So I went to see Dr. Josh today and he thinks I have tendinosis. It's like tendinitis but for bad asses. He worked on it for a bit today and it felt sore until I worked out. I feel it popping a little less but the pain is still there. I see him again on Friday and will try ART for two months before approaching surgery.
I kept my workout easy and did who knows how many sets of 5 front squats @ 185 ( I had no plan going into this, I was going to do a WOD and my partner bailed). I also did countless sets of strict press to test the shoulder. Still, had pain but like I said it popped less.
So I am slowly fixing all of the mistakes Rip taught me. I have been trying to front squat like I back squatted, meaning a wide stance and knees pushed out. I felt like this took some power and was placing a strain on my knees. I have never experienced and discomfort in my knees at all and with the miles I have ran successfully I don't want to start. So I narrowed my stance, didn't focus so much on driving the knees out over my toes and allowed them to pass my toes in the front of my body and instantly felt like I could keep my torso more vertical and use the quads more effectively. Todd how do you feel about this? Was I the only one who failed to differentiate between the two? Or do you back squat and FS the same? From now on Fuck Rip, and i ask myself WWKD?
Well Scott...In fact I do still push my knees out in pretty much all pulling and squatting. Here is why; during my pulls I push them out because I want to get my knees "out of the way". If they track forward, for me they tend to get in the way of the bar path because I want it to do two things 1) on O-lifts, the first movement of the bar should be in to me, 2) I want to get that bar as close to my COM (center of mass) in my lap to move the most weight. Now when I H-bar/front/overhead squat my stance is more narrow than that of a low bar back squat; but the knees still push out for a few reasons, 1) maximize torque in the hip, 2) to maximize tightness throughout the Posterior chain and to minimize any caving when I reach maximal loads, 3) and lastly to avoid and hip impingement at the bottom. This is interesting to examine and it probably will always fall back to the athlete's comfort level and how you can move the largest load because that is the point right? If you ever get bored, you can compare and contrast K-Star, Justin Lascek, and Jim Wendler to find your style. I like Justin’s opinion a lot because he used to work for Rip but has adopted the Hi-bar philosophy but he can compare both movements quite well. I do remember him saying that in any type of squat no matter the style or bar position, if you aren't shoving your knees out, you’re fucking it up....
ReplyDeleteHmmm I agree with a lot of what you are saying, but I still don't think the wide stance and aggressive knee drive out is necessary. I am not saying I do front squats without pushing the knees out at all, but I don't feel the need to drive them way out over the toes like RIP said. Look at the video he drives his knees out but not as much as I was trying to do before, This may require a video explanation to clarify what it was I did not like.
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