Knee-conscious leg mass-building exercises...

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08-08-2003, 04:09 PM
goldenFloyd

Knee-conscious leg mass-building exercises...

Got a pair of zipper knees (lateral release, scope, and patella realignment) thanks to football and my quads are lagging severely compared to my upper body. My calves are great, and hams are great from heavy stiff-legged dls, but the quads are lagging. After working out for a couple of months doing 90d squats, presses, quad extensions, and hack squats, my quads are responding nicely.

Here's the problem. Went to doc about some loose cartilage and he was like: it would be better for your knees if you didn't bodybuild and carry so much weight (I'm not that heavy at 230). He says in 10 years I will need knee replacements if I keep doing the squats and extensions (which he said were worse than squats). Said Mr. Doc that if I *had* to squat only go 45 degrees.

What exercises can I do to bring up them quads - I don't want knee replacements, but I don't wanna look like a potato with two pencils either! How are lunges and heavy-resistance biking... those don't feel bad, but they seem to be more detail exercises instead of mass builders - I'm looking for my bros to throw out some suggestions!

Also, wraps or no wraps?
08-08-2003, 07:47 PM
caturpilar

MD magazine had an article in the june '03 issue about building quads. Here is what it said:
"Most bb'ers and almost all strength athletes see squats as the king of leg exercises. However, while squats build thigh and glute bulk, they don't isolate the quads the way knee extentions do. University of WI, La Crosse, researchers compared the effectivness of knee estention with EMG using free weights, rubber tubing, Cybex(rehab equipment) and an inertial exercise sled. EMG measures how much the muscle is turned on during the exercise. They found that the sled trainer and cybex(also known as leg ext. machine) turned on the quads the most. They also found that all the exercises were about equal in turning on the different muscles in the quads. The most effective exercises were the ones that took the longest to do. According to this study, bb'ers should choose quad exercises that force the muscles to work hard for as long as possible during each rep."
Doesn't say much about knees but I would think that there would be less strain on them.
08-08-2003, 08:21 PM
TheNewSteel

you could try leg press or hack squats
extensions are the worst for the knees in my opinion, I tried to do some heavy today and my legs sounded like rice chrispies cereal, snap, crackle, pop
08-08-2003, 09:55 PM
Yung Wun

i would suggest staying away from the extensions, if your gonna do hack squats i'd consider the wraps for the extra support
08-08-2003, 10:44 PM
caturpilar

Ya, I wasn't really trying to give advice, I still have good knees, so I don't know how extentions would be on the knees, Just thought it to be a good article to read.
08-09-2003, 12:15 AM
TANK01

My knees are trashed from to many Years of heavy lifting, had surgery on both.

I'd avoid the extensions, they put a lot of stress on the knee. Leg press is the only exercise I can do a half-decent job at without crippling myself.

I always use wraps for any leg work to take the stress off the knee, if my knee gives out the legs don't get worked.

TANK
08-09-2003, 01:17 AM
goldenFloyd

What do you guys think about the information that knee wraps may only worsen the exercise. I'll be the first to say that my knees feel a lot of relief when I wrap them and do hack squats, but isn't it because I'm raising some chemical balance in my knee that reduces pain - but while at the same time making it worse by adding more pressure on top of my tendons? Not sure where I read that, but it has definitely been put out there before... think doing the exercises with wraps may actually worsen things?

Also, nice article post. About sustained working of the quad, wouldn't resistance cycling for long periods of time be good? Cyclists have some shredded quads... must be from the cycling right? I don't know many cyclists who do the heavy squats, but I'm sure they're out there...
08-09-2003, 07:59 AM
caturpilar

Quote:

Originally Posted by goldenFloyd

Also, nice article post. About sustained working of the quad, wouldn't resistance cycling for long periods of time be good? Cyclists have some shredded quads... must be from the cycling right? I don't know many cyclists who do the heavy squats, but I'm sure they're out there...

I'm no expert, but, when I broke my shin in January, I couldn't do no leg exercises at all. Finally about june the Doc said I could ride the bike using resistance. when I first started my right leg(the one I broke) was 3 inches smaller than my left. So I just started riding the bike on the (going up) hill workout. My legs burned like crazy.I didn't get the 'puke your guts' workout I would have liked, but so far I have gained an inch back on my leg. Don't know if this helps.