While this is a fantastic exercise and the VMO is vital in overall development and proper patellar tracking...I’m going to disagree on the valgus/ACL bit in this video. I’ve trained athletes for 6+ years in ACL reduction and have never had an ACL rupture so this is where I’m coming from. Non-contact ACL ruptures occur from sudden IR/Adduction of the femur (which comes from the hip, not the quads) and anterior translation of the tibia (which is mostly controlled by the hamstrings). You don’t fix valgus motion by strengthening the quads/VMO. You do it through hamstrings trained via knee flexion (Nordic ham curl not RDL) and training both the strength and improving the motor sequencing of the external rotators and abductors of the hip. Motor sequencing is often the issue, people don’t intuitively understand how to absorb impact forces and turn on what needs to be turned on. It takes a minute for this to become an automatic process but is easily achieved. The other part of the chain is ensuring you are actually Dorsiflexing through the ankle and not just compensating and rolling into pronation to achieve your “dorsiflexed” position. Valgus is a product of what is above and below the knee not the knee itself.
Great commentary here, Dylan - thanks for the input. You certainly wont get an argument from me on any on the importance of the particular training methods and motor patterns that you've highlighted here. Knee flexion, in particular, is something that I've proselytized about more times than I can remember. Agreed on all counts that what you describe in your commentary is invaluable in fixing valgus motion and preventing ACL injury, but I'm going to stand by the notion that a healthy VMO is part of the equation as well. Not to discount your experience in the least, but at the same time I can cite experience from other specialists and experienced coaches that support the importance of VMO training in this regard. I'll concede, however, that perhaps I could have chosen my words more carefully to highlight that this exercise, while important, is not the entire picture. Correcting valgus motion is, as you clearly explain here, often a complicated and multi-facetted issue. Thanks for your valuable insight and contribution to the conversation.
some knee valgus is normal in most people. Some of the best jumpers have huge knee valgus when jumping. As long as the hipmuscles (mostly glutes) are firing correctly it should be fine. Your view on ACL injury is correct. I think it often happens because of a wrong or missing nerve signal to the mentioned muscles. This occurs when the brain has to multitask like in many sports. It's one thing to be prepared to do a quick change of direction. It's another thing to suddenly react to an external stimuli (game situation) and making a decision (go left or right) to that stimuli in miliseconds. This is why some ACL treatment programms fail.
They can surely help to protect your knees and reduce discomfort, but fixing the root cause of a tracking issue is another story. Strengthening your VMO with exercises like the poliquin step up is one piece of the puzzle, but there may very well be others. Making sure that your glute medius is doing its part is often a big piece, too.
is this movement like the final lockout on a leg extension machine? if so, will this eventualy wear away cartilage when the tibia condiles twists into the femur condiles? my cartilage is gradually going.
I suppose the range of motion is somewhat similar to the top range of a leg extension, but the training effect is different in some important ways. Namely, the shear force on your knee is significantly less (basically zero) with the poliquin step up. It's impossible to say for certain whenever we're dealing with a pre-existing issue, but I wouldn't be concerned with this exercise doing any sort of harm.
Thanks for this. What if I am getting pain I think perhaps due to patellar femur syndrome when doing this movement? Should I carry on through the pain to develop my VMO?
Perhaps. You can often cover some ground by focusing on the problem area with some carefully selected exercises. Then again, it's impossible for me (or anyone) to say for sure how any preexisting condition will react. Best you can do is try it out and see if it moves the needle in the right direction. If it hurts, then surely stop.
How often should i do this. I squat teice a weak and do trap bar deadlifts twice a weak aswell. My goals are to hit 300kg on the trap bar deadlift im current at 220kg, jump higher run faster and have stronger knees ive torn both my acls. Im also thinking of switching my regular squats to cyclist squat or atleast have 1 normal squat day where ill lift heavier and 1 cyclist squat day.
I can't really say for sure when or how often it makes sense without proper context, but I often use it towards the end of a lower body session during a phase where structural balance is a training priority. Generally speaking, it makes sense towards the beginning of a training cycle. For example, an athlete in off season who needs to build proper knee function after a challenging season.
Are these meant to be done with weights ? Or just body weight ? If so how heavy can we go rep range ? I’m trying to prevent my patella from dislocating as I’m prone to this happening because of my q angle. Could I also try quarter rep leg presses that are similar to this movement pattern? ...great video and thank you if you respond 🙏🏼
They most certainly can be done with added weight if warranted. Dumbbells or a barbell on your back... I've seen as heavy as 90# per hand. And with the short range of motion, larger sets make the most sense. Upwards of 20-25 reps/side. I wouldn't necessarily recommend leg presses in the way that you're describing as an analog for these. The bilateral nature, the fixed weight path and the different ankle-angle are all too different to yield the same training effect. I suspect so, anyway.
