My own journey to successfully completing a squat took about three years. And I would now agree about squats.
They were always something I avoided. I have a bad back, visibly curved on the x-rays with a turned in shoulder. When I started squats I did not not have the core stability to do the exercise correctly. Not lack of strength really, but a lack of coordination and nerve adaption, and exercising all the tiny little muscles for balancing a heavy dynamic load. (Rather than stabilized loads like you get with weight machines.)
My first attempt was the empty bar which is about 35 lb -- and I almost fell over. I couldn't get my knees horizontally parallel to my waist, either. My knees wouldn't flex that much, and neither would my ankle.
So I started with unloaded exercises, using a ballet bar to balance. Fast and slow stretches. Body weight squats. Worked up to doing 100 sets of them. My knee stopped feeling weird. I then went through a phase where I would sit down on the ground and then lift myself back up with small dumbbells, from two 10 lb weights, eventually working up to the 35 lb ones.
Then I attempted the unloaded bar again. Almost fell over again. Went back the next day. After a couple months the motion was confident. Slowly started loading it. Now at 3x3 at 135 lb. Some of the younger men at the gym eyeball me like "What?" -- but the scoliosis only shows on an X-ray and I'm too old to worry about what people at the gym think. I'm very proud of it and never thought my body could do this.
My own journey to successfully completing a squat took about three years. And I would now agree about squats.
They were always something I avoided. I have a bad back, visibly curved on the x-rays with a turned in shoulder. When I started squats I did not not have the core stability to do the exercise correctly. Not lack of strength really, but a lack of coordination and nerve adaption, and exercising all the tiny little muscles for balancing a heavy dynamic load. (Rather than stabilized loads like you get with weight machines.)
My first attempt was the empty bar which is about 35 lb -- and I almost fell over. I couldn't get my knees horizontally parallel to my waist, either. My knees wouldn't flex that much, and neither would my ankle.
So I started with unloaded exercises, using a ballet bar to balance. Fast and slow stretches. Body weight squats. Worked up to doing 100 sets of them. My knee stopped feeling weird. I then went through a phase where I would sit down on the ground and then lift myself back up with small dumbbells, from two 10 lb weights, eventually working up to the 35 lb ones.
Then I attempted the unloaded bar again. Almost fell over again. Went back the next day. After a couple months the motion was confident. Slowly started loading it. Now at 3x3 at 135 lb. Some of the younger men at the gym eyeball me like "What?" -- but the scoliosis only shows on an X-ray and I'm too old to worry about what people at the gym think. I'm very proud of it and never thought my body could do this.