Squat problems

Alright, so I'm having a lot of difficulty with squats.

First off, let me say I have a club foot. I don't mean to make excuses, but this has become a major inconvenience for me all throughout life. The main reason is that I can't bend my right foot (the club foot) up nearly as far as my left. This usually causes problems in things such as driving. I can't bend my foot high enough to actually go totally over the pedals, so when I want to totally let off the gas or switch to my break pedal, I have to lift my entire leg.

Now, this curse has shown itself in my workout routine. I can't do even close to full squats. My foot just won't bend and I can't keep my heal on the ground. I can't even go totally parallel, let alone past parallel into a full squat. I also believe this is related to a pain I'm getting when I do squats. The upper part of my leg where it meets my pelvis gets a pain in it after I do a set. It doesn't feel like muscle, it feels like tendons/ligaments or whatever.

So...is there anything I can do? Or am I SOL? I do squats the best I can, and I do leg press, but it just doesn't feel like I'll ever get the real raw leg power that I want.

Well, I was going to say leg press. but you could also try weighted lunges if thats at all possible with your foot. I do weighted lunges with dumbbells and with a barbell across my back. makes my legs feel like jello.

pics of foot

I know a lot about squats, but I have no idea what to tell you due to your specific situation. Perhaps you could consults a sports doctor if you're serious about the gym?

Maybe try an activity that puts a lot of resistance on your legs for a pretty sure duration of time, or during intervals. Cycling at a very high resistance in bursts??

That all in consideration of the limits of your foot of course.

edit. Do you mind describing the severity of your foot?

Also you're probably right on the related pain. Having one foot in a different position as the other one would result in over use of not so normally used muscles. Next, you could have uneven pelvic alignment or abnormal joint movement between the femur/pelvis that could manifest unusual tension on the muscles/ligaments of the upper thigh.

There could be several other possibilities as well if you look to the knee and ankle regions as well.

I'm not sure if I understood you properly, but one idea may be to put a small disc underneath the heals of your feet, a friend of mine does this as he was unable to keep solid form whilst doing them. His legs are his best muscle, and he goes at least 90 degrees whilst doing squats, so this does not hinder the performance. Therefore you are standing on a base or small platform, that in my mind combats the problem you talked about.

I may have missed what you were saying though..

Also for the pain thing, squats hurt like hell when done properly (usually people cheat) so try to deal with it, if you think it's something more serious contact a doctor.