Started by gohei_, December 26, 2012 · 5 Replies · 1,891 Views
Has anyone seen this guy, Carl Paoli, on youtube? He has a lot of intersting videos and I was wondering about one thing, he mentions in a squat video that you should turn your knees out to the sides to create torque. What do you think about this?
I always thought that you should keep your knees in line with the feet always and never turn them in or out.
Thoughts?
Carl is a pretty knowledgable guy.
The knee rotation is to create hip torque. This is a hot topic of discussion in powerlifting. 70sbig.com has a good article on it including when you should use it. Also Kelly of mobility wod has spoken on it. Take a look at toss blogs for more in depth discussion
I really like Carl's videos, he explains things very well and uses lovely small steps. I've learned a few things already that I had been trying for ages but couldn't manage.
I think he does sometimes understate the level of strength and conditioning required for some things he teaches (coming from a gymnastics upbringing he will find it comes easily) but that's for each individual to manage.
Thanks for the info!
Now if I'm getting this right; the knee rotation is to activate more muscles and evenly distribute the force in the legs, and if you have the mobility for it, the feet should be pointing close to straight forward as long as you are in a stable position. So does this mean you should always push your knees out? If so, then how far is enough?
Basically what you said is correct. The blog posts I listed do much more justice than I can do here. I think about 10 degrees beyond the toe angle is what places the hips in the optimal torque position and this follows down to the knee.
Carl is pretty legit. Met him and Kelly at the CFGames in 09 I think. He was an elite gymnast out of Spain and really moves well.
Most of his videos use the CF jargon which it panders to but whatever.
He and Kelly tend to share a lot of information that you'll see in each of their videos.
He does have some really nice detailed progressions in his various video series.
Nice gymnastics programming to add in addition to CF programming. It's more of an add on than stand alone programming though. It's gymnastics for the CrossFitter.