Negative weight

[MazdaMatt]

What if a trainee can not handle a bodyweight squat?

Said trainee is a 57y/o overweight female with knee degredation and a specific knee injury at the moment.

How does one remove weight from a trainee for the purpose of squatting less than nothing and progressing linearly up to nothing in order to progress up to something.

[jameson]

Leg presses.

[PVC]

Yeah, leg presses. Ask Rip for the specifics, since he's had to do this with trainees before.

[fnet]

Rip mentions leg presses for weaker women in this article:

http://startingstrength.com/articles...s_rippetoe.pdf

[MazdaMatt]

Works out at home, not buying a new 500 dollar machine to get her by for now. I'm looking for something simple/creative to get her by for now.

I'm not a trainer, this is my mother.

She MAY be joining a gym shortly, but they don't have a leg press either (seems like a Crossfit style gym, in a very small town of mostly retired poeple).

Would something like hanging onto a support like the back of a couch or a railing be good, or is that going to be sheering on the knees? Perhaps a chair to each side of her so she can squat with the assistance of her arms like a dip?

Would partial squats be okay with the intent to work on depth as we go?

The last thing i need is to blow out her knees and ruin any hopes of getting her in shape. She's had a history of joining "resistance training" classes, where you sweat your ass off for an hour so she's willing to try hard stuff, just can't squat comfortably.

[jameson]

Man, I don't know. I like your idea of supporting herself with railing (something in front of her). I'm not so sure about the chair on each side. Or you might have her lie on her back pressing against a heavy band. That may work for a little while.

I really don't know, bud. Hopefully, others will have better answers. It's really cool you're helping your mom by the way.

-J.

[NKT]

She could use a chair of a height that allows a just-below-parallel position, and push off of her knees with her hands to get out of the sitting position. Use sets and reps like a usual strength training program. Have her push with her hands just hard enough to keep the perceived exertion of the legs at around 7 or 8 out of 10. When she's able to do it without any pushing at all; then she's ready to squat.

[MazdaMatt]

Thanks, i'm also helping my mother in law. She's getting my old 1" barbell and weights next friday. She's progressed from "getting out of a chair without momentum from her arms" to box squats, to bodyweight squats up to 30 reps now. I'll start a new thread soon regarding her programming. Oh yeah, she's in the process of recovering from a rare and deadly kidney disease, now dealing with prednisone withdrawl and also overweight and sedentary.

[MazdaMatt]

NKT, funny you suggested that as I was describing how my mother in law progressed. I guess I'll try to get Mom on the same program but she seemed to have a really hard to getting up without the whole-body-swing.

Any sense in starting with a higher chair? Or is that just going to exclude muscles that need to get started to get her out of the lower chair?

[NKT]

How about doing a box squat onto a chair with a stack of books? Remove books as a means of increasing range of motion from workout to workout. As long as she's leaning foreword enough to keep the tension on the hamstrings and thighs approximately equal, I don't see how it would cause problems.