Hey everyone,
So long story long, I am a noob recreational lifter who went on the Stronglifts 5x5 program with the main goal of hypertrophy, and went way too hard for way too long.
Like many noob lifters, RPE 10 sessions were how I thought would make the most gains. I used to swim competitively in a club for many years, and sessions were very hard and taxing. Not having to worry about programming, I never knew about the importance of recovery. Because of this, I had the mentality to go as hard and heavy as I could to drive gains, as I thought I would not mentally nor physically burn out.
To make matters worse, I didn’t deload when I failed multiple times, as I was worried that this would hinder progress. After reading many more articles and educating myself, I realised how stupid I was for doing this. I also jumped programs a lot when I thought I wasn’t making gains due to the fact that I was “intermediate” and from then on the ache got progressively worse.
So it started off with a dull ache which went away with warmups. However, one day I decided to go for a run, which made my patella flame up. The next few days, I warmed up to about 80% of my working weight before feeling a sharp pain in my right knee. I deduced that this is the usual patellar tendinitis.
Because of this, I panicked and nocebo’d the F out of myself as I’ve always heard about fellow lifters suffering knee pain for DECADES, and I didn’t want to be freaking disabled and have to limp when I walk or go down stairs.
I searched youtube and found KneesOverToes guy. Hearing his success, I went on his beginner program for 4 months, and unfortunately made me weaker. I followed this program to a tee. I’ve noticed that I’ve lost a lot of mass all over my body, in both upper and lower, due to tendinitis problems in my elbow and shoulder as well (RPE 10 all day BABY!). Coupled with the fact that this program doesn’t have a lot of upper body lifts and is mostly comprised of lifts with light weight to “bulletproof” your shoulders, I’m basically a stick now.
Now when performing bodyweight squats I feel a slight pain inside my right and sometimes left knee right before lockout, which I believe is fat pad impingement syndrome? Because trying to lockout my knee excessively can cause pain even when on the bed. I also have some days when I have zero pain going down stairs, but some when it would give me a pinch here and there.
Not sure how to go about this, I’ve lost approximately 6-7 pounds of weight which I assume is mostly muscle and water weight. Any tips? Thanks!