Quad Size With Bad Knees????

[skippa]

Hey guys. I have pretty bad knees from years of sport activity when I was younger. It prevents me from Squatting without pain and buckling knees, which can be dangerous to say the least. I have tried to compensate by doing Leg Press, which can hurt a bit, but not near as much as squatting. Based on all this, my Quad size is SERIOUSLY lacking compared to my other muscles. I have pretty big Calves, so I have to wear longer shorts to hide my quad size. I swear, my Claves are ALMOST the same size as my Quads. I NEED HELP GUYS. Any ideas or routines I can do? Any foot postions while squatting to relieve the knee strain or something like that? Maybe do squats with less weight and higher reps? I'm willing to try ANYTHING. Any ideas? Thanks guys.

 

[Assertive Guy]

Hey guys. I have pretty bad knees from years of sport activity when I was younger. It prevents me from Squatting without pain and buckling knees, which can be dangerous to say the least. I have tried to compensate by doing Leg Press, which can hurt a bit, but not near as much as squatting. Based on all this, my Quad size is SERIOUSLY lacking compared to my other muscles. I have pretty big Calves, so I have to wear longer shorts to hide my quad size. I swear, my Claves are ALMOST the same size as my Quads. I NEED HELP GUYS. Any ideas or routines I can do? Any foot postions while squatting to relieve the knee strain or something like that? Maybe do squats with less weight and higher reps? I'm willing to try ANYTHING. Any ideas? Thanks guys.

How about sprints and stairs work? I'll have a think on this... for now, why not stick with the shorts and work the calves even bigger to compensate?

Assertive Guy

 

[eat big]

Try a wider stance on squats with your feet angled outwards. Go light and see how that feels.

 

[Extra_Strong]

1st off what is exactly wrong with your knees? do you know or they just hurt?

are you juice free?

i have had an acl surgery on my left knee that went bad.
and now my right is starting to bother me.

would help to know exactly the problem with you knees.

 

[SgtSlaughter]

I'm in the same boat now

No more ATF squats for me, it sucks

Sprint/Stair work can build some serious mass.

 

[view]

frequent sub-maximal leg bouts is something you will undoubtably need (sounds like hst lol).

i would continue to squat but start with however much weight doesn't hurt. i would do a few weeks (maybe months too) in the 15 rep range and see how that feels. its supposed to promote connective tissue growth, joint health, etc.

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

You can always continue to work the hammy's and such to keep some mass on the 'other side' as well...

Good mornings, pull-thrus, glute/ham. Good hamstrings are always nice too.

 

[Extra_Strong]

i would really like to know the prob. but i would say running was out.

Quadsweep's Sister has a good point

 

[bignate73]

if leg presses hurt...i'd say that sprints are probably going to hurt more. depends if your meniscus is bad, ACL etc. sprints are proebably a bad idea in that they are ballistic and require way more dynamic stabilization than a leg press. impact + instability= injury. especially if your legs buckle while squatting.

 

[Assertive Guy]

You can always continue to work the hammy's and such to keep some mass on the 'other side' as well...

Good mornings, pull-thrus, glute/ham. Good hamstrings are always nice too.

Yeah, and also the inner/outter thigh can be worked with cable machines etc, which shouldn't aggrevate the knee.