SLS/PE2>iM

After doing about 10 reps of the SLS/PE2>iM (twisting squats), I've found that the exterior area of my knees start to hurt. I stop as soon as I start to feel any pain, but it's still the same after about a month of attempting this exercise twice a week. Has anyone else experienced this problem and found a way past it? I've been progressing on the SLS/PE2 cossack squat, but I generally only get through one set of 10 twisting squats and just wait about 30 seconds in between the rest of my cossack squat sets.

Thanks for any help you can provide!

At the beginning i had the same problems with my knees. But after some time the structure around my knee definitly became stronger and the pain disappeared completely afterwards. I had been doing SLS/PE2 for 2 months. But it might be that your knees just aren`t ready for the full ROM of sitting down and getting up. Concerning this you could try to get up/ sit down onto an elevated surface(books, cushions etc.) in order to reduce the pressure on the knees` lateral part.

Yes, interestingly I had some pain on the INSIDE of my right knee.

At first I was completely unable to do this exercise without (1) sitting on 7 or 8 inches, AND (2) pulling myself up on the stallbars.

Then I learned to do it without the hands assistance.

Then I started reducing the height on which I sat.

Two micro cycles ago, I dropped from 4 to 2 inches; it was okay, I could do the exercise, but that is when the slight pain in the inside of my knee started to appear; at first during the exercise, then it was lingering a little bit during the day, until finally it was also painful at rest at night.

I promptly scaled back with lower volume on the iM (half) & returning up to 4 inches elevation; after one micro cycle, I resumed normal operations and I am now down to 2.5 inches, 5x10 without any pain.

Next week I'll work with 3" elevation during deload, and I'll try 1.75 inches next cycle.

All this to tell you that IMHO, the best course is not to sit out the iM, hoping that it will get better, but to try to assist it a little bit to make it easier, and progressively work your way out of the assistance.

Good luck.

I felt a tiny bit of pain in the twisting squats exactly where Fred did, inside of the right knee, when I first tested this progression. In my case it came from the high reps. I decided to start at week 9 since the squats felt easy enough, but with 4 reps twisting squats instead of the usual 10. I increased by two reps each session and when I got to the full 10 they felt great. Tiring, but entirely pain-free. Passed mastery easily the other week.

It worked for me since at lower reps the pain didn't occur. I was always able to complete the iM without assistance so I never used any. If your experience is similar it might be worth a shot. I just worked inside that pain-free zone and steadily built up to the full amount.

trw said:

(...) I just worked inside that pain-free zone (...)

Well put!

Thank you for your replies guys. As always, very helpful. I will try with the extra assist as Fred has recommended when I do them tomorrow, and I will probably mix in trw's recommendation as well of lowering the number of reps in between sets pending on how I feel.

Good idea - just make sure you remain in that "pain free zone"

I've lowered the assistance from 65mm to 50mm on my 5th set today; it felt great, so I'll do that on the last 2 sets Friday, deload at 75mm next week, then down to 50 mm (or maybe 40) for the next cycle.

Good job I searched for this thread as I would have been repeating the question - that the inside of my right knee (dominant) is feeling very sore from doing these today. I'm having to give myself assistance to get up out of these, plus the volume feels very high.  I will definitely have to scale back next time.

Assistance and lower numbers has helped me. I still have no shot at doing a set of 10, but I was doing sets of 2-4 from a 3-inch pad, and now I'm doing sets of 4 from the floor. The worst part is controlling the twist and avoiding dizziness/stumbling. This one'll take me several more microcycles for sure even though I mastered the Cossacks. I'm not sure what the official line is on what to do if you can't complete all reps of the iM, but I suppose your options are: do all reps for fewer sets, or do fewer reps for all sets. The latter works for me because I can make sure all the reps are perfect(ish).

I didn't use the assistance until I could do 5x10, incidentally. I just used it unil I could do sets of 2 unassisted reps, and I will now build to 10 from the floor.

One tjing that heöped me to get the twisting smooth was to keep the hands streight on the sides and push the shoulders back during the twist. Pushing the shoulders back made it easier for me to keep the tension in the body.

Interesting idea, going to have to go back and try these out while keeping the tension in the shoulders. This was a very hard one for me to move past, took about 4 months.

Making sure my legs were completely extended during the turning motion at the top of the squat made it much easier for me. Just this by itself made it possible to do the mastery requierments, where before I would tire earlier. Not sure if this will help, but just to throw it out there  .

Duff said:

Making sure my legs were completely extended during the turning motion at the top of the squat made it much easier for me. Just this by itself made it possible to do the mastery requierments, where before I would tire earlier. Not sure if this will help, but just to throw it out there  .

This seems to help me too. When I concentrate on raising up on my toes a bit higher, I'm more stable.