First ever Deck Squat!

Apologies for the slightly indulgent nature of this post, but I am busting from a breakthrough tonight and my family will just look at me bemusedly

I had been working my own SLS/PE0.5 - a hand assisted deck squat that I have posted about before

(Essentially, the hands are used to push off the floor to assist back to the squat position)

I was on week 11 of these tonight, 5x15reps

I have NEVER achieved a deck squat before, despite having worked at it in program's before F1

During my sets of SLS/PE0.5, I would try the full movement on occasional reps, but have never managed to get up to my feet

Tonight, rep 7 of set 2, I tried again.....and ended up in a squat from which I could stand!!

No, it wasn't pretty, but I could then repeat it for most of my remaining sets

It really felt like a barrier had been broken through!

My intention now is to finish this cycle as a PE0.5 and then drop back to week 5 for a full deck squat, tighten up form and build volume again

Not much to add except that I am pretty stoked and would recommend this variation to those that are struggling with the move!

😄😄😄😄😄

THIS IS GYMNASTICBODIES.COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!! #doesn'tkickanyone #hitspunchingbag

Great work Michael! It's such an awesome feeling to break through!

 

It sounds like there's a few great "0.5" build-ups to a good deck squat.

 

Deck squats started out as my biggest challenge across the F7 PE1's. After two weeks of rolling/stumbling around, I did some web reading and heard that holding a weight (10lbs) out in front of your chest is a good assist. I tried it and found immediately the extra forward-anchoring got me into the squat position easily - even with a bad roll. Yesterday I finished these two assisted weeks, and I nervously tried a deck squat without the weight. I was happy to find it was now much easier, and I now have a good platform to start Week 1 unassisted.

 

I also found taking a moment to really sink into the paleo chair, before each roll, helped me remember where I wanted to end up after the roll.

 

I especially like the weight because IMO it lets the nervous system experience the full ROMs of the exercise. You're flat on the ground, doing the roll and moving roll-to-squat-to-stand. It's extremely forgiving, but I found my body still developing the most efficient and smooth way to do it.

Awesome. Now that you're into the groove of it, you'll only pick up momentum, especially with the mobility.

Congrats~

Congrats!  I still remember the 1st time I got off the floor after rolling forward.  Major progress.  Good work