[NewChief]

Originally Posted by RedThat

Workouts buffs, lol

silock, dreaminboutsunday, anyone with knowledge and expertise, Im seeking some advice and was wondering if you could help me?

Dude, I got some pain in my knee, don't know what it is exactly? It feels like a sharp pain under the knee cap in my right knee. Im worried it may be chrondomalacia patella.

Which is the wearing of the cartilage under the patella of the knee over time. Now, I do a lot of Squats and Leg Presses or even exercises like deadlifts. Im really scared, Im in my early 30's and have been working out for 10+ years, I think this originated due to excessive amounts of squatting over the years, I do heavy poundages from time to time for strength and power building purposes. I do squats just because I find there is no other exercise that can act as a substitute when its comes to building total body strength and power. Im huge on that.

Now, Im aware that the most sensible thing to do, is to NOT do heavy squatting cause that would probably cause further wear and tear on the area but Im a stubborn person...lol

Is there anything I could do to work around this? I was thinking of wearing wraps around my knees when I do heavy squats, but then, I find those to be counterproductive? Even though one may be able to lift more weight with the wraps, the wraps have a tendency to absorb the stress that comes from the load of heavy squats and actually reduce the hydrostatic pressure which is good. But, because of the absorbtion of stress, the tissues around the knees don't become strengthen which is bad. It's a total catch 22.

does anybody have any suggestions? If worst comes to worst, I am going to use the wraps as a last resort.

*Im scared because the worse this gets, eventually it develops into arthritis.

The only thing I've been told: are you doing a ton of bodyweight warmup squats prior to doing them with a load? Your knees, from what I understand, need to get warmed up and lubricated even more than other parts of your body prior to lifting. Also found this that covers a lot of stuff (including what to eat):
http://stronglifts.com/10-tips-to-st...-and-cracking/

I'm sure Silock or someone else will have more and better information.