I started my lovely wife Kristi on a training program a little while ago. I wanted to emphasize the basic compound movements, core work (back and front), posterior chain work and some general mobility work (mainly in the warm-up). When we started I noticed right off that knee dominant exercises were going to be difficult, mainly the squat and the lunge. Her squat was, at best, about a quarter squat. The good news was that her form was good getting there. Her hips moved correctly and she was able to keep her back in alignment, she just couldn’t get very deep. Her lunge was not great, as she had a tough time bending the back knee. We stuck with it, though and she has been getting better and better.
Last night her squat was the best it has ever been. She is almost able to get to top-of-thigh parallel and she is now able to bend the back knee with her lunge. We are still doing both of these as strictly bodyweight exercises, but that’s great right now. I think we aren’t that far away from having a pretty good squat and lunge pattern going. We still really need to do more core work, though. That is something I probably need to emphasize even more. We are doing planks and Pallof presses to emphasize stability which is something she really needs. I need to start trying to incorporate some more side bridges, as well.
All in all, though, she is really doing great and she’s having fun, too. She’s definitely helping me get better as a trainer. I’m really proud of her.
Mitch Rothbardt www.mitchrothbardttraining.com (coming soon)
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