Great question! Back squats or front squats are great of course, but getting that deep with either of those options is often quite tough. I'd recommend a split squat variation that really allows for suuuper deep knee bend. Modifiers like front-foot elevation or 1 & 1/4 reps can be useful, too.
Well I want to be extremely clear that I'm not a physician, so I can't give you anything that might qualify as medical advice. And given that I don't know anything specific about your condition, my official answer is "maybe". But as a general course of action, strengthening often-underpowerred-muscles around a problem area, provided that the exercise doesn't cause discomfort, is usually a good place to start.
Hi Don, I recommend you the book called Beating Patellar Tendonitis by Martin Koban. He explains everything you need to know about this injury. I have Patellar Tendonitis aswell for 2 years and this books explains all you need to know. Regards
In virtually every other circumstance, you're absolutely correct. He was one of the pioneers of controlled eccentrics. But in this particular case a slow eccentric doesn't really make sense because the range of motion is just so small. Kind of a funny thing that one of the exercises that bears his name is an exception to one of the concepts that he's so well known for, now that I think about it.
excellent explanation
Best explanation and demonstration I've seen. TY
Excellent and easy to understand breakdown! Cheers for this!
This is an absolutely excellent video. Brilliant.
Thank you great video. I definitely need to work on this.
Thank you, this was very informative and enlightening. Now I have a better understanding why I am doing this.
thank you!
Great video
This was really informative...thank you
Thank you! Glad that you found it helpful!
Beautiful video☀️ This helped me understand why this movement is essential for living life with happy knees.Very well presented as well.
Thank you 😃
Thanks so much! I'm glad it was helpful!
Damn. I’ve been doing these but hadn’t been elevating my heel as well on the leg with I flex my knee
How can i stop my left hip from shooting outward when doing these?
While this is a fantastic exercise and the VMO is vital in overall development and proper patellar tracking...I’m going to disagree on the valgus/ACL bit in this video. I’ve trained athletes for 6+ years in ACL reduction and have never had an ACL rupture so this is where I’m coming from. Non-contact ACL ruptures occur from sudden IR/Adduction of the femur (which comes from the hip, not the quads) and anterior translation of the tibia (which is mostly controlled by the hamstrings). You don’t fix valgus motion by strengthening the quads/VMO. You do it through hamstrings trained via knee flexion (Nordic ham curl not RDL) and training both the strength and improving the motor sequencing of the external rotators and abductors of the hip. Motor sequencing is often the issue, people don’t intuitively understand how to absorb impact forces and turn on what needs to be turned on. It takes a minute for this to become an automatic process but is easily achieved. The other part of the chain is ensuring you are actually Dorsiflexing through the ankle and not just compensating and rolling into pronation to achieve your “dorsiflexed” position. Valgus is a product of what is above and below the knee not the knee itself.
Great commentary here, Dylan - thanks for the input. You certainly wont get an argument from me on any on the importance of the particular training methods and motor patterns that you've highlighted here. Knee flexion, in particular, is something that I've proselytized about more times than I can remember. Agreed on all counts that what you describe in your commentary is invaluable in fixing valgus motion and preventing ACL injury, but I'm going to stand by the notion that a healthy VMO is part of the equation as well. Not to discount your experience in the least, but at the same time I can cite experience from other specialists and experienced coaches that support the importance of VMO training in this regard. I'll concede, however, that perhaps I could have chosen my words more carefully to highlight that this exercise, while important, is not the entire picture. Correcting valgus motion is, as you clearly explain here, often a complicated and multi-facetted issue.
Thanks for your valuable insight and contribution to the conversation.
some knee valgus is normal in most people. Some of the best jumpers have huge knee valgus when jumping.
As long as the hipmuscles (mostly glutes) are firing correctly it should be fine.
Your view on ACL injury is correct. I think it often happens because of a wrong or missing nerve signal to the mentioned muscles. This occurs when the brain has to multitask like in many sports. It's one thing to be prepared to do a quick change of direction. It's another thing to suddenly react to an external stimuli (game situation) and making a decision (go left or right) to that stimuli in miliseconds. This is why some ACL treatment programms fail.
My knee started clicking going upstairs. Will this exercise help ?
i suffer from tracking issues and I get pain on and off. Would these help fix that?
