QUADS
Knee Health
Most people who've played sports have experienced knee pain.
Either overuse, acute trauma, or both.
Ben Patrick @kneesovertoesguy on Instagram has brought the old Poliquin Systems of Lower Body Structural Balance to life and made them his own.
It is by far the best system I've seen.
Creating massive functions in the Quads is the core of the system.
Most people have massive weakness in one of the quad categories which is why they end up in surgery or quitting training altogether.
We must be experts in quads to be experts in knees.
Athletic Quads
It is possible to have great athletic performance and elite CrossFit performance without great quads. Some will have them. Others not.
In physical preparation, we want to be able to isolate what we need.
What's missing?
Build that up and in the process, we create a robust, higher performing athlete.
The over-emphasis on performance outcomes without looking at individual joint function has created massive injury and disability.
You can achieve without deeply understanding strength but you will be relying on chance to avoid injury.
Top Range
This is the range most naturally developed by running.
The knees can heal by creating a huge pump in the quads via reverse sled drags. Lactic, heat & circulation heal!
Single Leg
PPPP Step-ups > Poliquin Step-Up, Peterson, Patrick, Power
Double Leg (strong trunk stimulus)
Dead start quarter squat
- Accommodating resistance is a good way to add to end range strength stimulus, eg bands and chains allow the top of the movement to receive more stimulus. Slow tempo also means the top part of the movement is also worked.
Mid Range
While full-range squats are close to full range for the hip and the knee. They're not being maxed out for range at the same time which takes a lot of tension off the tissues and decreases tissue quality and tolerance to load.
Since squats tend to fail in the middle we can consider them a middle-range challenging movement.
Front Squats
Back Squats
1/2 Squats
Box Squats
Dead start (bottom-up) mid-position squats.
Bottom Range
Preparation & Circulation = VmO Bounces
Russian / Georgian dancing is probably the best example of bottom-range strength.
Ben Patrick dunking from the bottom shows his ability to dominate bodyweight through the outer range of the quads.
Cyclist Front Squats
Cyclist Back Squats
Bottom Range Stretch
These are the highest tension exercises. They should generally be done when the tissues are warm and the circulation is high.
For most gym-goers these outer positions will be very tight but often also weak relative to other squats. Particularly for those who are more posterior change dominant.
Assisted Sissy Squats
- decrease assistance progressively, these are great when RANGE is the primary goal.
Progressive Sissy Squats - increase range progressively, these are great when STRENGTH at RANGE is the primary goal.
Natural Knee Extensions - Again this is a very high tension exercise that those who are hip dominant will find to be incredibly weak.
Elastic Qualities
The elastic qualities of the knees should be developed in each of these positions with "bouncing" reps, skipping, countermovement jumps, etc.
Conclusion.
There is massive needless knee pain in the world.
There are many destructive injuries being suffered.
Solutions exist for us to apply them.
World-class performance together with world-class injury prevention.
Made with Bullet