Patellofemoral syndrome knee pain?

[Tbol]

I have been training a few months and i have been on a cycle for 6 weeks.
I am having a lot of trouble doing squats and even standing calf raises

I had a doctor tell me I have patellofemoral syndrome and that I have imbalances in my leg msucles and that I should avoid squats and do exercises that strenghthen the quads.

Can any here tell me besides swimming what I can do to get my legs back in order so at some point I can squat again

thanks

[KAEW44]

I had the same problem man, its very difficult to get that balance back because in order to strengthen the quads u have to do some exercises which put a strain on your patella.

For me they had me do isometrics for a few weeks where u keep your legs straight and contract your quadracep hold for 5 seconds then relax, it works for a short time then u reach the limit of how much it can strengthen in about 2 weeks.
Then u can do kinetic exercises but in the following way, u can do leg press but u cant bend your knees more than 30 degrees, which is basically just a small push u are doing but that way your patella doesnt track. If u do one leg at a time it works better and u can focus more on the quad.

[jerol]

I have been training a few months and i have been on a cycle for 6 weeks.
I am having a lot of trouble doing squats and even standing calf raises

I had a doctor tell me I have patellofemoral syndrome and that I have imbalances in my leg msucles and that I should avoid squats and do exercises that strenghthen the quads.

Can any here tell me besides swimming what I can do to get my legs back in order so at some point I can squat again

thanks

I have had the same thing for many years. In fact, it had been the limiting issue for my leg development. I am a surgeon and have several good friends who are orthopedists. They freely admit to me that there is no universal way to correct this problem.

Sometimes people have a poorly developed medial head of the quadriceps that causes the patella to sit more laterally and that causes the irritation. Bodybuilders generally do NOT have a poorly developed medial quadriceps though. Sometimes people simply have an aberrant position of their patella. It should sit nicely in the groove formed by the femoral condyles (the end part of your femur bone). If it is not in this groove, then you can get irritation and pain. This can be confirmed with simple knee X-rays (specifically, a "sunrise" view).

Interestingly, squats are almost always frowned on automatically by most orthopedists. However, squats are a natural movement for the body and as long as you don't go to parallel or below, the knee joints shouldn't be brought into play too much. A far worse strain on the knees can ironically come from leg extensions (traditionally a way of "strengthening" the quads as a part of knee rehab). Here, we often bring the lower leg well behind the knee (past 90 degrees) and that is both stressful on the knees and a completely unnatural motion. When I stopped doing leg extensions, my knee pain resolved.

Now I squat heavy weights, do not go as low as I did in my 20s and 30s, and ice religiously post workout. I have no knee pain and my legs have never felt better. If you insist on doing extensions, set the machine up so you start your rep with your feet in front of your knees (though I think you can just shitcan the extensions altogether).

Hope this helps,

Jerol