[quote]LoRez wrote:
[quote]T3hPwnisher wrote:
One of the side effects of using the axle is, since it has no knurling or marks on it, my hands go to what they naturally feel comfortable with, rather than going based off of rings/external indications. Might carry over to the bench, or I may have to bring my grip in to save my rotator cuff. Time will tell.[/quote]
I honestly can’t remember what measurements I used (probably the official olympic measurements), but I ended up putting a ring of masking tape where the rings were supposed to be, and the inner collars where those were supposed to be. When I was doing clean and press, I kept favoring my left side, so I needed something to keep myself a bit more centered on the bar.
How did you do your single-leg SSB squats? Was your left leg in front/behind/raised? Did you just squat “normally” but put all the weight on the right?
I’m trying to figure out something for my own left knee. Even with bodyweight, my knees seem to work right until I’m a couple inches above parallel, and then something seems to slide outward under the kneecap. It happens more frequently on the left than the right, but it sometimes happens on both sides. That initial slide is fine, but when I stand back up and it comes back in, it can be a really sharp stabbing pain. I’ve only gotten that on the left side. It then hurts for a few days.
I fiddled with a bunch of squat stuff around that time – foot position, knee position, shoes vs barefoot, “spreading the floor” – but never really found anything. I thought maybe it was because I did too much squatting, and not enough pulling, and so I just went full-bore toward pulling to “even things out” and strengthen my hamstrings. But that didn’t seem to fix things with my knee.
I can probably do some sort of reduced ROM squat fine, and progress that fine. I’ve felt bombarded with the idea that I should be able to do a full ROM squat without pain. And that somehow limited-ROM squats will make things worse.
Any ideas?[/quote]
I’ve been tempted to pre-mark out the axle, but my concern is it hindering me when I compete with an axle that doesn’t have markings. The Ironmind one does, but few competitions use that due to the cost. But if things get real bad, I’ll definitely end up doing it.
For the single leg squats, I’ve been putting the right foot on top of a plyo box (24" I think) and then just letting the left leg hang off the side while I squat down. I go until my left foot hits the floor, and I’ll give it a little bit of knee bend before I squat back up. I also hold on to the side of the rack with my left hand while doing this to balance. I remember Paul Anderson doing something similar in some photos, which is where I stole the idea.
As for your squat situation, my honest answer would be partial ROM squats. I know the full ROM is the bee’s pajamas, but I feel it’s better to get stronger where you can than doing nothing. Other possible options would be reverse band squats to take pressure off that part of the movement, but if it’s happening even with just bodyweight, that won’t do exactly what you want.
Other possible ideas would be box squats, if breaking up the reversal from the eccentric to the concentric reduces knee pain. You could also try concentric only bottom-up squats, but again, that seems like the area where the pain occurs, so you’d have to experiment and see.
Pulling a sled/pushing a prowler would be another amazing leg movement with low knee stress. Squats are dandy, but they’re not necessary.