Not sure if I should post it here or under the medical forum.
I try to help a friend out with some form checks and training advice from time to time. She has thoracis scoliosis and struggle a bit with her squat. I wonder if they might be connected.
Doing air squat with the arms on the chest works fine but as soon as she places a bar on the back she starts to feel discomfort/pain in the hip/pelvic area when doing the movement (low bar).
When I observer from the side her form is quite good. Only thing I try to address is to point her feet bit more outwards to hit depth easier plus her right foot tends to rotate a bit inwards during the start of the eccentric movement.
But when I look at her from behind I can see how she almost moves like a zig zag pattern (shifting the load between the legs which she also feels herself), especially in the decent.
When she walks out with the bar her right foot is about an inch in front of the left. This seems to make it a bit better but she is afraid this will negatively impact her hips in the long run. So she tries to stand more inline, which results in a feeling of ”rotation” to the right in the hip.
After have read and listend to Austin a lot I would guess your answer will be that standing a bit off line is fine as we are not completely symmetrical.
But I wonder if the foot placement can cause all of this or if the scoliosis also plays a part?
I was thinking of having her try tempo squat just to see how that would work but she is very set in her ways…
Is there a weight, stance, and technique that she can use where there isn’t a large rotation, shift, or obvious asymmetry while moving? If so, I’d use that. I’m less worried about her feet being perfectly equal as far as spacing, toe angle, etc. than an egregious rotation, twisting, etc. during the movement.
I don’t think there are likely to be any issues with her hips long term secondary to stance parameters.
A more important question however, if she is very set in her ways yet (presumably) untrained - then what are you doing with her? Is she paying you? Are you dating (lol)? Point is, there are billions of people on this planet who do not want to get coached and we should spend time seeking to help those who actually want our service.
Yeah, I’m sorry for the vague formulation, I struggled too make any kind of sense even in my native language:)
But I do think you managed to answer my main concerns/questions anyway. Whether it would be ok to stand “misaligned” with the feet if that helped the form and lessen the rotation. She has squats tomorrow so I will see how that goes.
It’s hard to say if there is a weight that makes a difference, if any, I have observed that she complains less the heavier it gets.
Lol, no I’m not dating her (or charging her), she is just a friend… She isn’t untrained, just not used to proper programming or variations of the main lifts,. But she wants to learn and improve her strength.
When I say “set in her ways” I meant: there is an underlying diagnosis which makes her receptiveness to advice/changes overwhelming some days. So I only give advice when she ask for it and tread carefully. But being a nice guy I keep doing it, and it isn’t that big of a hassle.