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Old 05-05-2006, 10:07 AM
EricT EricT is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 6,314
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Spunky
He told me just to do partial squats and it should gradually improve. He said I could thank my parents for it.
LOL. Now that's some funky advice. How can performing any exercise in a partial range of motion improve your flexiblility? Don't do partial squats.

How low we go is going to be different for all of us. You're certainly not going to be able to go lower by not going lower! As far as your ankles they would have to be unusually tight to be affecting things this greatly. A tremendously flexible ankle is going to be an unstable and injury prone ankle. My point being that there is a natural and limited range of motion for the joint and even the most stretched calves will not let you travel past this range of motion safely. But if your calves are tight, then by all means stretch them. Also, the greatest flexibility factor in squats is usually hips.

Keep in mind that you just started doing them. It can take a while to get your form perfect for you. I actually have a problem when trainers recommend starting with bodyweight squats. Bodyweight squats and weighted squats are really two different animals. It should be obvious that having a weight on your shoulders is going to change the forces on your body, your center of gravity and alter the biomechanics. IMO, bw squats don't do squat to prepare you for weighed squats. When I started out, I had a trainer tell me that I shouldn't do weithed squats until I could do a cetain number of one-legged squats. Same thing. They're very different. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with bw squats, just that they don't help you much with form.

What is your stance like? You should start with feet shoulder width or slightly wider (from what I've seen, most women end up slightly wider) with the toes pointing slightly outwards. If your knees are unable to travel forward past your toes and you heels are coming up then you are probably correct about calve flexibility.

Read this but keep in mind what I said about starting stance.

ttp://www.bodybuilding.net/training-articles/how-to-squat-925.html

http://www.bodybuildingforyou.com/articles-submit/john-catanzaro/full-squat-exercise.htm

Hopefully the others will come along with some more specific advice
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If you act sanctimonious I will just list out your logical fallacies until you get pissed off and spew blasphemous remarks.

Last edited by EricT; 05-05-2006 at 03:31 PM. Reason: Fix Typos
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