Hi all, first off, please forgive my ignorance for asking these questions, as i know there are prior threads on the topic. However, searching through I found some info, but not really what i was wondering.
My question is: Im 20 years old and I’ve been lifting pretty heavy for a good couple years now. However, I have laid off the squatting for a while because I had been doing it poorly and kinda messed up my knees. Nothing major, just enough that I decided to focus on deadlifts, cleans and other exercises where a deep knee bend wasnt involved. But… I have a hanker-ing to squat heavy again and really work my legs so i decided to do something about my knees. I went out and bought some glucosamine-chondroitin and multivitamins and I’m going to start gradually working back into squatting, really working on my form.
ALL THAT being said, the more I read about glucosamine and chondroitin, the more it seems like it just masks the pain, people say that when they cease taking it, the pain comes back. Being 20 years old, I think my joint health is a bit more important than squatting big, especially when i can still lift and be athletic in other ways. So my question is, does Glucosamine actually help to repair cartilage and joints? Or just mask the pain because the inflammation is down? If not, what, if any, supplements out there do help repair joints? Or beyond supplements, does anyone have any tips or tricks on stretching, warmups, cooldowns, etc… etc… that would help to gradually strengthen my knee joint? Any help would be appreciated
Up to now, most litterature reviews and meta-analyses on Gluco-Chondro type agents have yielded moderate results.
Generally, the problem has long been the design flaws in most of the previous studies touching on those agents.
However, there seems to be a trend towards moderate but significant results over various periods of time. (Short trials of 4 weeks to long trials of up to a year).
By the way, glucosamine sulfate seems to generate both structure modifying and symptome modifying properties. So yes, pain comes back when you stop, but that does not mean that damage has not been limited or reduced.
Is it going to help lifters and damage due to heavy loads, I haven’t seen any studies on that.
Maybe somebody else has found something?
AlexH.
[quote]Dandalex wrote:
By the way, glucosamine sulfate seems to generate both structure modifying and symptome modifying properties. So yes, pain comes back when you stop, but that does not mean that damage has not been limited or reduced.
AlexH.[/quote]
Exactly what I was looking for, thanks.