"Most people don't think about their foot or their ankle until there's a problem" says Lee Burton
As a personal trainer my priority is to protect you from injuries. When you come to me I need you to remove your ego. I don't care how much can you lift at that moment, what I care about is how you lift it.
When you start, the weights need to be light enough for you to be able to control, yet heavy enough to force your body to perform the correct movement pattern. For example, when we teach a KB Swing to a client we cannot start with a too light weight, otherwise the person won't be able to feel the need for the right hip hinge to move the KB with the power coming from the hips, and not lifting from the arms. But we cannot give a too heavy kettlebell either because in this way we would expose the client to the risk of a back injury.
Now, let's go back to the correct movement pattern. By being able to name the different muscles won't mean that we can perform an exercise correctly. If that would be the case, everyone would have a great squat pattern after the first session. We need to look at the exercises as movements and not as isolated strengthening exercises. To able to squat well doesn't depend on how strong your quadriceps is. Your squat pattern depends on how mobile your ankles are, how stable your knees are, how much mobility are in your hips and also depends on what's going on around your thoracic spine.
Don't you agree after this that doing the basic movement patterns correctly, should be the starting point?
Well, let's start with you ankle mobility. Why? Because the lack of mobility of that joint play a huge role in your squat. I'm not saying that you cannot do squats or cannot get away from the possible injuries, I'm saying that having the right ankle mobility will help your performance a lot. You might experience some pain in the lower back sometimes after a session. What if improving your ankle mobility will solve that for you?
Do you pass the test?
(Ask someone to hold the stick for you to make sure it stays vertical)
Even if your knee passes the stick, it's very important to maintain that joint mobility. Did you know that many basketball players suffer from knee pain because of wearing high cut shoes? Not allowing your ankle joints move freely, can make your knees mobile and by now we all know that the knees should be stable. They start to compensate. Nowadays many basketball shoes have low cut, or a light, more flexible material around the ankles.
Now, the most important is that if you have a significant asymmetry between the two sides, that can be a big issue you want to work on. Why? Because for any asymmetry there's always some sort of compensation.
How to improve it?
Exercise 1 - Foam Rolling The Calves (soft tissue work)
Exercise 2 - Dorsiflexion Routine Without Resistance
(Keep you heel on the floor)
Exercise 3 - Dorisflexion Routine With Resistance
(Keep your heel on the floor)
I hope you found this writing helpful!
If you need help with any training program or have any question, do not hesitate to contact me.
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