Designed By A Personal Trainer

Back & Knee Pain Prevention

Meet our Founder, Erik Rokisky

Hi there! At 18 years old, I injured my lower back while performing heavy barbell back squats. I had a bulging disc in my L4-L5 and experienced shooting nerve pains down my leg for a whole year. At 18 years old, I felt like an old man. I couldn’t run or exercise without pain. My dream of playing college football was over.

That experience motivated me to study the human body to get myself out of pain. After fixing my back pain, I was ready to apply those lessons to others to help them get out of pain. So, at 19 years old, I became a personal trainer.

Throughout 14,000 training sessions, I realized the importance of heel elevation on my client’s squat. They would tell me their lower back felt great and how all the soreness was in their legs. If only I had applied this to my younger self, I would have never gone through years of back pain.

Fast Forward to 2019

While carving down a mountain in Japan on my snowboard, I saw an opportunity for a quick jump. But, being an inexperienced snowboarder, I got too much air. My legs went behind my body I and crashed to my knees.

I can still remember the pain shooting through my left knee. Unfortunately, the pain continued to trouble me back home in Los Angeles, making it impossible for me to run.

Determined to find a solution, I discovered that elevating the heel during a split squat can increase blood flow and tension to the muscles surrounding the knee.

So I performed heel elevated split squats twice a week. Over time, this strengthened my knee, and my pain subsided.

I could finally run again!

After seeing the benefits of heel-elevated squats in myself and my clients. I wanted to create an affordable product everyone could use.

In addition, I knew from my studies that the ability to elevate the whole foot was superior to just the heel. So the wedge had to be long enough to elevate the entire foot.

With those features in mind, SquatWedgiez was born.

Meet our Founder, Erik Rokisky

Hi there! At 18 years old, I injured my lower back while performing heavy barbell back squats. I had a bulging disc in my L4-L5 and experienced shooting nerve pains down my leg for a whole year. At 18 years old, I felt like an old man. I couldn’t run or exercise without pain. My dream of playing college football was over.

That experience motivated me to study the human body to get myself out of pain. After fixing my back pain, I was ready to apply those lessons to others to help them get out of pain. So, at 19 years old, I became a personal trainer.

Throughout 14,000 training sessions, I realized the importance of heel elevation on my client’s squat. They would tell me their lower back felt great and how all the soreness was in their legs. If only I had applied this to my younger self, I would have never gone through years of back pain.

Fast Forward to 2019

While carving down a mountain in Japan on my snowboard, I saw an opportunity for a quick jump. But, being an inexperienced snowboarder, I got too much air. My legs went behind my body I and crashed to my knees.

I can still remember the pain shooting through my left knee. Unfortunately, the pain continued to trouble me back home in Los Angeles, making it impossible for me to run.

Determined to find a solution, I discovered that elevating the heel during a split squat can increase blood flow and tension to the muscles surrounding the knee.

So I performed heel elevated split squats twice a week. Over time, this strengthened my knee, and my pain subsided.

I could finally run again!

After seeing the benefits of heel-elevated squats in myself and my clients. I wanted to create an affordable product everyone could use.

In addition, I knew from my studies that the ability to elevate the whole foot was superior to just the heel. So the wedge had to be long enough to elevate the entire foot.

With those features in mind, SquatWedgiez was born.