Knee issue and Squats, advice?

[get456]

I have been dealing with a knee problem essentially my whole life. When i was in HS, circa 13 years old, I was diagnosed with Osgood Schlatter's disease (link for info http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/osgood-schlatter-disease/DS00392/DSECTION=2 ) It was most prevelant when I tried to play baseball, I couldnt bend my knees and stay squatting long enough to play catcher... later it was a problem playing basketball.. a 30 minute session playing 2 on 2 left me in pain for days (jumping, running etc) I ended up getting a knee brace and spent a whole summer riding a road bike... I played soccer the next year and because of all the biking and running (with the brace) I ended up being able to get rid of the brace! Since then i hadnt really had any issues with it until about a year ago.

I was doing front squats in the smith machine and Stupidly I let my knee go way too far over my toes and boom... PAIN... went to the doctor and essentially the osgood's is now tendinitis in my knee. I gave it several months and a good run of celebrex and it has been feeling a lot better for a while.

Now I am trying to squat regularly and when I used the smith machine to squat, I could go up approx 6 plates plus the bar. I always go LOW with those squats and havent had many issues. Now I am trying to do the 5x5 and want to free squat. I squat with my feet just over shoulder width and go below parallel not quite with my ass touching my calves.

This seems to be aggrevating my knee just slightly, but im worried that the cumulative effect will just get worse and ill end up in constant pain again. Does anyone know if this is something that will happen, or if doing the squats will continue to strengthen my knee and eventually make it feel better, rather than worse? Also I do wear a "band" of sorts just below my knee, it is supposed to put pressure on that tendon and add some support (it is also for tennis elbow) this does seem to help.

 

[Brad87]

Way back in 6th grade I got Osgood Schlatter in my left knee and wore a brace for about 4 or 5 months and then about 1 to 2 years later I got it in my right knee, but not quite as bad. The pain started to slowly go away after a couple of years and I was able to workout harder. In March of 2004 I pulled my lateral Ligament wrestling with a friend. It took about 4 months for that to heal. I then started doing low squats, past parallel, this really strengthed my knees, but got them a little sore. So I started doing parallel squats and have not had a problem with it since. I always try to work on my form rather then going extremely heavy due to the problems I have had with my knee. About 3 weeks ago my left knee started popping in and out on me at work for no reason and I have been out of the gym since then. To make a long story short, when it comes to your knees and exercising them try and focus and keep your form down as good as possible and dont overdue it with too much weight. And if you do hurt your knee again, take as much rest as you can to heal your knee. Ive learned that lesson too many times.

 

[Cynical Simian]

A couple things that are bad for your knees: the Smith machine and stopping at parallel with a non-PL stance.

Give free squatting a chance, but ease into it. Even people without past knee issues sometimes seem to have problems from overuse when they try to go from no squatting or quarter-squat crap on "leg day" to Oly squats three times per week. You might want to spend a few weeks getting comfortable with the movement, finding your maxes, etc. before jumping into the linear 5x5.

 

[coolcolj]

ankle/calf flexibility, quad/rectus femoris flexibility, and hip mobillity

http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=63D45B49624F33BA112A15CD98B27AEF.hydra?id=1127149

people should fix up their bodies before loading up.