Stuck at SLS - SE2

Jukkaboy said:

A little side question here for some of you. What has been the most effective way for you to improve ankle mobility? I tried using the ones that Kelly Starett suggests in his book "Becoming a supple leopard" however they don't really work for me:/ I can hold the bottom part, however not without counterweight, so I was wondering what else might work - besides sitting in the bottom of the SLS of course.

This is another helpful method, from IFAST's Bill Hartman (also a physical therapist).  This one is focused on finding any soft-tissue restrictions:

Kevin Sach said:

From the little experience I do have, I find it weird that if you've covered SLS PE3 that you wouldn't be able to accomplish SE2.

For me PE3 is much easier. Even with my ankle restriction, I can lean far enough forward to counterbalance. Like in the course video, you can also (though I don't recommend it) point your toes out to the side which makes ankle flexibility far less important. For SE2 you can't lean forward to counterbalance if you ankles don't flex.

Perhaps you have some hip restrictions that are preventing you from getting proper balance?

thecolin said:

For me PE3 is much easier. Even with my ankle restriction, I can lean far enough forward to counterbalance. Like in the course video, you can also (though I don't recommend it) point your toes out to the side which makes ankle flexibility far less important. For SE2 you can't lean forward to counterbalance if you ankles don't flex.

 

Perhaps you have some hip restrictions that are preventing you from getting proper balance?

After checking the PE3 demonstration video I realised the reason why I was finding PE3 really hard is because what I was trying to do was literally sit on my feet. I lose the tension in my groin area kind of thing so my bottom comes down quite a bit more but then shifts my center of gravity backwards. I can see that the athlete in the video doesn't sit on either side rather he just gets down low. I was going lower than he was basically. Changed my form to maintain tension and just go down as far as I could that way and it was just fine. 

This could be a possible good way to get more mobility in your ankle though. If you try and sit (lose tension as if you were sitting in a normal squat) in the PE3 bottom portion position I reckon a lot of people will find this challenging too. I have had to grab something in front of me and pull to keep up but the stretch as I said you can definitely feel in the calf and at least for me in the groin too. People might want to try this out I know I'm going to continue doing it this way as it would be kind of nice if I could complete PE3 this way too.