leg routine help (my poor knees)

[DrBones]

Hey guys,

As some of you know... My knees have been keeping me from doing any major compound movement leg work for the last 5 months. This REALLY does not make me very happy, and I'm very concerned about not getting enough work in on my legs.

Heres my situation... I've tried squatting and leg pressing quite a few times in the last few months(including today), and while sometimes it doesn't bother me.. majority of the time it does. Bottom line is... I dont want to make my knees worse than they are (this is NOT a form issue)... If in a few months my knees are good to go.. I will definitely go back to squatting and leg pressing but right now these movements with the large ammounts of weight.. put too much pressure on my knees which arent tracking properly...

What I'm looking for is a good basic routine with isolation movements 1 day a week for my legs... I know I won't grow as much or as fast doing them, but they don't bother my knees and are better than nothing.
I'm looking to do 8-10 rep range, as I want to really isolate the individual muscles and get a good pump if I can't hammer them with a heavy compound onslaught.

Right now,
I'm doing
3x10 leg extensions, really flexing my VMO hard as it is partially responsible for bad tracking being under developed

Seated hamstring curls
3x8-10 I can feel this in my hamstring right down to my calves...

Some form of calfs
random rep ranges

From what I gather I'm hitting my hams, my cafs, and at the very minimum my VMO on my quad... I need something else to hit the other heads on the quad in order to at least give it some sort of workout.

I refuse to let my legs atrophy regardless of my disadvantage...
Give me some ideas folks

Thanks
Ryan

 

[PolishHammer1977]

I know I keep repeating myself but;

box squats?..........

 

[DrBones]

Yea.. i tried box squats and they felt pretty good and i may try them again.... but... Im having problems with my hips right now too.. I need to go see a chiropractor... I'm stiff as a bastard through my hips.. and my flexability is HORRIBLE. I've been stretching them daily...

Thanks for the input tho dave

 

[PolishHammer1977]

always welcome man.

 

[Cuthbert]

Sounds to me like you should box squat anyway. Flexibility will come.

 

[DrBones]

the flexibility problem is actually what partially stemmed my original knee problem, my hips got tight, then my glutes inserts got tight which stemmed to my IT band and my hammies...

Working a muscle will actually tighten it up if you aren't stretching... and I'm hips are to the point where it fuckin ACHES to just ATF the bar...
I could see extremely light box squats followed by a good 15 minutes of stretching as a means to increase flexability as it would increase blood flow.. but just going at it hard right now, will further tighten up my abductors and most likely result in worse flexibility.. But I do appreciate the comments...

I'm working on stretching daily... I do eventually want to squat again.. and Im considering tossing in light box squats as they are better than nothing...

But aside from squatting do you guys have any other advice on what you would do for a simple machine oriented, isolation based routine... I know the benefits of compound movements and i use them on the rest of my body... but soemtimes, you just need to work around injuries..

Thanks
Ryan

 

[Zander1983]

For a simple machine based routine, I think you're doing all you can.

 

[cmdubs]

When I was nursing my knees I did some high volume isolation moves. Something like 10x10 leg extensions supersetted with 10x10 leg curls. It kept my legs from shrinking too much. I don't think they grew any, but it kept them in shape and I worked up a pretty decent sweat.

Hope the knees get better. Injuries blow.

 

[crew9]

If you've got the money why not try physical therpay. Hell just go once and most of the stuff you can do on your own at home anways.

 

[DrBones]

I've gone to physical therapy so many times for so many things and have come to the conclusion that the people I've seen are both total idiots and a waste of money.. I have had work done on my knee by a deep tissue massage therapist and it has really brought it around. I plan on going back soon... but I have so many issues with my body.. that need regular maintenance.. that he really doesnt have more than 5-10 minutes to spend on my knee/hips/glutes per session...

My knees will eventually come around... Im sure.... but it looks like Im going to have to keep sticking with the garbage im doing and try adding in some SUPER light box squats.. maybe 135 lbs for like 10-20 reps... and then stretch the living HELL out of everything thats broken

Thanks for all the input guys

 

[crew9]

Trust me I know how ya feel. Things will get better with your knees. I had surgery on my knee about a year and a half ago and have since done a 405x2 deadlift and today I did 315x2 squat. While that's not a lot of weight to a lot of people here if you had asked me a year or so ago if I thought it possible I would've said no. My left knee is still messed up but for now I refuse to have surgery on it. I'm going to see if I strengthening my legs to a freakish degree doesn't help first.