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Flexibility limiting squats

B

breebreerocks

Member
Does anyone else encounter this? How have you overcome it? I have an issue with my achilles tendons which means that I have limited flexibility in the back of my legs. Find that if I squat with a lighter weight with bar resting on shoulders, no problem. But once the weight gets higher or I attempt an overhead squat, I get stuck, lose form and if I keep attempting to get down lower, start to fall backwards. I already stretch and use foam roller, but perhaps not doing the right stretches to get results?
 
You could try putting some little 1.25kg weights under your heels, or something similar to help with the falling backwards issue. I've tried this before and it does seem to help, but I don't really have to much trouble with the balance. There's a photo around that shows arnie doing really deep squats back in the day with a plank of wood under his heels.

As far as stretching goes, to stretch that area I believe you can do a standard calf muscle stretch i.e. pushing up against the wall with foot flat on floor and leg at an angle and then you actually bend down at the knee and it targets the lower area of your calf down into your ankle. I get a slight pinching pain in my left ankle when I do this stretch but my right one is fine. I do this stretch because I get shin splints.
 
Hoorah I have enough posts to put pictures up. Behold my mspaint skills. Sometimes when i bend my knee if i'm pushing on the wall it hurts my ankle so I get into the other position ive shown when I rest my weight on my front knee and it doesn't seem to hurt.

I've put the red line where the stretch should be:


Hopefully this will allow you to get a smaller angle between your shin and your foot so you can centre the weight a bit more.
 
Maybe using your body weight in the form of sissy squats may help.
 
Just been put on an intensive stretching program. It is the most painful experience ever- it feels like the tendons are about to be ripped off my bones. But if all goes to plan, should be able to do a full range squat in two months, something I really want to achieve, otherwise I will hit a plateau in my weights.
 
Try front squat, box and/or hack squat maybe to keep you progressing whilst you loosen your tendons. Post up your stretch program.
 
You could try leg press, if your gym has the equipment. I've never squatted much because of a dodgy back, but have got good development and strength from leg presses. The most satisfying was the 45 degree leg press we could stack regular plates on. Having a dozen 20kg plates and your mate sitting on the top feels really macho :D
 
Have had some good results with the flexibility program.

Bit hard to explain all of the stretches, but the main (and most excruciating) involves the seated calf raise machine. Basically load it up, and one leg at a time sink your heel like the lowering part of the calf raise. For 15 seconds you let you heel continue to sink, even if you want to vomit. Then you hold the bar under pressure, push up for 5 seconds and let your heel sink again. Do this for three reps, three sets each leg. if it gets easier, add more weight.

Got the whole way down, butt to the floor, knees forward today squatting with plates under my heels. Soon I'll be able to do it without it. Not bad for someone with twisted achilles tendons!
 
Hows squats going? I found that the more squats i did the more flexable and able to do them I became.
 
Getting there. I could squat plenty of weight before, but now focus is on getting a full range of movement. Due to twisted achilles tendons, not sure if I will ever get the whole way down without some sort of wedge under my heels, but I've watched my trainer go from the same range to now lifting 160kg full range. Good when you can see it working on someone else, helps get through the hurt!

Now I'm doing the stretching with some isolation work to build up the weaknesses I've developed in my legs over the years, with certain muscles becoming over developed due to tendon problems.
 
Lighten up the load on the bar and do box squats. That helped me. Not sure if they'd be great if you have an achillies injury though. Worth a shot though.
 
The reason why I am on the flexibility program is that my achilles problem is limiting the amount that I can lift and preventing me from doing full range squats. I want to do a true compound exercise, fire every muscle and get them working together rather than do half squats and attempt to hit the other muscles with a heap of other exercises. Guess its about making my body more functional. My tendons are twisted 90 degrees, so unless I work on my flexibility they will start to limit more than just my squatting ability.
 
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