Day 15 - Thoracic bridge limited by quads/knee

Dear coaches, 

I just tried today's routine for activating thoracic bridge. While it wen't OK, I feel something that has bothered me on the first day when trying the crab. 

When I am in these two positions and want to get more PPT, I sense my quads being too tight. Particularly, I feel uncomfortable in the outer-front side of the knee, as if one of the tendons that link the quads to the knee was too short. While I understand this may be normal, I am a bit worried because I have two damaged discs (L4-L5 and L5-L6) so I want to keep my lower  back as straight as possible. 

Can you please check my thoracic bridge and recommend a stretch for the quads that allows for good PPT?

Thanks a million. I am loving GST, even at this very early stage.

Try this and see if it helps.

I looks like you are splaying your knees and letting the weight fall to the outer foot.

Try to keep your knees facing straight forward, and in line with the ankles, keep more weight on the inner side of the ankles so it feels like  the inner thighs are working to press in to the floor and not just the glutes.

Dear @Cole Dano, thanks for the quick response. 

I have tried again, adjusting as per your feedback. indeed the tightness moves from the exterior side of the knee and now is spread over the whole knee but it is more intense, almost painful. It  truly feels like by doing the thoracic bridge as above I am putting quite some tension on the knees. @Angela Efros has posted something similar a few hours ago, she was feeling pressure/pain in the knees with the same exercise. 

I am guessing this may be poor flexibility in the quads and its corresponding ligaments, I don't know if it makes sense.

It makes perfect sense, now that you've got the stretch to be balanced across the knee we can proceed.

It's actually quite simple, just reduce the amount of lift and only go to where the stretch is bearable and you can comfortably hold the position for some time. From there it's just a matter of patience and consistency. Keep doing it over a period of weeks/months and you will start to see improvement.

The keys to stretching are to, even the stretch across the joint, and only go so far that you can bear it. Then time will do it's job, that the magic of training.