Training with PVNS?

[Roman Messali]

Hi everyone!

I've been lifting for circa 10 years now and have been following Starting Strength for quite a while, though I'm only joining the forums now. Anyways, my mother (62) recently became interested in barbell training and so I've been helping her get into it. However, she has PVNS in one knee and it is quite persistent on some days so training can be a little challenging. I've gotten her to train twice a week and, for right now, I'm following the LP to some extent, though I had to do some modifications with the upper body movements (swap presses for pin presses progressively dropping down and bench to a sort of high pin press). She's been making progress, though she's unable to squat and I'm not sure what to replace those with. Good-mornings possibly? Before the outbreak, she used to swim three times a week and that mitigated a lot of her pain; she will also get back to swimming once pools re-open. Her knee also gets irritated by the "leg press" part of deadlifts, so those are still a little icky for right now. How would you approach this dilemma? Should she be barbell training at all?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Define the acronym, so we don't have to look it up.

[Roman Messali]

Oh, my bad. PVNS is Pigmented villonodular synovitis: it's when the synovium produces extra fluid, causing the lining of a joint becomes swollen and grows, almost like a tumor. It causes her a lot of knee pain in her left knee when walking or applying pressure on it, hence why she took up swimming.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Sounds like she might need a new knee.