Natural leg extensions

Is anyone else struggling with natural leg extensions?

 

These seem really hard on me. If I go too far I really feel it in the front of the knees. I think I tried too hard on Tuesday because my right knee is still sore.

 

Does anyone know the details of this exercise; like what do you get from it and why do we do it?

I think it's both a quad stretch and builder of quad strength at the edges of the muscle's ROM. It also kind of stretches the musles in the front of the lower leg (tibialis I think) and front of the ankle.

 

Build your range of motion gradually but be conscious in keeping your body and hips aligned as piking makes the movement easier than it should be.

 

At the beginning they were very hard for me, much harder strength wise than the speed skater squats but gradually that was no longer the case. It's a bit like twisting squats where you must get the hang of it. Good luck.

how long have you been doing natural leg extensions?  I also made a topic on this a while back and every session my ROM on these have been improving noticeably even without supplementary exercises.

 

What I notice for me is that this is great in working on my gluteus maximus because the glutes is working hard to keep the hip extend while the quads goes through its ROM.

 

if you haven't been doing them long, start off with minimal ROM and gradually increase over time.

They felt really hard the first time I did them, but after a few weeks I could do them fine. Just do them as far as you can and they will likely improve on their own. At least that was my experience.

Do we have to PPT in order to minimize the arch in the back with this one?

yes, nash

hips flat

Oh well. Looks like I'm camping here for a while for both the pe & iM

it's a tough iM.  I've tried a number of things, including piking at the west, doing partial reps, and doing negatives.  Piking is IMO not a great way to go.  Combining Partial ROM reps and holding negatives as long as i can have yielded some progress.  Keep on keeping on!

I find these pretty easy tbh. For me the tough part is the PE and getting the knee and foot to touch gently at the same time

These felt brutal at first but with time it's getting better. What I found I have to be careful about is that I can maintain pretty good form up until my knees hurt, then they might take a few days to feel better again. It's easy for me to accidentally over-do it.

Guys,

 

With the PE, which muscles should I be activating and thinking about as I'm descending and ascending?

 

It's funny that I used to squat 255+ lbs 5x5 (I weigh 160lb) with around 2min rest in between sets, yet I can't do one SSS with correct form. Obviously, I don't understand how muscles work.

 

What I've been doing to get better at these is after the SSS workout I do my own version where I just go down with the aim at hitting the knee and foot simultaneously without having to go up. I just focus on a slow and steady descent. I do 3 times on each leg for 3 sets.

For me, the trick to a smooth speed skater squat is to think of not only pressing the ground but also hinging at the hip at the bottom of the movement, both in the descending and ascending part of the movement. Try to focus on having your hip muscles also help the movement.

 

This goes to all squat movements to a degree but it starts becoming more important in the SLS/SEn movements.