Is it OK to put your weight in your heels in Cossack Squats?

Hello,

When I try to imitate the athlete in the video by putting my weight around the ball of my foot (he raises his heel by about an inch), my knees are acting up.

When I place my weight on the heel (like when doing heavy squats at the gym) my knees are fine.

I'm referring to the bent leg.

I don't want to work my way up to mastery then learn that I should raise my heel like the athlete!

-Nash

heel down someone had made a comment about how allans achilles was too tight in that vid

heel down? dam I finally got the IM and finished mastery deload week

What Keilani said. Coach had mentioned that Alan has tight achilles which keeps him from leaving his heel on the ground. You should strive to keep the heel down if you can however. The same thing goes for speed skater squats (SLS/PE4), where Alan raises his heel off the ground in the video.

 

I don't think you need to repeat the whole thing if you've achieved mastery though. Just focus on trying to keep your heel on the ground as you move forward. 

Good to know!

Thank you.

I recommend revising the video to show this. I just discovered this post today, tried SLS PE4 and was amazed at how much of a difference it made. Especially on my left side.

Did it make it harder or easier?

-MR said:

Did it make it harder or easier?

easier here. felt like i was relying too much on my quads without my heel down

I can demonstrate mastery already doing this, but I just decided to do a 9-12 microcycle to feel the form (and I really like the IM), so I can't say if it was easier or harder- just different. On my left side though, I have a hard time going to the ground because something in my ankle is limiting flexion there. I have a recent tumbling injury and it is almost certainly related to that.

for me heel down is much harder. not flexible enough in my hip (? same area stretched in middle splits) so I lean too far forward at the bottom and it puts strain on my knee

-MR said:

Did it make it harder or easier?

 

Definitely easier for me - it means I can put my butt into it.