weight bearing squat replacements?

kattle32
kattle32 Posts: 8 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I had a root tear of my medial meniscus (tore the cartilage in my left knee :/ ) a couple years ago when I aggressively got back into strength training (lol at 42) and my not 20-year-old-anymore knee rebelled.

Short story to that whole episode is I had surgery to preserve the cartilage and was told no squats or lunges with more than body-weight. :'(

What are my options? I miss my squat booty, lol

Thanks!

Kat

Replies

  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
    I had knee surgery (microfracture procedure) in February so have been going through the same thing. Once I could do lower body again, I went back to straight leg deadlifts, leg extension, leg curl, leg press (partial range of motion), etc.

    What type of surgery did you have to preserve the cartilage? Did you go to physio or ask the dr. about exercises?
  • kattle32
    kattle32 Posts: 8 Member
    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    I had knee surgery (microfracture procedure) in February so have been going through the same thing. Once I could do lower body again, I went back to straight leg deadlifts, leg extension, leg curl, leg press (partial range of motion), etc.

    What type of surgery did you have to preserve the cartilage? Did you go to physio or ask the dr. about exercises?


    I had a root tear repair, basically they go in, drill a hole thru the tibia, tack down the torn cartilage and tunnel the suture thru the hole in the bone they made. It's a pretty neat surgery and worked great for me. Yeah I did 3 months of pt. I should add deadlifts back into my future!
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    RDLs, stiff leg DL, glute bridges.
  • DavPul
    DavPul Posts: 61,406 Member
    Thrusters, bridges, kickbacks and maybe even donkey kicks will allow you to work your butt using resistance without much knee engagement.
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
    kattle32 wrote: »
    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    I had knee surgery (microfracture procedure) in February so have been going through the same thing. Once I could do lower body again, I went back to straight leg deadlifts, leg extension, leg curl, leg press (partial range of motion), etc.

    What type of surgery did you have to preserve the cartilage? Did you go to physio or ask the dr. about exercises?


    I had a root tear repair, basically they go in, drill a hole thru the tibia, tack down the torn cartilage and tunnel the suture thru the hole in the bone they made. It's a pretty neat surgery and worked great for me. Yeah I did 3 months of pt. I should add deadlifts back into my future!

    That sounds worse than Saw.
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
    Dear OP How about doing what the doctor suggested. Do your squats with just your body weight.
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,691 Member
    Most people equate stronger = heavier. Not necessarily. To my knowledge, there are four main ways to get stronger:

    1. Lift heavier
    2. Lift more volume (more times per week, more sets, or high-rep sets)
    3. Lift slower / negatives
    4. Alter angle / isolation

    With your surgical procedure, you know you have to avoid lifting heavier, but that still leaves you the other options to work with. Choose a lighter weight but take 5 seconds to lower it, then 1-2 seconds to lift. Or grab a DB or two and do single-leg RDL's and bulgarian split squats, which work one leg at a time. Volume can also work wonders -- I added 90 pounds to my squat, not by doing heavy singles, but doing sets of 15-20 at a lower weight.

    Ultimately, though, listen to your doctor's suggestions before any advice from strangers via the internet. If he says to avoid certain moves, avoid them. At least until you've healed up to where the doc says its ok.
  • SonyaCele
    SonyaCele Posts: 2,841 Member
    i'm not saying go against your doctors recommendations, but i had meniscus and ligament damage and surgery for both , and my Dr said no heavy weights, keep everything low weight high rep. I've actually found the slow controlled heavy low rep sets feels much better on my knees than high rep body weight squats. Listen to your body and made good judgement decisions about what you can and can't do, a lot of dr recommendations are just general recommendations they give to everyone. My dr also told me no more running but i wanted to run and so i gave it a try and decided it wasn't working for me, so i follow his advice in that respect and i don't run.
  • STEVE142142
    STEVE142142 Posts: 867 Member
    Worked out with a guy years ago. He was all of about 180 to 190 pounds yet he could squat close to 450 pounds whenever he wanted to.

    His workout routine consisted of basically quarter to half squats using a broom handle for balance. His routine consisted of anywhere from 300 to 500 of those squats.

    I tried routine one time it was humbling I got to about a hundred quarter squats Non-Stop felt the burn the next day I could barely walk but the routine does work.

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