Lower Body Work with Disability - Anything Missing?

Hey everyone.
I’ve got a foot and ankle disability in both legs. It’s not a major one, but it affects my balance and range of motion. I’ve wrestled with rack pulls and partial squats, but I’ve often ended up with knee probems as a result.

If I were to use the following moves, which all work quite well for my ankles, would I be missing anything major in terms of muscle development? My main concerns are quads, hams and glutes. Calves rarely respond for me, and if I work them with isolation my feet and ankles tend to get very tight.

Quarter squat
Glute ham raise
Barbell step up
45° hyperextension

I’m confused, are you interested in powerlifting and strength, or hypertrophy? Either is fine, it’s moreso for clarification on exercise recommendations.

Can you leg press?

I compete at bench-only powerlifting. With my lower body, I want to maximise strength as much as I can, and have a respectable level of muscle mass.

1 Like

Can you tell us more about the disability? I don’t want to discredit you but a ton of people in the gym just say “can’t do this because of that” and “can’t do that because of this”. It’s extremely common that with the right work there may be a way for you to slowly work up to any movement.

Not really. I’ve used it, but it does create issues for me too, esp if I go heavy on it. Especially if I put my ankles into too much dorsiflexion too.

Ya, it’s bilateral club foot. Both corrected via bracing and surgeries. I’ve had bone fusions in both feet, which is probably the main cause of the mobility issues. Ankle ROM is very poor. Calf development minimal. The ankle mobility issues feed into hip mobility problems, which get worse if I train calves, oddly enough.

1 Like

Sorry to hear that dude. I’m not educated enough to give you the hows, but I wouldn’t give up on trying to achieve better mobility in your ankles. Try standing on plates or investing in some decent squatting shoes if they’re comfortable. The raised heels will make the world of difference for you.

Doug Hepburn famously had clubfoot and became one of the best lifters ever btw.

By all means, train hard with the workarounds but imagine how amazing you’d feel if you beat these limitations and how much that would carry over into your daily life.

This may be worth watching for you, he has clips of him front squatting with raised heels. Play around and see what you can achieve in terms of depth.

1 Like

Sounds like dorsiflexion is the biggest issue, along with balance. I’d probably focus on sissy squats, step ups, and leg extension for quads. I’d also experiment with various foot placements and depths on a leg press to see if you can find something that works. No need to go heavy — slow the tempo down and focus of feeling the target muscles. This tends to work great for quads. If you have access to a sled, drag that bad boy around backwards — no dorsiflexion needed and it’ll give you a crazy quad pump. If you want to mix it up, crank the resistance up on a spin bike and do 15-60 second sprints. Your legs will be on fire.

For hamstrings and glutes, I’d do machine leg curls, DB RDLs if tolerated, and a variety of glute bridges and hip thrusts. Do the RDLs as light as necessary and focus on the stretch.

You should be able to get some big, strong, conditioned legs with these exercises alone. I’ve had some orthopedic issues in the past that have made me get creative with my lower body training, and as long as I found a way to put the target muscles under tension and make myself miserable, I made progress.

Good luck.

1 Like