Temporary programing box squats for acute knee injury

[NicholasAstro]

I recently fell at work and think I strained my left patellar tendon. There is no pain upon palpation nor during walking- however there is a sharp pain when descending stairs, climbing a ladder, or when I squat to pick something up.

I’m scheduled to train tomorrow doing a normal NLP squat day workout 3x5@325. I plan to do normal low bar squats unless I have “bad” pain during warmups. I’m watched Rips video of substituting box squats for achy knees, and was curious if I would need to adjust the weight/reps/sets if I were to temporarily use box squats until my knee feels normal.

[Maybach]

The box squat removes (or at least impairs) the stretch reflex at the bottom, so you almost certainly will need to drop the weight. 80% is a good benchmark, but just do as much as you can, and progress from there.