Lots of discussions on equipment, supplements, diet, and advice in this sub forum, but have any of you looked in to correctives? My s&c coaching career had an interesting path learning from Gray Cook and Lee Burton, Mike Boyle, worked under the Andrew’s Group, etc. before getting my CSCS.

Did you find a book or spend time on YouTube and waded through the information for what you thought was something good?

Do you incorporate correctives in your warmup or cool down?

Could you not squat below parallel without your heels coming off the ground but loaded up the squat bar to force your heels down?

I’m not sure if this is exactly what you’re asking, but I have found I have to focus on mobility at least as hard as I focus on lifting. I have a set mobility/stretching/rolling routine I do regularly and then add or focus on specific things based off workouts I’ve done or am about to do.

This, especially as I have gotten older. I have discovered that, by incorporating squats into my regular routine, my knee pain has all but disappeared.

All of what these guys said.

When I started lifting in my mid 20s I honestly didn't stretch at all. I'll be 40 this year and mobility work has become critical.

There are some stretches that will act to help reduce muscle asymmetries and there are some movement patterns that will help other muscle imbalances.

Movements like the sun salutation from yoga, hip bridges progressing to single leg hip bridges, Turkish Get Ups are some examples of correctives. Even walking lunges with rotation or certain plank positions will help shore up weaknesses.

I’ve taken athletes who come up on their heels or fold forward during a squat and put them through 30 minutes of different protocols and they’ll have a perfect squat.

Unlike stretching, I’ve found people needing a little less time each workout until the body can move in the correct pattern if you stay active. The opposite is true though, sedentary people keep needing more and more.

What I have also started doing is adding flexibility to my accessory lifts by identifying my weaknesses or breaks in form, and then selecting accessories to specifically target or engage the weak areas. (As opposed to programming specific accessories weeks in advance.) This has proven very helpful over the last several months

Have any system you're willing to share?  I would like to find something like a workout designed around fixing/preventing imbalances to alternate with strength gain.

I did the exercises from this book for a while, really helped.

A lot of the fluff in the book is a little goofy but the moves are good and make you feel good.

I would also do pause squats with ~135, squat down as deep as I could, relax in the hole, slowly rock back and forth, rotate my legs in and out a little, big inhales/exhales at the bottom, etc. Basically just sit at the bottom with some weight and move around and stretch things out. Spend 5-10 seconds at the bottom then come back up, sets of 6-8.

Also lots of calf / achilles stretching.

A few months of doing that 2-3 times a week and my squat go muuuuuch better, and no more sciatica.

I don't focus on it anymore but I squat at least once a week, usually twice (a light day) and I've been able to maintain mobility with no pain.

I thought this was about smoking soldiers

For the record I prefer the monkey fucker AFTER lunges, really gets the thighs burning.

Athletic Body in Balance by Gray Cook should suffice for a person not involved in athletics that is wanting to “limber up” and be able to move better.

I have nothing to offer as I'm a lazy exerciser and tend to just stick to a few compounds.

Regular deadlifting however, once I started it, basically corrected what I thought was a bad back.

It was just a weak back and glutes from sitting around too much.

The corrective exercise of the week is the pulley machine lift-and-chop.

You can progress through half kneeling, tall kneeling, a scissor stance, and to a half squat

This exercise will help correct left-right core muscle imbalances. Do not focus on weight, but on keeping your torso from rotating, helping core stability through preventing your core from rotating through the entire range of movement patterns.

This week’s corrective exercise is the Cook Hip Bridge progression. The hip bridge helps in activating the glutes in a hinge or extension of the hip.

I’m sure most have done a hip thruster/hip bridge, but in this progression, the first step is to differentiate between flexing your hamstrings and flexing your glutes. You need to be able to squeeze your glutes without engaging your hamstrings.

