The Biggest Smont ever! 🤔 Lets find out

[Dustin07]

The lateral movement is what lets me know there's an issue that's most likely a ligament and non muscular. But since this whole thing has happened my leg muscles are very sore all the time whether I train them or not and I don't understand that one

there is probably a lot of compensating/protecting going on. some could be subconcious. I can fully relate to that though. every once in a while I'll take a step right into a small pothole I didn't see or something of the sort and my knee quickly reminds me there is no ACL, I get a very uncomfortable pop, a moment of paranoia while I rub it with my hand as thought that will fix it, and within a few minutes I forget about it. but there is some ptsd on those uncomfortable movements that makes me wonder if its just a ticking time bomb. but for my left knee, I think I blew out the ACL in 2006 or 2008 so its going on 20 years and I'm generally in pretty good shape. only the occasional bad step gets me. I can run and squat, and just know that in cold weather sometimes knee sleeves are nice even on a run.

 

[Dustin07]

I think the only solution is to stay active, retain as much mass as possible for as long as possible, and do the rehab work whenever needed. the worst solution for all my injuries would be to waive the white flag and not work it.

 

[sammpedd88]

I definitely think those are one of the most helpful things right now. I'm going to incorporate barbell hip thrusts after them.

Stretch, jump rope on the mats, TKE, barbell hip thrusts, we did step UPS and light squats above parallel are on the menu this week

Try wall sits also. You can start above parallel and then slowly work your way down to where you’re at parallel.

 

[Dustin07]

Try wall sits also. You can start above parallel and then slowly work your way down to where you’re at parallel.

plus they suck so they must be good.

I've been to PT so many times I finally realized that all they're gonna make me do is shorter rom versions of what hurts and gradually extend the ROM until it doesn't hurt anymore so I just do it myself these days.

 

[CroLifter]

I will just chime in and say that I also developed a case of patellar tendonitis. Its funny, its alwaya in my left knee and I seem to develop a case of it pretty much every cycle.
Pistol squats are unbearable no matter how much I warm up, while normal double legged heavy squats are possible once properly warmed up.

I usually squat heavy 1-2x per week, even off cycle, so its weird that it always flares up during a cycle, considering i dont even increase the weight i use on squats that much.

It must be simply overuse, as I push the reps being careful not to just keep increasing the weight which will inevitably lead to injury.

One advice I heard, aside from really comprehensive and lengthy warm up, is to slow down the eccentrics, to like 4 seconds, which in theory should help with tendon remodelling.

PS: This time it took more than usual for it to flare up, even though i am squatting heavier compared to previous years. I attribute that at least partially to lack of masteron in the cycle, and perhaps inclusion of GH.

 

[sammpedd88]

plus they suck so they must be good.

I've been to PT so many times I finally realized that all they're gonna make me do is shorter rom versions of what hurts and gradually extend the ROM until it doesn't hurt anymore so I just do it myself these days.

Yeah they do! But they do work. I’m the same way. I’ve been to PT a lot and still have my exercise handouts the give you. Plus there’s so many physical therapists on YouTube you can basically have free PT sessions via social media and it’s free.99!

 

[jfigliuolo]

......

One advice I heard, aside from really comprehensive and lengthy warm up, is to slow down the eccentrics, to like 4 seconds, which in theory should help with tendon remodelling.

Im old and weak... but this above has really been helping since I upped volume a bit and started with the nagging tendonitis.

 

[Dustin07]

Pistol squats are unbearable no matter how much I warm up, while normal double legged heavy squats are possible once properly warmed up.

can you do pistols assisted, like holding on to a power rack through the rom? I know that even though I used to be able to hammer out pistols (haven't tried in ages) I always thought they were kinda funky because it was near impossible to maintain the same hinging form in the knee for me. so even though I didn't have pain, I'd say the form was suboptimal and definitely not the same form I'd want to see in my knees from a heavy backsquat.

 

[Smont]

can you do pistols assisted, like holding on to a power rack through the rom? I know that even though I used to be able to hammer out pistols (haven't tried in ages) I always thought they were kinda funky because it was near impossible to maintain the same hinging form in the knee for me. so even though I didn't have pain, I'd say the form was suboptimal and definitely not the same form I'd want to see in my knees from a heavy backsquat.

