Allow me to point out that your wife's unfortunate condition does not mean that you are not a shitty coach. She needs to do as much balance work as possible, so up your game.
After many months of trying to coach my wife to squat to depth with little success, we discovered last week that she has an issue with her cerebellum which has been getting worse over the last year to the point she has some difficulty just walking. I’ve read that keeping the strength training up is a good idea and will help overall. She squats with an empty bar and now uses the leg press. Is it better to continue squatting and add weight if she can, even if she can’t co-ordinate for a full depth squat, or stick to leg press. I’m thinking that squatting is better because she has to try and balance even if she isn’t great at it. The leg press would probably be better for overall leg strength ?
I can now rest reasonably easy that I wasn’t such a bad coach. Turns out there are reasons why some people cannot squat.
Allow me to point out that your wife's unfortunate condition does not mean that you are not a shitty coach. She needs to do as much balance work as possible, so up your game.
She needs to squat, without getting hurt. Get some help.
I have got her to squat with the empty bar because I was concerned about squat depth. If we allow cutting the depth short of parallel she can add some additional weight without getting hurt. Is that the right approach ? She is going to be referred to a physio which is about the only direct help on an ongoing basis.
How much short of parallel?
One inch above and she falls down? Can she go below parallel without the bar?
She would fall down much sooner than that, but she bends forward far enough to create a counterbalance. She can’t get to one inch above parallel because the bending forward is so extreme that it brings her hips back up higher. Once she has the bar in place, it becomes a good morning. Ok if I video it, because it’s very difficult to describe what I’m seeing ?