I hurt my knee a while back doing to much running, and have been having problems with it ever since. Recently i finally got an appointment with an orthotics specialist who listened to my problems, pulled my leg around for a while, and generally criticised my anaotomical shortfalls.
Anyways, as a result he gave me a series of exercises and stretches to do each morning. Most of it seemed pretty straight forward and basic. But he also specifically mentioned doing single-leg leg presses to build up some mass on my quads around my knee. I tried explaining that i already do single-leg squats for leg strength, but i'm not sure if he knew what i was talking about. So he went ahead and advised me to do 3x10 on the leg press twice a week.
Now the problem being that i don't use gyms, and i don't have a leg press machine available at my house. Are there any suitable substitute exercises i could use?
I was thinking of simply doing 3x10 static lunges, and adding weight by putting sand or loose weights ( i have a crappy barbell and about 50kg of weights hanging around, plus i was planning on building a sandbag ) into a backpack. Would this work?
if you are doing single leg squats (pistols) there is nothing a leg press is going to add beyond that. You dont have a gym so leg press and leg extension is out.
The only problem is that i can't do pistols for 3x10 reps, which he seemed quite insistant on. I think i might just go with my original idea of static lunges and see how that works. Thanks for the help though anyway. :)
3 x10 isnt magical. Why did he insist on that? Also you can hold on to something to make your pistols easier if you want to get 10. Or sit down to a step or box to make it easier.
From a hypothetical point of view, i know all the arguments about leg presses being not the greatest exercises, and the 3x10 proticalbeing only one of many. But i've spent months being unable to shift this problem by myself, so i'm really prepared to swallow my pride and try and take his advice without tinkering with it too much myself.
Step ups do sound like a good idea though, and i can imagine static lunges getting boring after a while, so i will probably try and mix these 2 exercises up in the future.
"single leg leg press is really good though...cant your dr write a scrip for some physical therapy and then you could do the leg press there?"
Actually he did try to arrange for me to have physio at the hospital. But once i got in touch with the physio department to arrange my appointment, i was told there was a 3 month waiting list before i could join.
Hopefully my knee problem will have cleared up by 3 months anyway. But if not then the physio option will - finally - be there for me.
I agree with what others have said, ditch the leg press. I also believe pistols/single leg squats tend to place a disproportionate amount of stress on the knee extensors (quads) for many people which seems to put a lot more stress on the knee joint, and might contribute to your knee problems.
I like the idea of stepping, as the loading is usually relatively light, and it should be conducive to strengthening connective tissue.
I also think standard shoulder-width, back squats have a favorable ham/quad strength ratio demand, so that the knee is properly stabilized and the supportive muscles can be effectively strengthened for knee health. Since I've started personal training part time, I've had good sucess with clients that said they had bad knees (despite no pertinent accute injury history) have been able to eliminate their pain after teaching them to properly recruit their posterior chain, and get them on a squatting program to strengthen their connective tissues and supportive muscles.
Actually i'm English, and im on the NHS, which is our God awful excuse for a health system over here. My mate spent more than 2 years waiting for reconstructive surgery on his ACL, so i don't think complaining about a 3 month wait for PT will cut any ice. Besides which i already had to wait for 2 months just to get the initial appointment...
HERTSWENIP, To be honest i've never felt any pain during strength workouts. The pain usually either strikes randomly, or during conditioning work. If hamstring strength is the problem, do you think working in deadlifts would be a worthwhile addition?
"If hamstring strength is the problem, do you think working in deadlifts would be a worthwhile addition? "
I don't think hamstring strength is necessarily the problem, based on what your Dr suggested, I believe it's moreso weakened connective tissues and a need to teach your body to properly recruit the hamstrings/glutes for effective knee joint stabilization; over-reliance on quadriceps will place higher shearing forces on the joint, an adequate co-contraction in the antagonistic muscles is needed for proper joint stability...
I see no harm in doing deads however there is little to no knee flexion, so DEEP barbell squatting should still be a large part of the program IMO, in order to strengthen the connective tissues in your knee extensors AND teach proper posterior chain co-contraction for knee stability. If youd like to try this, start with lighter weights and do 1 and a quarter high rep sets; descend to rock bottom, go up a quater rep to near-parallel then drop back down before going all the way up- that's 1 rep, I'd recommend starting with slow tempos and using pauses, emphasizing the eccentric phase.