I don't know many people who can do unassisted pistol squats even at body weight. When I'm not hurt I can do them because I have a really good balance in ankle mobility but when I try to get other people to do them pretty much nobody ever can. I also noticed when I try to teach people to get deep into that squat they can't stay flat-footed most of them go up on their toes and fall forward. That's actually something that I have been working on with a lot of my younger boxers. None of them have very good ankle flexibility and they all have weak posterior chains. We actually focus on that stuff on Tuesdays, which is today

 

[Smont]

I'm steadily gaining weight the past 2 weeks, I don't think I've eaten any more than I normally do and I've actually been having days where I really focus on keeping my fat low and my protein high and my calories just overall aren't insanely high with the exception of maybe one day a week when I just say f*** it lol. The point I'm trying to make is I really think just my knee being bad and it's slowing me down and having some aches and pains is finally making my metabolism slow back down a little bit. I'm even sleeping a tiny bit better. I still probably only average 5-6 hrs but I'm Staying asleep longer. I'm getting a good 4 hours in before I first wake up to use the bathroom. I'm sure you guys know by now how historically terrible my sleep is. Life has temporarily slowed down for me

 

[Hyde]

I'm steadily gaining weight the past 2 weeks, I don't think I've eaten any more than I normally do and I've actually been having days where I really focus on keeping my fat low and my protein high and my calories just overall aren't insanely high with the exception of maybe one day a week when I just say f*** it lol. The point I'm trying to make is I really think just my knee being bad and it's slowing me down and having some aches and pains is finally making my metabolism slow back down a little bit. I'm even sleeping a tiny bit better. I still probably only average 5-6 hrs but I'm Staying asleep longer. I'm getting a good 4 hours in before I first wake up to use the bathroom. I'm sure you guys know by now how historically terrible my sleep is. Life has temporarily slowed down for me

Might just be what you needed, in some sense.

Also, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing a pistol squat, but I don’t know a single serious bodybuilder, powerlifter or strongman who gives a single care about them, so they don’t really exist to me

 

[gphagan1]

I don’t drink anymore, but thought this was funny.

Edit: oops, wrong thread

 

[Dustin07]

I don't know many people who can do unassisted pistol squats even at body weight. When I'm not hurt I can do them because I have a really good balance in ankle mobility but when I try to get other people to do them pretty much nobody ever can. I also noticed when I try to teach people to get deep into that squat they can't stay flat-footed most of them go up on their toes and fall forward. That's actually something that I have been working on with a lot of my younger boxers. None of them have very good ankle flexibility and they all have weak posterior chains. We actually focus on that stuff on Tuesdays, which is today

those are really good points. I actually found holding a 35lb kb was easier for pistols because even though it added substantial weight, it helped counter balance. it was pistol squats back in the day that made me realize my broken ankle injury had severe mobility issues still that I wasn't aware of, cause my right food would stay perfectly flat, but my left heel would ALWAYS come up in a pistol so I spent a lot of time fixing that. I can still get sore ankles from a big squat day in flats but its definitely better and my heels are planted now.

 

[gphagan1]

I don’t drink anymore, but thought this was funny.

View attachment 261649

Oops, sorry Smont I meant to post that in the memes thread. I got myself lost and accidentally posted in yours.

 

[Smont]

Might just be what you needed, in some sense.

Also, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing a pistol squat, but I don’t know a single serious bodybuilder, powerlifter or strongman who gives a single care about them, so they don’t really exist to me

That's why I don't know anyone who can do them! Lol. It's not something you see people doing. I don't do them as part of any routine. It's just one of those things I do just so I actually have the ability to do it

 

[Dustin07]

Also, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing a pistol squat, but I don’t know a single serious bodybuilder, powerlifter or strongman who gives a single care about them, so they don’t really exist to me

Also, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with doing a pistol squat, but I don’t know a single serious bodybuilder, powerlifter or strongman who gives a single care about them, so they don’t really exist to me

The last time I took pistols seriously was like 2017 ish. I was coming off that ligament tear in my back. While at PT they had me lay on my back and point my toes away from my body. they held my toes with their hands and I was supposed to curl my toes back towards my head with all my ability. my right toes I could easily pull his hand towards my head. my left toes I could not at all, and up until that moment i was completely unaware of how much strength I had lost in my left side during that injury.

so basically I started to encounter any 1 legged exercise I could for the next few months of rehab because I realized that my right leg was doing all the work on both squats and deadlifts and my left leg was essentially doing no more than a walking cane helping balance me haha

 

[Rockslide]

Disclaimer : not medical advice

A lot of things could be going on with your knee.

