Double kettlebell squats have been my go to for a while but torn meniscus surgery is coming up and doc wants me doing box squats at most and I had to let him know there was no way I was going to stop lifting legs to get that much of a concession.
But front box squats with kb’s isn’t working my legs much. I can use too much weight only going parallel and my shoulder give out before my legs, and barbells box squats isn’t doing much either, even at 10x5 every 4 days.
All I can think of is to go high reps with barbell box squats but for whatever reason I can either be strong or I can be big, and I prefer being strong, so before I give up my 5 rep sets I wanted to see what ya’ll thought.
Thanks in advance.
With the impending surgery i would listen to your doctor. What about focusing on prehab and then rehab? Take this time to learn and simply enjoy some light training. I would rather be able to do any type of squat than none at all.
Good luck on the surgery.
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Only prehab I’ve been doing is stationary bike, which is a great leg endurance and cardio workout but my legs are getting smaller and I didn’t have much to brag about in the first place.
I also don’t plan on doing anything other than box squats from here on out so I was looking for some way to at least maintain some muscle. Looks like it’s high rep box squats for this old fuck.
True, but core strength could be a part of your prehab and rehab. As i get older i do a ton of farmers carries, weight vest stuff. As Dan John says, the heavy carries works everything!
What’s the doctors reasoning for a box? Also what does someone like a physical therapist say about this as your doctor might have zero clue what he’s talking about?
Haven’t seen a phys. therapist yet, probably won’t. If I’m going to give up and go the phys. therapy route then all strength and/or hypertrophy routines go out the window. I’m hoping I can do more than water aerobics with the really old people.
Box squat was actually my idea to make sure I don’t break the plane, and that was the one thing my doc said is that weight bearing leg movements that break the plane are extremely hard on the meniscus portion of the joint, which is what I need to keep from tearing going forward. I figure it’s all I’ve got left if I’m going to do anything approaching an actual leg workout.
Take your time and recover properly, next surgery will be hip replacement and you will have to forget any squats 
No point pushing yourself threw pain, to many example where it leads -into fuking forget any basic activity cuz you are 40yo but your body is 80yo
So you have a slight mcl tear? What is the actual problem with the knee? Strengthening the knee through a full range of motion would be better long term which is why I’m baffled at the box squats idea, again most doctors have zero idea what they are talking about which is why physical therapist exist
meniscus (not mcl-i’m not sure why i originally said mcl) tear in the “white region” of both, tear in the red region of one-which i’m told can heal itself. white region tears cannot so they are cutting those parts of the meniscus out. no ligament damage in either. extreme osteoarthritis and bone spurs so hopefully they sand as much of that down as possible too. broken patella from my teenage years doc wants to remove the small piece of but doesn’t know if it’s attached to a ligament or not. if so it stays.
other than doc advice for the most part i started limiting my range of motion because of swelling and pain, but the pain is just bone on bone joints so that i could deal with. the swelling is telling me i am traumatizing the joint so i limited range of motion. knees will still swell a bit, but nothing like if i break the plane let alone ass to ground.
ass to ground front kettlbells squats were my favorite exercise before the meniscus tears, and might have been the reason for the tears for all I know. I didn’t know i had any tears until the swelling got so bad the doc mri’d both knees.
surgery isn’t supposed to be a big deal, they said i might even walk out of the hospital right away, but at least on my feet by next day.
mostly just trying to figure out what i can do from here on out, but physical therapists just repeat the bullshit my docs say about squatting and whatnot so i’m hoping they are wrong.
Damn man, sounds like you have some legit things going on in there, that’s unfortunate. I hope everything continues to improve. I guess just do what ya can’t pain free. Maybe look into the ATG program I know a lot of people who swear by it, the guy who started it had tons of knee surgeries prior to fixing his knees. Might be a good place to start
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I said mcl tear in my post, not sure why, it’s just meniscus tears so not as bad as I originally made it sound but still causing me problems.
i will check out the atg program for sure, thanks.
If you want you legs to be strong and muscular do barbell squats. Kettlebells for the purpose of developing leg size and strength are quite ineffective as they severely limit the amount of weight you can use. As far as you having surgery. If you can do it without too much pain, then do it. Does the pain increase when you go below parallel? To take a doctors advice on working out is ridiculous. While that may sound like an ignorant statement,Drs. In med school study exercise and nutrition for almost a negligible amount of time. Unless they’ve studied exercise physiology, your average gym rat knows more.
I’m 5 months out from the surgery now. The surgery completely shut down my quads so it’s been like learning to use those muscles for the first time all over again. For whatever reason KB front squats don’t hurt the joint but barbell squats do. Pistols don’t hurt either.
I’m basically just trying to figure out what leg exercises I can do going forward. Doc totally lied to me about the surgery and recovery time. I never would have done it if I’d known the extent of the surgery and what it was going to do to me.
Have you tried using a slantboard to make things heavier and more intense for the quads?
I don’t even know what that is but I’m gonna look it up right now.
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