SLS: PE 5

- Let me know if there is anything I can improve on. This was my first time playing with this movement 

Hi Ryan,

During the Skiers, be sure to keep your feet firmly planted. Your feet were turning slightly as you switched sides. Be sure you keep your heels down and feet together during the Skiers as well. Your Deck Squats look good to me!

On 2/26/2017 at 10:02 AM, Everett Carroll said:

Hi Ryan,

During the Skiers, be sure to keep your feet firmly planted. Your feet were turning slightly as you switched sides. Be sure you keep your heels down and feet together during the Skiers as well. Your Deck Squats look good to me!

- How are those skiers lookin? 

- I also noticed that on some of my rolls I roll more to one side than the other. Taking note of this and will try to straighten it out next time around

Hi Ryan,

Nice job keeping an eye out for incorrect form on your rolls. Keep working on straightening things out.

On your iM you are doing a better job of keeping your feet planted on the ground. As you do this exercise, make sure that your feet are together. I recommend slowing down your reps so that you can focus more on form. Also, don't forget to stand up completely on each rep.

Gotta be honest the ground did not feel particularly great on this one, but I feel like im getting the hand of it. 

I noticed on my PE that for a couple of my reps, especially near the end my feet start to come apart slightly, is this okay? I make constant effort to keep those heels close but sometimes the body doesnt want to listen. 

Hows the iM? 

Hey Ryan,

Your PE is looking good! Try keeping your feet together the entire time for the PE. I definitely prefer a mat or two for these  

Start focusing on a bigger twist in the iM now. 

So im currently at mastery volume for SLS PE5 and the volume itself is easy to get through. Strength wise I feel very ready to progress onward to PE6 but was wondering if my mobility is adequate for this stage in my training (specifically in the ankles). I posted a video as well showing a side view of my squat with knees together. Fore sure some work to do but will the later progressions found in foundations 2 continue to chip away at this? or should at stay at PE5 until I am able to preform a full squat with knees together without heels drifting up? 

Let me know what you think as well as anything I can clean up here. 

- Also note I am also doing the stretch series every week that is also attacking this deficit in ankle mobility (Seen a ton of improvement over the past 5 months)

Thanks!

I think you are suppose to have back of  the thigh touch calves without ankles rising up. I think this wasn't obvious in your first video as deck squats generate momentum which helps. I had to step down to SLPE3 because of this. Although your mobility is much better than mine, I can't even do a deck squat, I have to do them on an elevated surface.

Hi Ryan,

Your deck squats look good. In your short squat clip, like Affan said, you do want your heels down when testing depth.

Keep your feet and knees completely together during the iM. I recommend staying on this progression to work on that point as well as your degree of twist and depth of squat in the skiers. Your goal is you have your hips level with your knees (thighs flat) on every rep before advancing. 

1 hour ago, Everett Carroll said:

Hi Ryan,

Your deck squats look good. In your short squat clip, like Affan said, you do want your heels down when testing depth.

Keep your feet and knees completely together during the iM. I recommend staying on this progression to work on that point as well as your degree of twist and depth of squat in the skiers. Your goal is you have your hips level with your knees (thighs flat) on every rep before advancing. 

Here is another squat depth test with heels on the ground & knees together. I'll hang out at this PE for the next while until my squat depth and twist in the skiers catch up

Can you add a photo of your SLS/PE3 depth? This will be a wider stance.

17 minutes ago, Everett Carroll said:

Can you add a photo of your SLS/PE3 depth? This will be a wider stance.

It would be best if you had more contact between the back of your thigh and your calf/achilles. Although your deck squats are good, I'm now thinking it is worth revisiting this progression with the intention of getting your hips even lower to the ground.

Train PE3+iM just like normal (probably on step 9). However, after your lower body workout, cool down with some sets of skiers. I think returning to PE3 while still working on the PE5>iM will help your hip, knee, and ankle mobility a lot. Something else that will help is spending some time hanging out in the bottom of your squat position each day. I take the @Mats Trane approach and brush my teeth or do other random tasks in my best squat. It has made a world of difference for me.

@Everett Carroll 

Sounds like a plan! And I've been eating all my meals in a squat for sometime now, ill start finding other things I can do to get more total time at the bottom of the squat

Thanks for the help!

Pretty cool Ryan; Good work.

Hi Ryan,

I am not sure you if like to read? Well if you do this could be another great way to get some extra time at the bottom of the squat.

@Winter Phoenix

I do read an obnoxious amount for school right now. Ill try to incorporate some reading in the squat as well. Just gets difficult cause I lack the indurance to squat longer than 5minutes. So my mind will ofted drift from focusing on the reading to the burn/fatigue in my ankles  

I'll keep cranking 

Hi Ryan,

5 minutes is a great effort!

@Everett Carroll

Here is my SLS PE3 5x10 that I preformed today. I followed it up with 3x10 skiers. Very very easy in terms of metabolic fatigue but beneficial in working on my mobility and grooving proper motor patterns. Just by looking at the thumb nail of the video I can see that ideally I would have the upper half of my hamstring resting on my soleus/Achilles. Although it doesnt look bad for a starting point, I still got some work to do here. Time to get after it  

Let me know If I can clean this up at all. Thanks for all the help!

I just figured out a new way to get deeper into the squat with feet together. Take a 5-10kg weight and squat whilst holding it out in front of you. Go as deep as you can. In that deep position swing the weight from side to side , gives a great ankle stretch. Then let go of the weight and see if you can stay there. Worked first time for me. I've never been able to deep squat feet together but after doing this I could stay in the squat without assisted weight. 

@Marcus Patterson 

The counter balance sure does help get deeper into the squat when feet are together. Just tested it out and was able to get to a full squat more or less (back of thighs were still a little off the calves). Without weights i can barely get past parallel with feet together, so a big gain here for sure. However, as soon as I  let go of the weight I fell on my butt haha.

I think this is a good tool to use to bust through being stuck at  half squat with feet together. I will integrate this into the 2squat 2pike exercise in the front splits as well as with the skiers to help get a little past parallel. 

in terms of progressions a simple one would be to decrease the weight being used in small increments of 2.5-5lbs or 2.5kgs. Lets keep chipping away over the upcoming weeks and months and monitor progress to see if this is actually an effective tool at attacking these deficits.  I am optimistic  

Thanks for sharing your findings!

Hi Ryan,

I can see your squat depth is already improving! Nice job. For the iM, work on making the circle more fluid, even if that means reducing ROM slightly. A smooth circle is the goal. 

16 hours ago, Ryan Segervall said:

@Marcus Patterson 

The counter balance sure does help get deeper into the squat when feet are together. Just tested it out and was able to get to a full squat more or less (back of thighs were still a little off the calves). Without weights i can barely get past parallel with feet together, so a big gain here for sure. However, as soon as I  let go of the weight I fell on my butt haha.

I think this is a good tool to use to bust through being stuck at  half squat with feet together. I will integrate this into the 2squat 2pike exercise in the front splits as well as with the skiers to help get a little past parallel. 

in terms of progressions a simple one would be to decrease the weight being used in small increments of 2.5-5lbs or 2.5kgs. Lets keep chipping away over the upcoming weeks and months and monitor progress to see if this is actually an effective tool at attacking these deficits.  I am optimistic  

 

Thanks for sharing your findings!

I can hardly take credit for it as it is a modification of a later pistol squat progression but instead of one leg, you do it with two. It's really helping me to stay in a low squat with feet together. I rock back and fore alternating between both ankles, separate ankles and side to side. If you stay there for a minute or so it really burns. However after not much time I can drop the weight and stay there. 

Glad it helped!