Hey. Just wondering if you guys could give an opinion on a lower body template for me? I have a mild disability affecting both legs. Its not too bad, but it affects range of motion and balance. I compete in bench only powerlifting.
I work lower body once a week at present. The lower body template I’m playing around with at the minute looks like this -
1- Above parallel box squat/ mid shin block pull 531 sets and reps. Alternating the squat and pull week after week.
2 - Mid shin block pull/ back squat 3 - 5 x 5(fsl) or 10 (bbb) depending on whether in strength or hypertrophy focus. Pull and squat alternate week by week, using the opposite movement of main lift ie. block pull paired with box squat, squat paired with block pull.
3 - lower back (usually hyperextensions) 3 x 10 - 15.
4 - abs move (leg raises or whatever) 3 x 10 - 15.
I’ve previously tried to use lunges (balance trouble, could just about use very light weights), nordic curls (knee pain), leg press (lower back issues - rom causing rounding and strain), step ups (see lunge problems), barbell glute bridges (uncomfortable if you make eye contact with someone, try to avoid enthusiastic grunting…)
Are there any obvious problems with the sort of template I’m looking at? Am I missing development? My quads and hamstrings work fine, and my goal is to build them and strengthen them. My calves don’t grow at all, and in fact, if I try to work them with isolation, they get even tighter and cause knee, hip and foot pain.
I think a more in-depth description of your disability would help Jim to make a more educated analysis of your plan. I understand if you don’t want to go into more detail and that’s your choice, but I don’t think any coach or trainer could safely sign off on a program without really knowing what’s wrong with one of their athletes.
I was born with two club feet. There were problems with correcting them, and one surgery left my tendons a bit short. So what I have now are balance issues, poor calf muscle development and function, and very very little range of motion/ mobility of the ankles. The poor mobility of the ankles feeds up along the chain, so I get knee pain with certain movements, and my hip mobility isn’t terrific either. Any move that requires good balance, I can’t perform - lunges, split squats etc. I’ll basically just fall over. I can’t reach parallel on squats, and I can’t pull deadlifts from the ground.
My quads and hamstrings respond to training in a normal way, but my calves don’t. I have reasonable strength in my legs - my mid shin block pull is 140kg at 63kg bw. Above parallel box squat is 110/ 120kg estimate. But I am limited in what movements I can do. I just really need to find some safe movements that will develop my legs as best as I can get them. Just wondering if I’m on the right track with the template above.
My wife was born with a fully inverted club foot that was surgically repaired and then severely neglected by her addict mother. Her ankle is shifted and her calf muscle is very atrophied. She’s done every exercise that I have, but 2 club feet is far more challenging than one. Ankle mobility is HUGE, work on your dorsiflexion and don’t stop calf work, just find a way to do it pain free and very light - tuck your hips under you and get a slight bend in your knee. Best of luck and good on you for fighting!
Ya, dorsiflexion is the big one for me. Its basically zero on both ankles. I do a lot of mobility work, and I have my hips moving okay, but nothing improves the dorsiflexion.
How does your wife get on with one club foot? I’m not sure whether it would be better or worse to have one or two! My doctor always said to me that I was lucky to have two. I never got what he meant, but I think I can understand now. My calves are basically non existent, but at least I have symmetry. Both my calves are tiny. I guess it might look a bit stranger if I had one normal calf and one miserable, withered little thing! And the mobility deficits are the same on both legs. I wonder would life be more difficult with just one affected leg?
It causes pain and tightness up the entire right side of her body. Her right foot (the club foot) is a full size smaller plus an inch shorter, and her calf is half the size of the other one. She has a very limited ROM with plantar flexion and dorsiflexion, and her OTHER leg is always getting more messed up from overcompensating. She’s a trooper and a hard worker, and since learning to BB squat and trap bar deadlift (properly) and keeping up with band work for the ankle, she says her foot has been feeling better than it has in a while, though still painful as always.
As far as appearances, you’d be surprised - even with above-the-knee dresses 99% of people don’t notice that one leg is super different from the other. When we started dating it took like a week for me to realize. I think the imbalance is a crappy thing to go through but nobody can say for sure if one or two legs is worse - we can say that you guys both have it hard.