Difficulties with SLS/PE1 / deck squats

All,

I'm starting Foundation1 and Handstand1. I come from a base of powerlifting, so I'm reasonably strong, but my flexibility isn't great. With my feet together and legs straight I can only reach down to slightly above my ankles.

My problem is basically that I can't get up at the end of the roll. My center of mass never gets over my shoes. It feels like my momentum should be enough, and my feeling is that it's mostly a flexibility issue, but I am not sure if that's really the case. Also, not sure if it's an ankle issue or a hip thing.

Are there some "extra exercises" I could do to get to a first rep?

My guess is it's most likely an ankle flexibility issue, but depending on your hamstring development, that could also be a limiting factor.

Can you put your feet together, keep your heels down, and squat down till you sit on your calves without falling over? If your heels come up or you fall backwards, then it's most likely that you lack ankle Dorsiflexion flexibility. If your hamstring and calf muscularity limit your knee flexion ROM, then that could be making things more difficult for you to get your center of mass over your feet as you roll forward.

If you can do this fine, then it may just be a form issue that you need to iron out. If you can post a video of your deck squats we might be able to help you out.

Its possible my technique will work for you.

Grab your ankles as you roll up, pull those dudes in good, try landing it that way.

Then gradually raise your grip higher until you build up the strength and muscle memory to let go. Im talking 4 or 5 sessions here.

See if that works, worked for me.

Thanks all. With my feet and knees together, I can squat below parallel, but not completely release tension and sit on my calves. I'm going to try improving ankle flexibility and in the meantime I'll also try RJS's trick.

The thing that helped me get the ankle mobility down for this was putting most of my focus on the iM for this exercise (the Skiers). I put in a set before doing the actual deck squats, and then the usual iM sets after each deck squat set, and I only made sure to count the good reps.

As for the rest, first of all, I had to do these in front of a mirror to make sure I was actually getting my glutes "down to at least knee level", which I totally wasn't.

Secondly, since I kept losing my balance and falling over when trying to get down that low, I started doing the Skiers while holding a dumbbell in each hand as a counter-weight, which helped me actually get down all the way.

Only needed the dumbbells for about a month or so, then after that I started doing it on my own. Didn't seem like it would be at the time, but the increase in ankle mobility was definitely the thing that got me to the point where I could actually do these!