MCL and LCL strains are gonna be more instability with lateral or medial force, causing excess opening of the joint and sharp stabbing medial or lateral pain when the joint is loaded in that direction from the contralateral side

ACL and PCL they’re gonna be anterior and posterior instability . Probably going to be hard to do on yourself but anterior /posterior drawer tests

Medial and lateral meniscus tears are usually when the knee is experiencing a twisting force under a load. Think of twisting on knee while standing on one foot while holding a medicine ball.

Patellar tendinitis usually gonna be a sharp stabbing interior pain right above or below the kneecap when running or bending underload or jumping

Patellofemoral syndrome is usually a medial lateral pain to the kneecap during running or jumping usually caused by weak medial or lateral quad

Knee osteoarthritis usually severe dull aching, but sometimes sharp stabbing pain when the knee is undergoing any type of loading

Most of these things are non-operative and can be fixed with physical therapy , activity modification.

Full thickness ligament tears, however, need surgery but I’m assuming you would have more knee instability than you do although some people with very strong musculature could have a full thickness tear and not have as much instability as people that are not as strong so occasionally an MRI will catch a surprise even on a knee exam that doesn’t really correlate

Some meniscus tears can be managed without surgery, others may need it. Downside to surgery is trimming the mensicus out usually accelerates arthritis long term.Osteoarthritis is the sucky one because it doesn’t go away and it’s just a managed thing until it gets bad enough to get a knee replacement.

MRI, of course will probably tell you more

 

[Smont]

Three rounds of TKE's, some light stretching and I did some band work for lateral movements. I took a 90 lb dumbbell and did three sets of 20 pile squats, then I grabbed a 25 lb plate and did some reverse lunges with it. And then I finished off in the squat rack with my knee brace on.

Mind you these are half reps I am not going to parallel I'm basically squatting until the back of my thighs hit the pad on the bench and then I go back up but I never lock out so my goal is to keep constant tension in that upper range of motion. When my legs did start to tie her out I did rest standing upright.

95x15, 145x15, 195x15x3. It honestly didn't feel heavy it just felt exhausting. My leg muscles still feel just beat to **** all the time, even walking up and down the stairs on a day-to-day basis I feel some kind of soreness in my muscles and this has been going on since the knees have been bothering me. But at least I'm getting to a point where I can train them again and I'm hoping once I build things back up a little bit maybe I'll be able to handle a little more muscular fatigue and because right now my legs just suck lol. It's almost like right now my muscles are not firing correctly and I'm using muscles when I shouldn't be. I don't even know how to explain it but I definitely have something weird going on.

It's almost like whatever happened to my knee has affected how the teardrop part of my leg reacts to training. And it's like my outer quads are picking up the slack for the teardrop part not working somehow

 

[gphagan1]

Three rounds of TKE's, some light stretching and I did some band work for lateral movements. I took a 90 lb dumbbell and did three sets of 20 pile squats, then I grabbed a 25 lb plate and did some reverse lunges with it. And then I finished off in the squat rack with my knee brace on.

Mind you these are half reps I am not going to parallel I'm basically squatting until the back of my thighs hit the pad on the bench and then I go back up but I never lock out so my goal is to keep constant tension in that upper range of motion. When my legs did start to tie her out I did rest standing upright.

95x15, 145x15, 195x15x3. It honestly didn't feel heavy it just felt exhausting. My leg muscles still feel just beat to **** all the time, even walking up and down the stairs on a day-to-day basis I feel some kind of soreness in my muscles and this has been going on since the knees have been bothering me. But at least I'm getting to a point where I can train them again and I'm hoping once I build things back up a little bit maybe I'll be able to handle a little more muscular fatigue and because right now my legs just suck lol. It's almost like right now my muscles are not firing correctly and I'm using muscles when I shouldn't be. I don't even know how to explain it but I definitely have something weird going on.

It's almost like whatever happened to my knee has affected how the teardrop part of my leg reacts to training. And it's like my outer quads are picking up the slack for the teardrop part not working somehow

Yeah I went through that with my knee in the early stages of my injury, hamstring and calf especially felt strained almost constantly for about the first two months. Then as I was able to do more actual leg work, besides the rehab and band work, it felt like everything started balancing back out and feeling better. And when I was able to get back to leg press, extensions and leg curls it seemed to start coming together faster. Really it feels like the last battle has been getting that full ROM and being able to extend that leg fully. That’s actually what’s took the most work over the last couple of months.
You actually sound like your rehab is moving much quicker than mine did. You are already doing some good work, so hopefully you’ll be able to keep progressing that way.

