Hello Barbell Medicine, first off the bat, Thank you for all the resources and valuable knowledge you are sharing. It is amazing to see all of your hard work paying off and blowing up like it is. What a great field to be in, it is my hopes that I can have some success in the coaching business too.
With that said, I am coaching a 36 year old woman who is about 40+ lbs overweight. She has never strength trained before. I have her slowly shedding some lbs while learning the lifts and gaining strength. She has made progress in the deadlift, (135 lbs) overhead press (45 lbs) and bench press (75 lbs) and her form looks near perfect on all lifts.
However, when she does even a body squat, she can drive her knees out, elbows to knees, breath and brace, perfect form, but cannot get out of the hole without doing a total good morning. It’s like she lacks the strength near/in the hole. I have been working with her for a couple of months now, having her do air squats, half squats under the bar, leg press, extensions/flexions on the machine, holding on to doorways, etc. along with the other major lifts in hopes that she can start doing some squats but to no avail. Her discouragement and embarassment of not being able to do a squat is pretty big and I know if she can start squatting clean, it will be a huge boost in her confidence/pride and she will just linear progress from there. Should I just keep having her do air squat negatives and hope she builds the strength to concentrically get out of the hole one day? Is there any specific movement I should be training with her to help her progress quicker? I know if she gains the ability to do one full rep, she will make gainzzz from there. Any suggestions? Thanks!