Hey all,
About 2 years ago I did something to the patella in my left knee doing a jerk. No idea what it was, but it started bugging me a lot in the past 6 months or so. I’ve seen physio and chiro about it, and it didnt help much, leading my chiro to believe it needs to heal first before it can be rehabbed…
Question is, will my squat suffer from doing strictly assistance work (to avoid movement at the knee and avoid stressing the patella so it will heal). So things like good mornings, stiff leg deads, romanian deads, rack pull etc etc.
Any ideas on how to work my quads with minimal stress on the knee?
Some ideas:
wide stance leg press: do leg press with your feet high and wide on the platform to alleviate the pressure on the knee. Be sure to drive with your heels and not with your toes.
The others should be good as long as like the leg press you emphasize your base and driving with your heels and not allow your weight to transfer to your toes.
Also, when my knees start bothering me i start doing leg extensions with extremely light weight for sets of about 15-20. Its just enough to move blood into the area and strengthen the other fibers around the knee. You can also just do these at home with no weight for even more reps.
Just some ideas
Start doing terminal knee extensions with a band. Do at least 3 sets of 15 before every workout.