SLS/PE2 pain (and a question for Joshua Slocum)

I've been working on PE2 for quite a while now and I think I have a good ROM on the movements. I'm taking it very easy during the sessions and I go though them feeling comfortable, not pushing myself. But doing the cossacks and twisting squats has now left me with pain around the knee, mostly on the outside. It's so bad that I can't even do a simple squat without feeling it, and working on PE2 is out of the question at the moment.

Joshua, you mentioned here: https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/11805-joint-pain-relief/ that you did some inside squats and it relieved you of your pain. Did you go through PE1 and PE2 with knee pain and then come to the inside squats or did you incorporate them earlier to balance things?

And apart from the question directed to Joshua, does anyone else have experience with anything similar to this? Got any suggestions?

I started F1 with a lot of strength and a lack of mobility. Since I could do all the PE's at mastery level but not all the iM's, I basically just did circuits of mobility work for the first few months (e.g. a set of iM1, iM2, iM3, iM4, then repeat) until I had mastered them all. 

The knee pain I had was primarily in my right knee along the outside. If your knee pain has a similar cause, doing some inside squats could help. If you decide to do inside squats, be careful to start off with a very small ROM, and only gradually build it up once you're sure you're not further hurting your knees. A few sets every time you do foundation work should be sufficient. 

Alright, thanks a lot for your reply. I'll try the inside squats and see how it feels.

Don't work though pain (I am mostly writing this to myself...)

I am feeling a slight strain on the inside of the right knee since I've lowered the assistance to 1.5" on the twisting squats. In my case, I think it is a little bit of red lining my body's current ability to adapt. I am adding an inch of butt elevation, and taking it easy during deload.

I think it might be that I've been working the quads too much without enough stretching (even though I thought I was stretching enough). I did some sets of unweighted bulgarian split squats and it's already feeling better in the knees.

Potent medicine. As long as I can resist the urge to treat mobility work as strength work, I've found it comes much faster than I expect, with some consistency. Even though the first couple feel like I'm getting nowhere, it adds up quickly.

The sPL mobility in F2 is doing this for me too-- couple months working MUCH harder than the SE to get em done, but now that's the easier part of the set.

Not to disclose anything but F2 sPL mobility at my level looks like strength work .

dritar said:

Not to disclose anything but F2 sPL mobility at my level looks like strength work .

That's what I mean-- it was for me too, certainly harder than the SE. The SE was more like active rest. But you adjust, and suddenly is not that way anymore. And you acquire a large motivation injection, which nonetheless does not allownyou to pass SE3anytime soon... >.<

As for the original poster, sometimes I had some pain on the inside of the left knee (left being my weaker leg at pistols) always when I sat cross legged, albeit not in the twisting squat movement itself. 

It may be anecdotal, but I started warming up with deck squats paired with the skiers iM with some volume like two or 3 sets and that feeling started to go away. 

I'm now on side to side squats + inside squats and can concur that inside squats are also great. 

Probably skiers + twisting squats + inside squats is a combination that I'll keep in my warmup as it seems to promote good knee health (when done properly of course).