Need Help

[davidM]

Hi guys,

I wrote to Ripp and I'm waiting for his advice but I wanted to hear you too: after my last volume day in which I squatted 358.2 5x5 I had what now I'm sure it turned out to be quads tendinitis. I maybe pushed too hard for my age and I'm paying the price. I perform low bar deep squat and for what I can say my form is not bad: my knees are always out and I'm really careful with my warm up sets.

Everything was going alright and I made pr's in all my core exercses but now I don't know what to do. I ordered those rehband knee wraps and I hope they can be a help but I don't know how to handle this in the meantime (I'll have them in 15 days more or less). Should I stop Texas for awhile? I'm afraid that if I stop completely the squat I'll lose my strength and to tell the truth, training without it doesn't seem like training at all. So what now? Should I do a Texas model for everything else apart from the squat or should I simply do another program of my own just to let my quads recover and then starting Texas again?
Any advice is welcome. I'm really upset about it because I had problem with my bench because of my right shoulder, then as my shoulder seems fixed now here it comes another problem. I guess it's part of the game anyway so I accept it but...shit.

[toddmr]

Here's the number one lesson I've learned about training. It took me fifteen years of doing it wrong to truly learn it. Get a pencil and paper because you're going to want to write it down:

"the number one rule to avoid training injuries is to not train injured."

As a runner for many years, the way I always did it was to either try to train through the injury or come back from rest and rehab too early. Every single time it ended the same: the injury got worse or caused another injury somewhere else and I spent more time injured and not training than if I'd simply rested and rehabbed properly and for long enough in the first place.

This doesn't mean to let every niggling ache and pain stop you for a month, but if it's severe enough to call it an injury, take the time to rest and rehab.

Tell us more about the problem, what was the onset like and what is it like now. What have you done since the injury. You may have covered that when you asked Rip, but we're not going to go look for it.

[davidM]

Hi and thanks,
I had a little problem with the recovering, I mean, I could make a Pr in each and every day (Monday and Friday) and this was so cool. Then I started having sore knees and even though they didn't recover well as usual I kept on training hard and setting new Pr's.
In the middle of this I had to stay away from the gym because of the snow and after that I started the following week with the last volume day I did. I planned to test my 1Rm but I couldn't, I barely managed to just repeat (another mistake) the heavy load of the previous week. Then I stopped for Xmas days and took some antinflammatory that didn't worked out so well. It's better but I can't squat without pain in both my knees, that is, just above the knee. I guess I can Deadlift and I planned to do Halting DL and Rack pull.
What you say is sadly right I suppose. I wouldn't want to stay away from the gym so I'm trying to figure out what kind of training should I do without Squat.
Thanks again for your words.

[Carlos Daniel]

Just keep in mind that squatting twice a week for a week at say, 50% of your work sets, is hardly going to result in you losing any strength. I don't know if a light week is enough or if 50% deload is sufficient to heal, but keep in mind that you can keep your gains quite easily if you don't do anything stupid.

[davidM]

Hi Carlos,
so you think I can go on with Texas just deloading the squat as I did for my Bench (you know, it worked - thanks)?
So, I'll try starting easy paying attention to what I feel. Tomorrow is my volume day and I planned to start with a deload anyway so let's see. Sometimes avoid training is worse but training with an injury is certainly a risk. I'll see and try not to do stupid things.
Many thanks as usual.
Good Year b.t.w.

[toddmr]

I'd suggest posting videos of your squats, if you have them. It's likely that something is amiss in your form.

When I had knee problem, part of the rehab that my trainer had me do was "wall squats" where I would stand facing the wall with my toes 4-5 inches away and squat without touching the wall. When I could string five together without touching the wall, I'd move closer the next time.

Don't know if that actually did anything or if it just made it easier for me to deal with the layoff, but it's worth a shot.

That said, I think that you're going to end up exacerbating the injury and/or causing a pain in your hip or your ankles.