Hey bro…so sorry for late response…I missed this question. Ok so I’ve been dealing with knee issues since 2014 and it’s cost me my crossfit career so I can definitely empathize with you.
I would personally dedicate a lot time to hitting the 4-plate squat. The first thing I would do is hit a 6-8 week program of 20RM’s (as long as your knees can handle it) Where you do a 5-4-3-2-1 ascending rep scheme, work up to a heavy single and then immediately strip the weight down and hit 70% of your heavy single for 20 unbroken reps. You do that every week and the goal is to add weight each week for 4-8 weeks until you hit a wall. It’s brutal but it will get your legs stronger and bigger 100%
Then I would honestly follow a Wendler 5-3-1 program for 12-16 weeks after that gradually increasing your training max until you got close to 4 plates. I’ve used bot these squat cycles successfully numerous times myself and with many clients on My Straight Up Strength Program. I hope that helps. Definitely eat and sleep a ton and be patient.
Coach great to have you on here big fan of your t-nation articles. We recently got some rings in our gym. I won’t mess with them a ton as I’ll be doing surge workouts but one of them you can put your feet up in a push-up position. I’ve been doing some holds and little flutters for abs. Like a dynamic plank and man do they make me feel weak as I can’t do them long at all.
I will ask a question because I want to hear your opinion. And you say let’s ask you everything.
Which do you think puts more strain on your joints if your maximum weight is 100 kg? 3 /set /x10/rep/x70 or 8x3x85.
The volume is almost equal, but in the first option it is lighter, but the joints are under tension more time in the set, in the second it is harder, but the joints are under tension for a shorter time before rest.
Rings are incredible and I highly recommend you keep using them, but I would also recommend just focus on getting better at basic strict push-ups on the ground and basic bar dips and strict pull-ups. Once you can competently handle your own bodyweight statically. Then you will have the requisite strength to handle the instability of the rings. I also highly recommend you get as lean as possible because that will improve relative strength tremendously.
The second option would place more stress on your joints in my opinion simply because your handling a heavier load even though it’s less time under the weight. That’s why 1-rep max lifts often cause the most injuries because the lifter is placing their body under maximum load even though it’s only for 1 rep.
Thanks for the answer, I agree with that.
Maybe I didn’t ask my question precisely. I meant the more the joints wear out over time, not so much the risk of injury. For example, rubbing and wearing them over time. Or to be more precise: more strength-oriented workouts in the range of 80-90-95%, but with a smaller volume, or bodybuilding-oriented workouts with 65-70-75%, but with a larger volume. I know there are other factors, such as frequency. In my previous opinion I talked about equal volume, but in practice in many cases the volume of strength training is smaller. Let’s say you perform one exercise a week - in one case 4x10x70%, in the other case 5x5x80% or 3x3x90-92%.
70% is also not a light weight, but you have done 40 joint bends with it. In other cases it is more severe, but in 80% you have bent your joint 25 times, and in 90-92% only 9 times. I am interested in these things and I have always been hesitant about what is true.
If i was looking to minimise joint-bends, i’d look to get the most work from the muscles for every rep. JM Blakely did a video on something he’s developed specifically for this, from a conversation with Dave Tate. I don’t think this video covers all of the thinking, but it should be a good starting point. I’m sure you could find the full TableTalk episode online somewhere.
