Improve my squat and knees

[Hanna Partoft]

Hello everyone! 

First, I'd like to say that GB has been such a fun addition to my life and makes the whole idea of exercising more fun and interesting. Second, I have been doing sports ever since I was 8 years old, but I've never learnt how to do certain movements correctly. And starting with GB has definitely shown me the mobility limitations that my body has. This saddens me, but it also pushes me to do more and to restore my body. 

At the moment, my biggest issue is the squat. This, I believe, is caused by many other parts of my body being too weak. When I was younger, I, for some reason, started walking on the outside of my feet. I would place the outside of my ankle down on the ground as I was walking. At the time, I was playing football (soccer) and ended up with an injury in my left foot. At an appointment with a physio, they saw how I walked and told me that by walking like I did, I had made other parts of my body weaker, which (together with very hard training) was the reason for my injury. I did my best at correcting my walk and I was free of the injury. However, if I turn my shoes upside-down, they are always worn more on the outside of the heel than the middle. Fast forward to 2014, I hiked up a mountain in NZ and injured my left knee on the decent. After this, every time I went running I would get a pain in my knee that forced me to walk instead of running. I went back to the physio who gave me strengthening exercises for both of my knees. After a few weeks, the pain in my knee stopped. But then, life got in the way and I stopped the exercises. Today, whenever I have my knee bent for some time (a car ride, visit to the movies or after some exercises in GB) it aches when I straighten it. 

Going back to the squat. If I sit down into my deepest squat barefoot, I fall backwards. If I try to do several squats in a row, I feel like I have to bend my back forward to counterbalance to avoid falling backwards. I do believe that this issue is (correct me if I'm wrong) caused by the way I used to walk (which I did for about a year) and weak hips, quads and hamstrings. Currently I'm trying to fix the issue with my knee and the squat by doing the Restore knees and hips daily together with GB unlimited for the whole week (the lower body workout once a week). I also try and squat for 10 minutes a day (on books since my heels can't touch the ground yet without me holding on to something to stop me from falling). By doing this, I have seen a bit of an improvement in the squat. 

My question comes down to: do you think that the things I'm currently doing to fix this problem is enough, or are there more things I could do? I'm thinking of adding some more strengthening exercises to the knee restore since these seemed to help when I did the rehab from the physio. 

Thanks again for a great program!

Hanna

[Alessandro Mainente]

HI Hanna, the inability of performing the squat can be due to many reasons:

-ankles limitation;

-groin limitation:

-hips limitation like internal or external rotation.

The first you have to do is check for these limitations and then step back with results because sincerely I cannot test you here...behing a monitor.

[Antonio Alías Montoya]

On 4/9/2018 at 1:19 PM, Hanna Partoft said:

Hello everyone! 

First, I'd like to say that GB has been such a fun addition to my life and makes the whole idea of exercising more fun and interesting. Second, I have been doing sports ever since I was 8 years old, but I've never learnt how to do certain movements correctly. And starting with GB has definitely shown me the mobility limitations that my body has. This saddens me, but it also pushes me to do more and to restore my body. 

At the moment, my biggest issue is the squat. This, I believe, is caused by many other parts of my body being too weak. When I was younger, I, for some reason, started walking on the outside of my feet. I would place the outside of my ankle down on the ground as I was walking. At the time, I was playing football (soccer) and ended up with an injury in my left foot. At an appointment with a physio, they saw how I walked and told me that by walking like I did, I had made other parts of my body weaker, which (together with very hard training) was the reason for my injury. I did my best at correcting my walk and I was free of the injury. However, if I turn my shoes upside-down, they are always worn more on the outside of the heel than the middle. Fast forward to 2014, I hiked up a mountain in NZ and injured my left knee on the decent. After this, every time I went running I would get a pain in my knee that forced me to walk instead of running. I went back to the physio who gave me strengthening exercises for both of my knees. After a few weeks, the pain in my knee stopped. But then, life got in the way and I stopped the exercises. Today, whenever I have my knee bent for some time (a car ride, visit to the movies or after some exercises in GB) it aches when I straighten it. 

Going back to the squat. If I sit down into my deepest squat barefoot, I fall backwards. If I try to do several squats in a row, I feel like I have to bend my back forward to counterbalance to avoid falling backwards. I do believe that this issue is (correct me if I'm wrong) caused by the way I used to walk (which I did for about a year) and weak hips, quads and hamstrings. Currently I'm trying to fix the issue with my knee and the squat by doing the Restore knees and hips daily together with GB unlimited for the whole week (the lower body workout once a week). I also try and squat for 10 minutes a day (on books since my heels can't touch the ground yet without me holding on to something to stop me from falling). By doing this, I have seen a bit of an improvement in the squat. 

My question comes down to: do you think that the things I'm currently doing to fix this problem is enough, or are there more things I could do? I'm thinking of adding some more strengthening exercises to the knee restore since these seemed to help when I did the rehab from the physio. 

Thanks again for a great program!

Hanna

Hi Hanna,

pure ankle flexion. That s what you need for squating without bending your low back and falling backwards. If you want to realize for yourself try to squat in an inclined surface or placing some plates under your ankles and check that you don t need to bend your lower back. You probably have a very tight achilles tendon. I have the same problem. I m stretching it 3 times a week for around 5 minutes. Be aware that the knee must be in line with the foot when stretching the achilles. If your are very tight in the achilles it can be pretty damn hard to press forward into the strecht because all the weight of your body is "too back" and not "over" your ankle. Also if your are very very tight it can be pretty damn hard to keep the knee in line with the foot. All the best!

[Hanna Partoft]

Thank you very much both Alessandro and Antonio! I do have a very tight achilles tendon so I think that's my main problem. Also, my hips are very limited. Atm, I'm doing restore ankle and knees and hips every day. 

Hanna