Broken Patella

Hi guys,

In 2014 I had a bike accident and had the following injuries - broken R femur, broken R patella (12 pieces), broken L fibula, ripped the top of my L foot open, disclocated lunate bone in L wrist, broken L scapula, level 3 cut spleen, L thumb ripped open and a lot of bruising.

In 2014 a nail was placed in the femur, the knee cap was wired and my L wrist was reconstructed. In 2015 the knee cap was not fully put back together, surgeon had to redo. In 2017 the nail was removed from the femur and the wire removed from my knee. As soon as i was cleared i was straight back into it, at 190 pounds, 6’1, squat got up to 95kg, dead lift 147.5kg, press 47.5kg and BP 80kg. I couldn’t power clean as unable to rack it so i did DB snatches.

Just before Christmas 2017 i was squatting 95kg, came up on the 2nd set and heard a pop, every time i bent the knee it would make a large clunk. Went to the surgeon, he did an athroscopy, found a large piece of cartilage had displaced which was removed.
Seeing the surgeon today he advised due to the injury no more weighted squats, single leg exercises or sprinting up stairs as this places too much stress on the kneecap and we’ll end up with the same issue.

I would like to here everyone’s thoughts on this? He advised deadlifts, prowler work, bike, swimming, running and sprinting is ok?

In the back of my mind i had all the negative news from a host of doctors and proved majority wrong. This surgeon is like a father but doesn’t excercise.

Jordan, Austin, I’m happy to sign up for a training & programming course

Thanks & Regards

After you had the arthroscopy, did the sensation in your knee resolve? Hard to say what exactly happened during your squat set, so the risk of “ending up with the same issue” is unclear.

We also don’t have much experience dealing with patellae that have fractured into 12 pieces … so it’s difficult to provide confident recommendations here. If it was me, I would certainly train the deadlift as much as possible for a while, then reassess things a little ways down the road, as well as my “risk tolerance” for any further complications.