Any pointers on doing this exercise? It was my first time tonight and on my first set with dumbbells, i just kept falling either on the left or the right.
I did set 2 with body weight only and even then i had to put the palms of my hands on my knee (working leg) to keep balance.
My bench is at the height of the my knee and I'm wearing wrestling shoes. (flat sole).
Am i doing something wrong or is this normal until I've done this exercise a few hundred times?
I remember experiencing something very similar when first doing these, you probably lack the stability provided by the gluteals.
I found that I quite quickly was able to maintain my balance as I continued to train and my balance improved. Don’t be disheartened, drop the weight and focus on good form and you will be there in no time.
You could also try some glute activating drills like Bird dogs and supine bridges
(long time lurker, first time poster...)
I'm guessing you fall left when your left leg is up and vice versa (that is, towards your center). Concentrate on technique - torso upright, drop straight down and think about pushing your forward knee outward if you need to in order to keep from caving inward.
Start with a stationary lunge first. Imagine a line splitting the floor that you are standing on in 2 halves. Keep on foot on the right side, and one foot on the left side. Then descend into your lunge. Play with the distance of the back foot. If you want to challenge your balance, really outstretch your back leg.
Most balance is lost in these exercises because we place our front foot and back foot (elevated or not) in-line with each other, decreases our base. Keep each foot on their own side of the "tape".
Once you 've mastered the balance of that, progress to the Bulgarian split squat.
Izzo is right, I have seen it performed with the legs almost in a line, instead of one to the left and one to the right of your center line. After doing body weight, try doing them with your hands clasped behind your head, sometimes called "prisoner style". This raises your center of gravity and adds another level of challenge. This balance issue is one of the major reasons I really enjoy and appreciate the total body workouts and compound movements. You can fool yourself into thinking you are getting strong with a knee extension machine or a leg press machine, but when you put it to practical use with a BSS you see that some supporting muscles are just not developed as much as the single isolated muscle is. If it is any consolation, it took me a good 6 weeks before I started using any sort of significant dumbell weight on that exercise. The strength was there but the balance from supporting muscles was not. Just wait til the overhead presses during the BSS start!
I did them in the rack today with a bar infront of me. I just kept my hand on the bar but didn't use my arms at all in the exercise. I pumped out all my sets ok. next week i will do them without touching the bar and in week 3 i'll try 2 light dumbbells.
Try tightening up your core while doing the exercise as well. I find tightening up my core helps with practically every exercise from squats to shoulder press and the BSS as well.
How far down do you go on the BSS? Does your knee touch the floor or just about 2-3 inches from the floor?
Larry
To me it depends on the geometry: your bench height, your femur vs. shin length, how far you step out, how your back ankle flexes, etc. I go as deep as I can, but more about the front leg and glute stretch than noticing the back knee. For example I can set up at the bottom of a lunge with my back knee touching. I can't envision setting up at the bottom of a BSS with my rear foot up on my bench and doing its job while my knee was also down.
I go down deep so my front thigh is at least parallel to the floor. With my back foot (toe) on the weight bench, it is almost impossible for my back leg's knee to touch the floor.
I experiment with how far out in front I put my front foot. By going a little farther that I originally thought I should, I end up not leaning too far forward and it stops my front knee going past my toes, which some claim is something to avoid.
Bulgarian split squat - balance problems
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