After you can have loose hamstrings while flexing your glutes, you begin supine hip bridge with both feet on the ground and knees bent so your heels are approximately 1 foot away from your glutes pressing up, holding the top position (keeping your torso and hips in a straight line from your shoulders to your knees) for 5 seconds before returning to the start position.

After you can do 3 sets of 12 of these without struggling much (qualitative, not quantitative), progress to pressing your hips off of the floor with both feet and then raise one foot off the ground for the 5 second hold and return to start position with one leg. Alternate legs for the sets of 12.

You can vary your exercise by using a box or bench to place your feet on. Start with both feet on the ground, both feet on the bench, one leg on the floor, and then one leg on the bench.

You can add a kettlebell, medicine ball, or other weight in your lap as you progress.

Probably something I should pay attention to.

I don't really enjoy stretching at all, but as I get older it has become quite obvious that it's something I have to do.

Tip of the week:

If you exhibit excessive forward lean in an overhead squat test, it is possible to dead lift safely.

Address the bar by performing a “toe touch” to engage with the bar, then squat down into the dead lift starting position. This movement pattern confuses your neuromuscular system and will allow you to get into the proper position in order to dead lift.

Then add a little weight?

Here’s a preventative exercise that several of us already incorporate into our workouts, or should if y’all haven’t.

High pulls.

These help combat upper cross syndrome, the spoon chest look, and the shoulder problems associated with modern living. Hacking away at a keyboard, cell phones, video games, reading, etc.

There are tons of videos on these. Shoulder width hand grip or snatch grip on a barbell, close grip thumb-width, kettlebell/dumbbell, a lot of different variations.

I've been trying to do 50 band pull aparts before every workout and every stretching session.

Seems to be helping, but it's only been two weeks

I know of 3 different variations on line of pull.

Horizontal pull at chest level.
Y pull to collarbone level which engages the lats more than the rhomboids and mid-traps
Diagonal pull with one arm up in a Y position, the other hand diagonal. Top hand ends at collar bone level, bottom hand ends at bellybutton/hip leve

I'm doing them horizontal to try to get blood flowing into the rear delts.

This is an active leg raise corrective exercise. Below is a video from Gray Cook, founder of the FMS and physical therapist, among other things. I like this for “stiff” athletes.

I get IT Band pain, but not the typical pain at the knee insertion point.  My pain is in high in the IT Band and the Tensor Faciae Latae.  I get the pain when squatting and deadlifting heavy, especially if I am doing some running.

I am typically running 20-25 miles per week these days.  I'm doing 531 and squatting heavy for me is a max set of 235-265 this cycle and deadlifting 270-305 this cycle.

Running alone doesn't produce this pain.  I ran some big weeks (40-65 miles) last summer when gyms were closed.

I noticed some issue with heel lift even at light loads, but started doing dedicated mobility work before squatting that seems to have gotten rid of that.

Any corrective recommendations for me?  Like I said 531 with squat day accessories of KB lunges and romanian deadlifts and deadlift accessories of front squats (very light) and romanian deadlift.

I'm early 50s.

I’d look in to that active leg raise, lateral monster band walks, clamshells, hip thrusters with a band above your knees, other hip abduction exercises.

Sounds like you’re very sagittal plane oriented. Try working your lateral hip, glute med, hip abductors.

This installment of corrective exercises are for people who have tight hips, problems getting a below-parallel squat without your heels coming off the ground.

This is a 90/90 hip stretch which will help address internal and external rotation as well as tight hip flexors.

So close to being below parallel...

Attached File

I've been doing this my last couple stretching routines.  I can definitely feel it.  Haven't noticed any difference in squatting, however my issues with squatting are knee related.  I don't really feel tight in my hips, well at least not when squatting.  When trying to do the splits that's a whole different story.

Young guys, get in the habit of stretching and staying flexible, getting old sucks.

It’s a bait and switch, it’s actually helping increase core stability and glute medius activation. A lot of time  an unstable hip will affect the knee as well as exhibit a tightness.