Loving the Twisting Squat

For the 1st two months of SLS/PE2, I completely dissed the twisting squat. At first, I couldn't do them at all. Then I picked up the idea of doing them from a chair from the forums. But I didn't like them at all, it's the one exercise where I didn't give it my best effort. 

 

But then I saw the connection. It particularly impressed me because I broke a metatarsal when I stepped "funny" while trail running last summer. I was amazed, I broke my foot by stepping funny?! That seemed too fragile. A 3 hour run is 16,000 steps. I was doing well over a million steps per year running. If 1 in a million steps is a funny step, I'll spend half my life in a walking cast!

 

The doctor had nothing to help. They did a bunch of tests to say my bones were normal and wished me luck.

 

Then I heard Coach Sommer's podcast with Robb Wolf and he talks about the way the progression strengthens the knees (ACL, MCL, and meniscus) from all angles. It's fantastic! Now it's full effort on twisting squats.  I'm still terrible at them, but that's changing. For instance, I'm doing them from the floor now.

Even better is how the twisting squat ferrets out asymmetries.  I'm not on this one yet, stuck on PE1 until my ankle flexibility improves, but I've played around with them.  Twisting one way is pretty good: have to watch the landing, but otherwise solid.  Twisting the other way?  If I didn't just do it on the other side, I'd say it's impossible.  The muscles just don't work.  The neurons are firing, but nothing happens.  

 

SLS may end up being my slowest progression, which is hillarious, because if you give me two 10lbs kettlebells for a counterbalance, I can do a one-legged squat.  Like many people coming into GB, I have strength but also weaknesses.  It sucks now, but spending a few months fixing each weakness will leave nothing but the strength, and that's something to look forward to.

Sprained my ankle the other day playing basketball (I need baksetball shoes) and when it heals I'm going to start adding twisting squats in my warm up or cool down. Maybe even inside squats too. No fun being injured

No kidding. Much prefer being bullet proof!