Patella pain

[9shu]

Just found out about you guys and have listened to most of the podcasts and read several articles. Thanks for all the great info! PS: love the "Ending Strength" bit

Ran SSNLP about 8 years ago. Right after I stalled out, I tore my achilles playing soccer. Then I got married, had kids blah blah.. farted around doing curls and dumbbell benches and bodyweight stuff for a while, but didn't really train again until about 3 months ago. Dinked around doing nothing in particular, but wanted a little strength and a little size (yea, who doesn't), then started 5 sets of 8 and started to progress a bit. Got some nice pain in left patella, been doing wall sits and box squats at 4 sets of 10 at 70% for a couple of weeks now. Feeling better, but still feeling a twinge. Should I continue to do the box squat rehabby stuff?

Thank you very much for your time.

[Austin Baraki]

You’re asking if you should continue doing rehab work if things still hurt? That seems reasonable to me, unless you can take some weight off the bar and squat a set of 4-6 reps pain-free.

[9shu]

Got it.

Thanks for the quick response, doc!

[Doc Bony Bone]

I always say, "Free advice is worth what you pay for it." But here's my free advice as a practicing orthopedic surgeon. Patellofemoral pain is the most common knee complaint in people not old enough to have real arthritis. I prescribe quadriceps isometrics, but different than wall sits. Straight leg raises - with the knee in full extension, the patella is NOT in contact with the femur articular surface, so it doesn't aggravate the pain, unlike wall sits. These work for patellar pain in just about everybody, even people who do barbell training, although I think that once it's under control, actual good-form squats are the best. The straight leg raise is done lying on the floor and lifting the straight leg up to about 20-30 degrees off the floor and holding it as tightly straight as possible for 10 seconds, lower and completely relax the quads for 2 sec, then back up for another rep. 25 reps daily in addition to your other exercises. The leg lifts can be finished in 5 minutes per leg. Best to do them at the opposite end of the day from your other training.