high bar/front squat ATG flexibility issues ****ing me off

[Brian Degenaro]

It would be hard to tell without a picture. The best thing would be a picture of your feet in your squat stance and a picture of you from the front and side squatting, with or without weight.

[John Koshy]

Originally Posted by Brian Degenaro

It would be hard to tell without a picture. The best thing would be a picture of your feet in your squat stance and a picture of you from the front and side squatting, with or without weight.

Alright, I'll bring my phone into the gym on Friday when I lift. Any ideas for increasing ankle flexibility (although I think I'm ****ed cause of the short achilles tendons)

Edit: one more thing, my heels sometimes come off the floor...this is WITH olympic weightlifting shoes on. Just read some stuff on exrx:

"The soleus or ankle joint may be suspect if the heal can not be kept on the floor while the knee passes over the knee in the squat position. See doriflexion inflexibility."

Should I Do the soleus stretch that was mentioned earlier (http://sanfranciscocrossfit.blogspot...tight-bro.html) WFS

[Brian Degenaro]

Yeah, most definitely do that stretch. Throw in any ankle mobility drills you can find, foam roll your calves, roll a tennis ball along your feet, and so on. Make sure to really warm up your ankles prior to lifting.

[John Koshy]

Originally Posted by Brian Degenaro

Yeah, most definitely do that stretch. Throw in any ankle mobility drills you can find, foam roll your calves, roll a tennis ball along your feet, and so on. Make sure to really warm up your ankles prior to lifting.

My foam roller will be here soon, but does rolling a tennis ball on the bottom of the foot really help?

Also, how long you think this mobility **** is gonna take? I'm getting so frustrated! I would've normally given up by now and gone back to low-bar but I bought a $200 pair of weightlifting shoes so I'm ****ing determined to do this lol.. now thinking back, all this time I've been front squatting, there is a forward lean at the bottom. Should I do that calf stretch even on days when I am not lifting?

[Brian Degenaro]

Do it often as you can, and yes a tennis ball does work. It's good that you have determination, keep it up. The flexibility will come with time do not worry.

[Katherine Derbyshire]

Originally Posted by John Koshy

Should I do that calf stretch even on days when I am not lifting?

For any mobility issue, you should *especially* do the relevant stretches on off days. Preferably several times a day.

Katherine

[John Koshy]

Thanks guys. Its just ****ing me off cause I'm actually on the powerlifting club team at school and I switched to high bar to give me a bigger payoff when i do low-bar at meets, but my squats been stalling cause of this flexibility issue. I hope all this work will be worthit but I know when (hopefully!!) it does work out, I will have much better flexibility than all the guys on the team who don't stretch worth **** or do any mobility work lol

[Graeme Howland]

If you are a competing powerlifter, why are you trying to squat like a weightlifter? Sure, the range of motion will help in some ways, but your form is going to suffer as well as PC strength.

[John Koshy]

Originally Posted by Graeme Howland

If you are a competing powerlifter, why are you trying to squat like a weightlifter? Sure, the range of motion will help in some ways, but your form is going to suffer as well as PC strength.

Why would my form suffer? Also, I'm doing heavy deadlifts and cleans to keep my posterior chain strength up to par (although some argue these won't be as effective as low-bar squats). I'm doing high bar because I decided I would go *** to grass because it would make me the strongest.... and it carries over pretty well to the low bar parallel squat. I'm also not planning on competing geared anytime soon (possibly never), so I don't have much incentive for low-bar, especially a wide stance. Also, as you can tell from all these posts, even after low-bar-ing for a long time, my flexibility is still ****. Its only after switching to ATG high bar/front squats that I even realized that I had all these little issues.

On another note, I've started rolling my feet on a tennis ball once to twice a day... it hurts like a *****! lol..can't wait for my foam roller to get here, I'll be really happy.

[John Koshy]

Originally Posted by Brian Degenaro

Do it often as you can, and yes a tennis ball does work. It's good that you have determination, keep it up. The flexibility will come with time do not worry.

Brian, my foam roller plus finally came from amazon...also, I did the calf stretch/soleus stretch from that link yesterday (first time i'm doing it on an off day) and my calves were sore today before i even lifted...hopefully this is a good sign.

also, is it ok to foam roll your lower back? i was told somewhere that you shouldnt foam roll your back or your neck