Ankle stretches for Squatting

[Fender]

Hi all,

I've recently started to do Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength program. As some of you may know, this program involves squatting. A lot of squatting.

I've never been too great at performing the squat- it's extremely difficult for me to squat low enough. The reason for this is inflexibility. I can't even squat down and stay balanced without weights on my back.

At first, I thought it was because of my hamstrings being too tight. But now, I realise that the problem is actually my ankles.

Now, here is my question. Do you guys know any good stretches for the ankle, and specifically, any stretches that can be useful for squatting? It seems very few people like to stretch their ankles, lol, so there isn't much literature around about it.

 

[Quiksilver]

Ankle flexibility is most likely calf tightness. Do some calf stretches before workouts and they'll loosen your ankles a little.

 

[Fender]

Great linke espi- thanks a lot.

With the widening my stance and pointing my toes out advice- yeah, thats the only way I can do squats right now. But I want to do athletic squats, where my feet are shoulder width apart. From what I understand, this provides the best stimulation for overall development (so says Rippetoe). And regardless, if I can't even do a normal squat, it just shows how inflexible I am anyways!

 

[Quiksilver]

While I do agree that a narrow stance will most effectively hit the quads and thereby most effectively stimulate overall growth, I don't think there's anything wrong with maintaining a wider stance (not wide, but wider, i.e. slightly more than shoulder's width) and pointing your toes outward...in fact, I'm not so convinced that your wider stance is to be considered "non-athletic."

I think Mark was referring to the range of motion, the distance the weight has to move from A --> B is a little bit greater with a shoulder width stance than it would be with a powerlifting style squat stance.

 

[mrRuckus]

I think what Rippetoe mostly says about squatting flexibility is to squat, and it takes care of itself. The weight of the bar provides the stretching.

Squat with the weight that you can get down there with. Your body adapts to what you do.

 

[Kerpal]

Rippetoe advocates a shoulder width stance with the toes pointed out. This is the best stance for safety and athletic purposes.

A wide stance powerlifting style squat takes much of the stress off the quads. Most sports use the quads. It also greatly shortens the range of motion.

I've also noticed that most of the time, people who use a wide stance do not hit full depth (hip joint below top of knee) because the adductors stretch out earlier and prevent it. Try it: squat as deep as you can with a normal shoulder width stance. Now widen your stance a few inches on each side and do it again. You'll notice that it's difficult or impossible to get deep enough with the wider stance.

If you watch powerlifting videos on Youtube, almost none of them actually hit full depth, but are usually approved by the judges anyway. I actually asked Rippetoe about this here:

http://strengthmill.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2274

I posted more questions for him but they never appeared on the board (posts have to be pre-approved). I have the feeling he doesn't want to further comment on this issue because he doesn't want to stir up a ****storm with the online powerlifting community.

Check out Olympic lifters. They usually seem to have stronger squats than powerlifters of equal weight, they squat with a shoulder width stance, they squat all the way down, and they do it completely raw, no suit, wraps, etc. And they do it all with a high-bar squat, which is harder than the low bar position usually used by powerlifters.

 

[mrRuckus]

I have the feeling he doesn't want to further comment on this issue because he doesn't want to stir up a ****storm with the online powerlifting community.

Haha, i doubt that. He doesn't seem to be the type of person to hold back on his opinions. He regularly refers to people as dumb or stupid and will comment straight up that certain doctors, by name, have no idea what they are talking about.

He even has a quote in Starting Strength (i forget that topic) that goes something like "...and if anyone in the power lifting community takes issue with that, you'll have to wait for the author's many injuries to heal and then we'll take it outside."

In fact, he's pretty hostile to the bodybuilding community. He'll barely answer questions if they have to do with gaining size, at least unless the purpose of gaining the size is to get stronger. It's great when he says stuff about getting big to be pretty... "...you'll have to take that up with your psychologist."

 

[Kerpal]

:crackup: True, he is pretty blunt.

 

[Zooey]

Don't mean to dredge up an Old(ish) post, but I have a similar problem, and would love some help:

When I squat, my form is okay except for "butt-winking" right at the bottom. I have no problems getting into a third-world squat position, but with weight or not, just as I get to parallel my hips tuck under. Getting to and below parallel isn't a problem but I know this problem can't be too good for me. I'm sure this is a result of tight hamstrings. Correct?

My main question is: should I continue to squat (and increase my weight) while stretching every day? Also, what are the best hamstring exercises?

Also, previous posters stated that "the best way to increase squatting flexibility is to squat" or something like that. Does this still apply when it's my hammies that seem to be the problem?

Cheers guys,

Zooey

 

[mrRuckus]

Short story:
I deadlift over 400 now and have never hurt my back from doing that, but last saturday i hurt my back WALKING ACROSS THE KITCHEN.

So anyway, i've been doing a lot of stretching and trigger point release on myself the past week to help relieve the soreness, and the one spot that i always ignored for trigger points was my hamstrings. When i started releasing some of the spots, my hamstrings would suddenly let me get like an extra 2 inches from standing straight to touching the ground. I already could get my fingers to the ground but now i can almost put my palms on the ground if i do the trigger point release and stretch a little before I try.

And yes, hamstrings will get stretched just from squatting if you're going as low as you can go. The bottom is where the hamstrings are the tightest (i.e. stretching) The hamstring stretch i've seen rippetoe recommend is to bend over and tuck your hands under your toes and then pull up a straighten your knees.

When i stretch my hamstrings i usually let my knees have a little bend so that the calves don't get too involved and limit the stretch of the hamstrings.

Anyway back to trigger points... try some foam rolling of your quads and hamstrings before squatting. I always do that on my quads/hips right before i go to the gym and it totally loosens me up for squats especially if i'd been sitting around at work all morning.

 

[Drum&Bass]

just wanna mention, that powerlifting squats while they may not look like a deep/olympic/regular squat are indeed full range of motion.

Powerlifting squats are a different type of squat and its unfair to compare it to a back squat.

They each serve different purposes and have different effects on the body.

If you want your legs to grow BIGGER and STRONGER you will switch to powerlifting squats. If you want more functional strength you will develop the squat (regular/olympic/deep/etc.).

For advanced people like us, it doesn't make sense to develop the powerlifting style of squatting IMO until you start hitting the 500lbs and beyond (elite weightlifting) until then Guys like us and normal people will benefit more from a deeper squat.

Check out Olympic lifters. They usually seem to have stronger squats than powerlifters of equal weight

False no olympic lifter ever squatted anything over 800 lbs

 

[Zooey]

Thanks for the responses guys. Very helpful!

Zooey

 

[Bible_Belt]

I know squat about squats, but the general rule of being flexible anywhere is that you simply have to stretch a lot, and push it a tiny bit further whenever you can. People who are flexible usually got that way by practicing.