Difficulty performing Natural Leg Extension

I think it's both a strength and ROM problem for me. How did the people that got past this do it?

I focus on glute tension and keeping the hips pressed up (without arching) as I descend. What kind of physical cues do you use?

What kind of ROM problem are you experiencing? Can you maybe post a video?

Squeeze the glutes ! try to act as your crushing a walnut between your butt checks during the whole movement , it helps to keep the hips

up,open . I would only go as far down as you can while keeping the hips open .

I keep these in my warm up and since I started stretching my quads I've noticed a significant increase in the ROM of this exercise.

Best cues are the above cues

Really? I don't think about my glutes at all. All quad.

I just put my feet on a cushion/folded towel and think 'feet into ground, straight body, arms to balance.'

Jon Douglas said:

Really? I don't think about my glutes at all. All quad.

I just put my feet on a cushion/folded towel and think 'feet into ground, straight body, arms to balance.'

Same here. Lean back and keep good form.

If it's very difficult for you maybe you should start with just a little lean and work it up over time.

I started sls/pe 4 im yesterday..and I felt unpleasant pressure on my left knee..is this common? I can do inside squats with but touching ground..but yesterday I really felt like I can injure myself with natural leg extension..reduced rom drastically..but the pressure and discomfort was still there

When you guys do it, does it "feel" like you're going back pretty far

Hmms said:

When you guys do it, does it "feel" like you're going back pretty far

Feeling doesn't matter. It's the angle between your thigh and calves that does.

For some comfort, I started out at 20-30 degrees and after one cycle I'm hitting 45°. Just keep going as low as you can and you'll get there.

Jon Douglas said:

Really? I don't think about my glutes at all. All quad.

I just put my feet on a cushion/folded towel and think 'feet into ground, straight body, arms to balance.'

It's the quads that do the work, the glute activation keeps me from piking at the hips.

spyro7800 said:

I started sls/pe 4 im yesterday..and I felt unpleasant pressure on my left knee..is this common? I can do inside squats with but touching ground..but yesterday I really felt like I can injure myself with natural leg extension..reduced rom drastically..but the pressure and discomfort was still there

I sometimes experienced this at the beginning and wondered if was because of too much tension too soon. I don't know how others feel about this, but I would suggest piking your hips a little for the first few weeks in order to decrease the tension on your quads, and then slowly striving to open your hips completely in order to master the movement. By the time you're on week 11, you should strive to have flat hips and a flat back with your butt reaching a few inches from your heels. I found that doing these while looking sideways in a mirror really helped.  

-MR said:

I sometimes experienced this at the beginning and wondered if was because of too much tension too soon. I don't know how others feel about this, but I would suggest piking your hips a little for the first few weeks in order to decrease the tension on your quads, and then slowly striving to open your hips completely in order to master the movement. By the time you're on week 11, you should strive to have flat hips and a flat back with your butt reaching a few inches from your heels. I found that doing these while looking sideways in a mirror really helped.  

I'd be inclined to not pike and just lean back less. Keep proper form and build up ROM, as opposed to working with a different form and trying to correct it later.

glute activation made this a lot easier.  thanks guys!

thecolin said:

I'd be inclined to not pike and just lean back less. Keep proper form and build up ROM, as opposed to working with a different form and trying to correct it later.

That's a good point. I think the issue I had is that it was hard to control the ROM at the beginning without piking the hips a little. It felt like I was working with a weight that was too heavy and therefore dangerous. By striving to pike progressively less and less, I felt that I could work the full ROM with control while slowly increasing the intensity over time. It worked for me, but you're right in that I'm not sure Coach would necessarily agree with this approach. He did make a similar recommendation regarding piking one's hips to decrease the intensity of WP/PE3 however, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.