Deck Squats In F1

Geoff said:

I thought you were supposed to stay tucked or at least very tightly compressed while rolling. The deck squat still is a hit and miss exercise for me, but sometimes (I think this is when I manage to keep myself tucked or compressed very tightly) I can feel the roll going more smoothly, my feet end up on the ground a bit closer to my 'self' than I would expect and my weight transfers smoothly on top of my feet.

Yep. You are. As Hercules said, I have trouble tucking and I need to work on my paleo squat. When I think about it, I don't think I've ever been able to do a paleo chair

Julian Wilson said:

Yep. You are. As Hercules said, I have trouble tucking and I need to work on my paleo squat. When I think about it, I don't think I've ever been able to do a paleo chair

I cannot do the paleo chair either (perhaps

might help us get better at that), however what helped me was to 'force' myself in. I go down in the squat and when I reach my lowest point I tense my hip flexors (to pull myself even lower) and tense my hamstrings (to pull my heels towards my ass) before rolling. I found that this softens the impact and makes it easier to keep the tuck, since all I have to do is keep my hip flexors, abs and hamstrings contracted.

Another small thing is that the floor you're doing it on looks fairly stiff (aka thin carpet or harder). I usually refuse to do deck squats on hard floors just because they're not that comfortable - much easier on the back/spine on a hard mat or a spring floor imho. If you don't have access to one I'd just skip to PE2... depends on how you feel of course, and how stringent you want to be with sticking to the progressions. I know I wouldn't do them if I only had a hard floor... haha. But if they feel fine, then there's no problem

Manduka mat on hardwood isn't ideal, but works for me! I don't want too cushioned of a surface messing up my balance

Deck squats still going OK, and improving consistency. Moved up to sets of x9 this week, and only missed four reps overall (which I obviously repeated correctly) in the later sets. When I say missed, I mean I lost balance when standing because I hadn't made it over onto my feet properly.

 

I noticed for every failed rep that I was either watching myself in the mirror, or looking ahead a few feet. When I concentrated on trying to watch my feet I made it up every time. For me this seemed a better cue than chin tucked, and it also helped with making sure I correctly timed the feet-to-butt part as well.

 

Also paused for half a second or so at the bottom position as well, just to be sure.

 

Going to see if I can remove a bit more height next workout.

Nice one George, sounds like you're making progress

I've discontinued fwd rolls this week as I managed to do some deck squats onto about 3" of mats so I'll start building up again from scratch...

One quick question.
Are you supposed to touch the floor with your head at any time during the backward roll or not?
I can do it with my head touching and not touching, just wondering which one is correct and which one should be discontinued.

P.S. Found out that relaxing your arms like the athlete on the video when on your shoulderblades acts as a brake for the roll backwards so you don't roll over

Keep your chin tucked in to your chest during the roll

I've concluded that hip flexibility is so bad that the exercise isn't actually useful yet. While I'm rehabbing my squat, can anyone suggest other exercises that I can complete in the interim?

Just practice wide squats and try to get better at deck squats

I struggle with deck squats. I am currently running a 12 week cycle of "PE0.5"

I use my hands to give myself a slight push on the floor behind me to assist getting back to the squat position.

My main problem is the flexibility needed to bring my heels close to my backside, which I see as key to performing deck squats

My 0.5 level enables me to work on all the various cues for this exercise whilst developing this flexibility that I lack

Have you seen the video on Kit's YouTube channel that looks at improving the japanese kneeling position? Basically improving tissue quality in calves and hamstrings so they don't get in the way. Also some nice gentle gapping on the knee.

Have done this a few times now, and has helped with ability to get a knees-together paleo seat. Knees feel good as well.

Thanks George, I will check it out

George Launchbury said:

Now that is really cool. Thanks for sharing.

My word that looks painful!! 😳

I can actually sit in that position quite comfortably. My problems with squatting come from a (seemingly) lifelong tightness around the base of my spine and hip socket area

I am hoping that the H1 PPT exercises are going to help out here

Mike

Julian... my hip mobility is shocking but between deck squats and skiers I seem to be making steady improvements. Completing another exercise may help but it would distract me from what I'm trying to master.