They can surely help to protect your knees and reduce discomfort, but fixing the root cause of a tracking issue is another story. Strengthening your VMO with exercises like the poliquin step up is one piece of the puzzle, but there may very well be others. Making sure that your glute medius is doing its part is often a big piece, too.
How high is recommended to elevate the foot?
I usually aim for 2-3" off the floor, and then another 2-3" for the heel.
is this movement like the final lockout on a leg extension machine? if so, will this eventualy wear away cartilage when the tibia condiles twists into the femur condiles? my cartilage is gradually going.
I suppose the range of motion is somewhat similar to the top range of a leg extension, but the training effect is different in some important ways. Namely, the shear force on your knee is significantly less (basically zero) with the poliquin step up. It's impossible to say for certain whenever we're dealing with a pre-existing issue, but I wouldn't be concerned with this exercise doing any sort of harm.
Thanks for this. What if I am getting pain I think perhaps due to patellar femur syndrome when doing this movement? Should I carry on through the pain to develop my VMO?
Would this help with vmo pain after cycling
Perhaps. You can often cover some ground by focusing on the problem area with some carefully selected exercises. Then again, it's impossible for me (or anyone) to say for sure how any preexisting condition will react. Best you can do is try it out and see if it moves the needle in the right direction. If it hurts, then surely stop.
How often should i do this. I squat teice a weak and do trap bar deadlifts twice a weak aswell. My goals are to hit 300kg on the trap bar deadlift im current at 220kg, jump higher run faster and have stronger knees ive torn both my acls. Im also thinking of switching my regular squats to cyclist squat or atleast have 1 normal squat day where ill lift heavier and 1 cyclist squat day.
I can't really say for sure when or how often it makes sense without proper context, but I often use it towards the end of a lower body session during a phase where structural balance is a training priority. Generally speaking, it makes sense towards the beginning of a training cycle. For example, an athlete in off season who needs to build proper knee function after a challenging season.
Are these meant to be done with weights ? Or just body weight ? If so how heavy can we go rep range ? I’m trying to prevent my patella from dislocating as I’m prone to this happening because of my q angle. Could I also try quarter rep leg presses that are similar to this movement pattern? ...great video and thank you if you respond 🙏🏼
They most certainly can be done with added weight if warranted. Dumbbells or a barbell on your back... I've seen as heavy as 90# per hand. And with the short range of motion, larger sets make the most sense. Upwards of 20-25 reps/side.
I wouldn't necessarily recommend leg presses in the way that you're describing as an analog for these. The bilateral nature, the fixed weight path and the different ankle-angle are all too different to yield the same training effect. I suspect so, anyway.
@@prioritystrength thank you !
inward rotation is not the result of a weak or small vmo.
Kneepain is the result.
So how can you work the VMO in the lower portion of a movement? Just do the lower ranges of a back/front squat? Thanks for the content!
Great question! Back squats or front squats are great of course, but getting that deep with either of those options is often quite tough. I'd recommend a split squat variation that really allows for suuuper deep knee bend. Modifiers like front-foot elevation or 1 & 1/4 reps can be useful, too.
Check out the ATG split squat from Ben Patrick! Perfect for that bottom range VMO work.
@@ThePetieProject I learnt that as Poliquin split squat so it's another Poliquin idea
@@ratchat123 Poliquin got it from weight lifters
I feel these in the front of my hip
So how deep do you step roughly speaking?
3-4" is usually enough. The top range of knee extension is all it takes to target the VMO.
Hello ! I am suffering of patellar tendonipathy since a few months, will this exercise help me recover ? Thanks !
Well I want to be extremely clear that I'm not a physician, so I can't give you anything that might qualify as medical advice. And given that I don't know anything specific about your condition, my official answer is "maybe". But as a general course of action, strengthening often-underpowerred-muscles around a problem area, provided that the exercise doesn't cause discomfort, is usually a good place to start.
How did you get your injury?
Hi Don, I recommend you the book called Beating Patellar Tendonitis by Martin Koban. He explains everything you need to know about this injury. I have Patellar Tendonitis aswell for 2 years and this books explains all you need to know. Regards
I think Polinquin recommended a slow eccentric.
In virtually every other circumstance, you're absolutely correct. He was one of the pioneers of controlled eccentrics. But in this particular case a slow eccentric doesn't really make sense because the range of motion is just so small. Kind of a funny thing that one of the exercises that bears his name is an exception to one of the concepts that he's so well known for, now that I think about it.
@@prioritystrength that is a bit comical
💯👍👏🏻🥰
Those narrow shoes are shit for feet stability