Jesse Pistokache
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A little over a year ago I tore my ACL during a college basketball game. It was the worst moment of my career but I gained a ****-ton of knowledge from it. Now the AM community is filled with some of the smartest people I’ve encountered. BUT, there is a couple of you which I know can use this quick advice.
For you vets out there, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You walk into a gym and see the squat racks filled. You’re happy to see people not skipping leg day but you’re cringing at their footwear.
When you tear your ACL or have any major injury in general, you tend to become obsessed with proper performance, bone alignment, and injury prevention. Thus, one of the problems I’m still noticing is people squatting heavy in running shoes.
ADVICE: DO NOT SQUAT IN RUNNING SHOES
Here’s what happens to you from a biomechanical point of view
You must understand that the body is connected and if anything is out of alignment it affects the whole movement. The last thing you want is to be training your body to grow through shitty movement patterns.
You may believe you’re doing no harm but trust me, the little tweaks add up and I’d rather you lift your whole life than have crappy knees by 40.
Here’s How To Fix It:
1. Throw away the running shoes or at least just for Leg day
Search for the thinnest sole shoe you have. You’re looking for zero-drop shoes here. So basically a shoe with no high heels. Some common kicks around the gym that work fine are Vans, Converse, Metcons, and Minimalist barefoot shoes. Many of you may notice your squat depth decrease when you switch to a zero-drop shoe. It would serve you well to check your ankle mobility and improve it. Need help on proper ankle mobility exercises? Your boys got you covered, linked below is a solid routine
Lastly, I don’t recommend squat shoes for everybody but yes, they absolutely do have their place and can help your squat mechanics by allowing greater range of motion.
2. Strengthen The Foot and Ankle
You can do this by literally walking around barefoot more, barefoot calf raises, single leg balance work, and a plethora of more exercises. Once again, ill drop a link to a whole youtube playlist for your binge watching pleasure.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7goFp57Lnji_s8ZkfuFVdLKEivIW47XI
3. Unglue Your Hips
I can promise you 90% of you, ALL have jacked up hips. Specifically screwed up internal and external rotation. Back squats with misaligned feet, caved in knees, and pinching hips are a recipe for disaster. I’m not asking you to go full out yoga mode, but spend a couple of minutes a day ungluing those hips, your lower back will thank you for it.
But for my brothers who are into going down the rabbit hole, look into FRC (functional range conditioning) it is by far the best system I’ve found to unlock your mobility and gain strength in new found ranges of motion. Info below
4. Watch a baby squat, now do that
Weird phrase, i know. But there’s so much truth to it. Have you ever seen those tribes out in the middle of nowhere and noticed how easily they can squat. The reason is because they’re not sitting on their ass all day. They squat to chill.. Kinda like a baby. It’s kinda weird to think that some of you can squat 633 lbs for reps but if i asked you to squat like a child, you couldn’t. You should squat for 5 minutes a day for 100 days. Doesn’t have to be all at once, split it up in sets. But begin unlocking those hips, opening up those ankles, and strengthening those feet DAILY.
The goal is to lift forever, not just a couple years..remember this
For you vets out there, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You walk into a gym and see the squat racks filled. You’re happy to see people not skipping leg day but you’re cringing at their footwear.
When you tear your ACL or have any major injury in general, you tend to become obsessed with proper performance, bone alignment, and injury prevention. Thus, one of the problems I’m still noticing is people squatting heavy in running shoes.
ADVICE: DO NOT SQUAT IN RUNNING SHOES
Here’s what happens to you from a biomechanical point of view
- The Classic Knee Valgus (aka knees caved in adding unnecessary stress to the surrounding knee ligaments).
- Decreased Power (you're squatting on pillows and decreasing your ability to produce force from the ground).
- Weak Stability (your feet are sliding around, inverting inwards, and unaligned with your knees).
- Lower Body Misalignment (the body moves as one: crappy foot instability misaligns the foot to the knee, which misaligns the knees and hips, which misaligns the hips and spine)
You must understand that the body is connected and if anything is out of alignment it affects the whole movement. The last thing you want is to be training your body to grow through shitty movement patterns.
You may believe you’re doing no harm but trust me, the little tweaks add up and I’d rather you lift your whole life than have crappy knees by 40.
Here’s How To Fix It:
1. Throw away the running shoes or at least just for Leg day
Search for the thinnest sole shoe you have. You’re looking for zero-drop shoes here. So basically a shoe with no high heels. Some common kicks around the gym that work fine are Vans, Converse, Metcons, and Minimalist barefoot shoes. Many of you may notice your squat depth decrease when you switch to a zero-drop shoe. It would serve you well to check your ankle mobility and improve it. Need help on proper ankle mobility exercises? Your boys got you covered, linked below is a solid routine
Lastly, I don’t recommend squat shoes for everybody but yes, they absolutely do have their place and can help your squat mechanics by allowing greater range of motion.
2. Strengthen The Foot and Ankle
You can do this by literally walking around barefoot more, barefoot calf raises, single leg balance work, and a plethora of more exercises. Once again, ill drop a link to a whole youtube playlist for your binge watching pleasure.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7goFp57Lnji_s8ZkfuFVdLKEivIW47XI
3. Unglue Your Hips
I can promise you 90% of you, ALL have jacked up hips. Specifically screwed up internal and external rotation. Back squats with misaligned feet, caved in knees, and pinching hips are a recipe for disaster. I’m not asking you to go full out yoga mode, but spend a couple of minutes a day ungluing those hips, your lower back will thank you for it.
But for my brothers who are into going down the rabbit hole, look into FRC (functional range conditioning) it is by far the best system I’ve found to unlock your mobility and gain strength in new found ranges of motion. Info below
4. Watch a baby squat, now do that
Weird phrase, i know. But there’s so much truth to it. Have you ever seen those tribes out in the middle of nowhere and noticed how easily they can squat. The reason is because they’re not sitting on their ass all day. They squat to chill.. Kinda like a baby. It’s kinda weird to think that some of you can squat 633 lbs for reps but if i asked you to squat like a child, you couldn’t. You should squat for 5 minutes a day for 100 days. Doesn’t have to be all at once, split it up in sets. But begin unlocking those hips, opening up those ankles, and strengthening those feet DAILY.
The goal is to lift forever, not just a couple years..remember this
