This is The Trail to Nowhere, a weekly email which is part running diary, part business therapy, and part thoughts I probably should’ve kept to myself. It might not make you faster, but it might make you think and (occasionally) laugh...
It was during a sports massage that the concept of me doing yoga was first brought up. Shaun, my physio, who had the hands of God, said he thought it would help my various injuries.
My dad is 74 years old and plays golf two to three times a week. He walks the course, carries his own bag some days, and moves better than men half his age. He’s not doing anything dramatic. He’s not on a special diet or following some longevity protocol he read about online. He just never stopped moving.
Every morning since I was a kid, he does a simple morning routine of press-ups, tricep dips, sit-ups and a plank. No gym. No equipment. Just the floor and the discipline to show up for himself every single day. He’s been doing this for at least 30 years…
My dad used to run a lot, which is part of the reason my sister and I became runners. But as he’s gotten older, his knees put an end to that. What he kept, though, was the morning routine. Rain, birthdays, Christmas morning. Every day.
Back in 2021, when we launched the Yoback on Kickstarter, he was our very first customer. Once he got his hands on it, I told him about heel-raised squats and the benefits they offered. He added them to his routine, just 10 every morning, and within a few months he was telling me it had helped his golf swing, his balance, his cardio, and his back pain.
Then came the bit I’m slightly embarrassed to admit. I didn’t really do them myself.
For four years, he kept telling me I should be doing them too.
And for four years, I nodded politely and did absolutely nothing about it. Because who actually takes their dad’s advice when they’re an adult? He’s your dad. You already know everything. Obviously.
So I ignored him.
Then last month, I caved. I started doing 40 heel-raised squats on the Yoback every morning.
In just 20 days I’ve missed a handful, but the results have been hard to ignore. I feel stronger on runs, my knee that usually protests after brutal hill sessions has been quiet, and the next-day soreness after long runs has been noticeably less. I’ve hit two PBs.
For something that takes about two minutes.
The old man was onto something.
Why heel-raised squats work
Most runners have tight ankles and calves. Years of running shortens the calf complex, which limits how far your knees can travel forward in a squat. This means standard squats are harder to do with good depth and form, and the quads end up doing less of the work than they should.
Raising the heel changes the equation. It reduces the ankle flexibility demand, lets your knees travel forward more freely, and shifts the load squarely onto the quadriceps. Research backs this up: elevated heels have been shown to increase activation of the vastus lateralis and other key quad muscles, and allow for greater knee flexion, which is one of the biggest drivers of quad strength development.
For runners with tight ankles specifically, it’s a bit of a cheat code. You get the benefits of a deep, quad-focused squat without needing the ankle mobility you probably don’t have.
Why this matters more than you might think
Here’s the part that genuinely surprised me when I started reading into it.
Quad strength is not just a running metric. It turns out it’s one of the better predictors of how well you’ll age. A study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association followed 1,314 patients over five years and found that higher quadriceps strength was strongly linked to lower all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. A separate study found that adults with lower quadriceps strength had a 51 to 65 percent higher risk of earlier death, even after controlling for age, weight, physical activity, and other health factors.
We start losing muscle at around 1 percent per year from our 40s onwards. After 70, that rate roughly doubles. The quads are particularly vulnerable, and once you lose them, everything downstream suffers. Balance, walking speed, the ability to get up off the floor. Falls become more likely, and falls in older adults are genuinely dangerous.
My dad, quietly doing his squats every morning before anyone else is awake, is doing the most evidence-backed thing possible for his long-term health. He just doesn’t make a fuss about it.
I’m not suggesting you need to obsess over this. But if you’re a runner who already spends time thinking about training and recovery, adding two minutes of heel-raised squats each morning is probably the easiest performance and longevity investment you can make.
All this is to say: I wish I hadn’t waited four years to listen. And neither should you.
If you’ve got a Yoback, start squatting on it. Yesterday.
Don’t have one yet? Luckily, I know a guy.
Something I’m... doing each morning
If you want to try this yourself, you don’t need a Yoback to start. Stand with your heels on the edge of a book, a couple of weight plates (if youre in the gym), or anything that raises them an inch or two. Feet shoulder-width apart. Squat as deep as you comfortably can, keeping your chest up. That’s it. Start with 10 and build from there.
And if your dad has been telling you to do something for years that you’ve been ignoring, it might be worth a second look.
Gary
