I have bad knees to begin with. On top of that, my right one has two torn ligaments. It's not good. They snap, crackle and pop just about ALL THE TIME. Once in a while I have to stop training legs for weeks or months from the pain of cartilage wear.
My last leg workouts required painkillers. The pain has been lasting longer and longer after the workouts, so after a couple months training without squats, it's the end of this line for my quads.
Over the years, I have discovered that Devil's Claw Root, a simple herb, combined with Glucosamine Sulfate give like 250% the results of glucosamine by itself. It reduces the inflamation and helps the glucosamine do its thing, which is to support cartilage regeneration. DCR also helps other minor pains such as inflamed tendons/nerves from heavy barbell curls, etc.
It has been suggested that MSM (Methylene-Sulfate-Methane or somesuch) will give good results also. All these are cheap, so I added MSM yesterday night to my joint-healing mix. It is early to tell, but the pain seems to have diminished significantly since yesterday night.
I hope to think of keeping this thread updated on my progress, otherwise remind me in a couple weeks. Hopefully I will be squatting again soon.