Training Lower Body with Injured Knees

Training Bodybuilding
1

So I’m in physical therapy right now (ending the second month soon) for both knees (patellofemeral syndrome, aka kneecaps not tracking right), the left more than the right, caused by two things:

-I started lifting a few years back without knowing what I was doing and had bad form.
-According to the physical therapist, I have a larger-than-normal amount of torsion, or twisting, in my leg bones, especially my femurs, which makes my feet turn out more and makes deep squats, lunges, etc. especially hard on my knees.

I’m 22, young enough that (according to the same physical therapist), I have a shot at getting my knees relatively normal in 3-6 months - but that’s with laying off them in the gym. Even running at a small pace should be kept under a half hour, at least at present. Obviously, laying off my lower body completely isn’t going to happen, but what I’ve been doing (mainly hip-dominant and posterior chain work, so lots of RDLs, good mornings, pull-thrus, hypers, etc., as well as some very limited ROM high pulls and hack squats) isn’t doing the job - I’m near certain I’ve lost at least some leg mass, and definitely tons of strength.

I’m still trying to get a used tire for sled dragging, so until then, my options are pretty damn limited. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I can do to keep training without inflaming my knees, and maybe even making some progress?

The really frustrating thing is that, even if my knees did “get better,” I’ll be forced to squat at parallel or above and lunge equally shallowly (if that’s even a word) forever - the structure of my body doesn’t let me do anything else. So if anyone else has had similar problems, let me know!

2

My left knee also had patellofemoral issues, my quad was basically tight as shit and pulling it out of track. My follow up appointment is tomorrow in fact.

My advice is - do what your physio tells you. He’s the professional, not you. Would you rather 3-6 months off, or fucking up your knees and having a lifetime of severe training limitations. Same goes for the lighter depth squat and lunge… it’s not the end of the world. Some people simply arn’t built for deep back squats etc, there are plenty of other exercises to do.

3

You have a knee injury, you are going to lose some size. It’s not worth risking worsening the injuty to keep some size if it means it could lead to long term damage if you are not careful - in my opinion. It sucks, but muscle memory is pretty sweet when you get back into it all healed up.

What about doing some high-resistance cycling sprints? I’ve noticed a some growth in my legs from cycling, and I’m pretty much avoiding squats type work because of a right knee injury too.

I’m doing rack pulls instead of deads, and wrap both knees which keeps them pretty happy.

4

I’ve got tracking issues in both knees as well. For me, the likely cause are the typical imbalances (tight hip flexors, weak posterior chain, etc.), which I made even worse by doing a lot of cycling without doing offsetting exercises.

Using the great info posted here by the likes of Mike Robertson and Eric Cressey (and their training products) to get my posterior chain up to par and also improve hip mobility. There’s a lot of stuff I cannot do because of the knees, but hoping that lots of RDLs and box squats will help get those glutes going. After a couple of weeks, I’ve noticed that my hamstring flexibility is the best it’s been in at least 5 years, which isn’t saying much, but I haven’t done any hamstring stretching recently - I’m guessing this is because the glutes are starting to do their job, easing the stress on the hammies.