[dmos62]

I don't think the ability to squat comfortably depends on race. For example, Soviet (so Eastern Bloc as well) prisons had a culture of squatting, due to overcrowding. Sometimes you still spot an older man squatting, like he could do it all day.

To predict a Westerner's skeletal inflexibility, I think it's enough to ask if he took up activities that required flexibility at an early age. In Japanese and Korean cultures that's plain squatting and sitting on your heels. Not that there aren't different kinds of flexibility. By Westerner, I mean someone with an excessively sedentary lifestyle.

[n4r9]

> I don't think the ability to squat comfortably depends on race.

I agree with this. However, I reckon that the ability to perform heavy squats does depend slightly on race. For example, short femurs provide beneficial leverage, and Asians tend to have shorter femurs than other races on average. I think this goes a little way towards explaining the dominance of China in Olympic weightlifting. If you look at the Lü Xiaojun, he has the perfect proportions for squatting and associated movements.