoiding lifting type work as much as you can. Although you can get the power to lift, you will find your joint wears out quicker and your pain increases.
So when you exercise, do so within your limits, and if you suffer any sharp pain, stop immediately, and get treatment.