I think if you stick with deck squats you'll get there. Perhaps more of a focus on hip mobility would help? You're closer to performing PE1 with good form than me so keep at it... you are what you do and I think deck squats will help you get your full squat along with some supplementary mobility and stretching.

I don't see the rest of the SLS/PE's being to much of a problem for me but it's this most basic of movements which is the missing link and one that's easy to push aside and move on from asap when in fact I need a lot of exposure to it

Richard Hamilton said:

Julian... my hip mobility is shocking but between deck squats and skiers I seem to be making steady improvements. Completing another exercise may help but it would distract me from what I'm trying to master.

I think if you stick with deck squats you'll get there. Perhaps more of a focus on hip mobility would help? You're closer to performing PE1 with good form than me so keep at it... you are what you do and I think deck squats will help you get your full squat along with some supplementary mobility and stretching.

Thanks for the encouragement! I currently practice box squats as a substitute and they seem to be targeting the muscle groups correctly. It's not a replacement, by far, but it is something to help me for now. I figured out you can complete the deck squat while keeping the back rounded, but it won't actually help the proper form. I try to sit in as deep of a squat as a I can daily and I do a 30 minute stretching routine to target the lower body, hips and ankles. I'm currently trying to figure out the most inflexible muscle (I suspect hamstrings, as I can't sit in a seated pike without severely rounding the back) and focus on that area specifically. I'll post a video in another forum section later and see if anyone can help me. 

Julian Wilson said:

I figured out you can complete the deck squat while keeping the back rounded, but it won't actually help the proper form. 

 

As I understand it the focus of the deck squat is getting out of the deep bottom position, and having a rounded back at the bottom is necessary. This seems to be the case in the example video. Similar to performing a closed pike with legs together, which requires a degree of curve in the spine since your anterior thigh and mid-section can't occupy the same space irrespective of flexibility. Drawing a parallel to that, a knees out squat position would be more like a pancake (closed straddle?) position, where you don't have that issue because your torso sits between your thighs.

 

Be helpful to get some official moderator confirmation/denial if possible though, as part of my brain still secretly worries about suggesting doing anything with a curved spine. A hangover from doing traditional weight training before GST, I guess.

 

I spent some time in the past working on my paleo-chair and doing the 10min squat tests on MobilityWOD, and think I have a pretty decent and relaxed bottom position. It still took some additional work in the knees together version as it required both a little more ankle flexibility, and getting used to actively keeping a curve in the spine to maintain balance (by keeping chest on knees and therefore weight over feet.

 

One of the things that helped a lot was simply holding something in front of me so I didn't fall backwards, so I could put pressure on ankles with feet flat on the floor, and helped keep chest to knees. In that position I would simply explore ranges of motion in ankles and hips, working into tight corners and generally wriggling about a bit to get some slack.

I can do single leg Deck Squat on my right leg, but cant do left or both legs together due to knee/ankle injury. I also think some of the mobility work will be quite challenging, especially Natural Leg Extensions which I'll have to be very careful with due to structural changes in the ankle - don't have enough plantarflexion which is somewhat at its limits already.

 

Good to know I'm not alone though in the Deck Squats. Doing Cossack and/or assisted SLS for left leg in the meantime.

What should I do in the meantime? I've been working on stretching and sitting in the position to the best of my ability, but I still can't get to a position low enough that is accessible by the roll. 

Try the bent knee supine lower back stretch. This is what I have to do before I do MN/PE exercises to get full hip flexion.

Well, it's been a little over 3 months working these deck squats and I finally mastered them! It was very interesting - last week I still stumbled backward or hopped when I got up most of the time. This week, I learned to 'connect' my upper body to my legs by activating my abdominals a bit more. I also learned how to 'hollow' my shoulders more so that now, I just stand up after the roll. No throwing the arms all around, no hopping, skipping, or jumping (well, I was skipping for joy after realizing I don't have to do 75 reps of these week after week). Next week is deload and after that moving on to Cossack squats!

Good effort jer505 I'm almost ready to stop using mats and start doing proper deck squats now! Woohoo!

After 12 weeks I'm still struggling with these. Poor mobility seems to be the trouble, I can't get into the bottom position, let alone roll into it! Anyone got any pointers from what worked for them?