 

[Smont]

Yeah I went through that with my knee in the early stages of my injury, hamstring and calf especially felt strained almost constantly for about the first two months. Then as I was able to do more actual leg work, besides the rehab and band work, it felt like everything started balancing back out and feeling better. And when I was able to get back to leg press, extensions and leg curls it seemed to start coming together faster. Really it feels like the last battle has been getting that full ROM and being able to extend that leg fully. That’s actually what’s took the most work over the last couple of months.
You actually sound like your rehab is moving much quicker than mine did. You are already doing some good work, so hopefully you’ll be able to keep progressing that way.

Good to know, yes I feel like the strength in my up and down movements is good, pain in both knees is present but not bad, it's just the lateral movement that hurts something serious! But even that is slowly feeling better. With the the knee brace that has the extra support I can hit the bag and throw my hooks and stuff and as long as I don't rotate too hard I can get those punches off too. Where I'm at right now is mostly inner knee pain, no muscular endurance, they just feel fatigued all the time, muscles being sore that I haven't used, and sharp stabbing pains still come out of nowhere, there typically worse at night.

Strength is still decent as long as I stay above parallel. I did wrap up last night's session with body weight squats, just deep body weight squats just to see if I can do it and 20 of them felt very taxing. I would argue that going ass to grass with no weight at all was more exhausting then the half reps at 195lbs

 

[Dustin07]

It's almost like whatever happened to my knee has affected how the teardrop part of my leg reacts to training. And it's like my outer quads are picking up the slack for the teardrop part not working somehow

Yeah I went through that with my knee in the early stages of my injury, hamstring and calf especially felt strained almost constantly for about the first two months.

yup same, thats how mine was from January to probably about May. it was that lower hamstring area that would wake me up at night after a training day but here it is July and last night I had a squat PR so things rehabbed!

 

[gphagan1]

Good to know, yes I feel like the strength in my up and down movements is good, pain in both knees is present but not bad, it's just the lateral movement that hurts something serious! But even that is slowly feeling better. With the the knee brace that has the extra support I can hit the bag and throw my hooks and stuff and as long as I don't rotate too hard I can get those punches off too. Where I'm at right now is mostly inner knee pain, no muscular endurance, they just feel fatigued all the time, muscles being sore that I haven't used, and sharp stabbing pains still come out of nowhere, there typically worse at night.

Strength is still decent as long as I stay above parallel. I did wrap up last night's session with body weight squats, just deep body weight squats just to see if I can do it and 20 of them felt very taxing. I would argue that going ass to grass with no weight at all was more exhausting then the half reps at 195lbs

yup same, thats how mine was from January to probably about May. it was that lower hamstring area that would wake me up at night after a training day but here it is July and last night I had a squat PR so things rehabbed!

Yep, I feel like the key is just working it with whatever you can do and keep that train rolling. And as far as the lateral movement, that and ROM, does seem to be what may take the longest to get back to normal. And lateral movements are also what you want to be the most careful with IMO.

 

[Smont]

Yep, I feel like the key is just working it with whatever you can do and keep that train rolling. And as far as the lateral movement, that and ROM, does seem to be what may take the longest to get back to normal. And lateral movements are also what you want to be the most careful with IMO.

I've got that brace now, I'm not wearing it all the time but I'm definitely using it in situations that might compromise my knee.

My legs had made solid improvements over the past year. I had the. To a point where I look very balanced. Maybe not today's bodybuilder balanced but Golden era balanced. Over the last 2 months they just look like they melted. It's now become priority again. It's a double whammy of loss when I can't work on my legs because my legs do not hold size without working them, but on the polar opposite side of the fence my upper body hangs on the muscle very well. So when I stop training my lower body shrinks relatively quickly and my upper body just kind of stays the same so it makes the loss of my leg size just twice as bad visually. For upper body maintenance I can do like one or two exercises per body part per week and everything's going to stay the same. Like I can do pull-ups, push-ups and hit the heavy bag and not lose size.

When I stop straining my legs within a week or two they're noticeably smaller. It's almost like the constant training keeps them pumped or glycogen loaded or something to appear to be bigger than they actually are lol. Then I stopped training and then they just melt away again