Should I follow the injury sticky?

[natevines]

Hey coach, sorry for what I suspect is going to be a bit of a long-winded post, but I'm kind of a predicament right now and not sure what to do. A little background: I'm 19, about 5'7, 200 lbs. I'm in the Marines, stationed in Okinawa, Japan. For years I've been doing heavy, ATG squats. I've done your program as well as Starr's, twice, all with great success and no injury. Anyhow, I returned from Afghanistan June of this year. I had lost about 30 lbs and was pretty damned weak, but I was determined to not only get my strength and mass back, but be even bigger and stronger than ever before. Obviously being in the military requires me to maintain some semblance of cardiovascular endurance, so I was running 3-4x a week and powerlifting just as frequently. In early Sept, I noticed a faint aching in my right knee which I speculated was due to running long distances in a hilly environment (such is the terrain here). I started joint support and continued about my business. About a week later, I was doing a warmup set of squats (275 if I remember correct) and while coming up on a rep I felt a pop and an immense pain. I was barely able to walk on the leg the rest of the day. After about a week I saw little headway and despite it being incredibly inconvenient to consult medical (I work night shift and sleep during the day), I hit up the sports clinic we have here. I was basically just given naproxen and was advised to RICE. I wasn't even given a diagnosis, but doing a little research my symptoms seem characteristic of chondromalacia. That was two months ago. Since then, my knee hasn't fully healed. If I'm sitting for prolonged periods of time, it hurts upon getting up. For the most part, when I'm walking around and active the pain is minimal, though I continually get a clicking that I never had before. I was doing biking and elliptical to maintain my cardio, and continued lifting, just upper body. I was still able to deadlift pretty heavy with minimal pain in the knee (more pain in the hip actually). I'm not sure if I've been impeding recovery at all. A week or so ago I finally decided it was time to try a run because eventually it's going to be necessary. The pain in the knee actually disappeared pretty quickly after I got going, though the shin splints were practically intolerable (I imagine it's due to my lack of conditioning since I hadn't run for virtually two months). However, a few days later I decided to try a 'lower body' day. Still avoiding squats, I did heavy deads and afterwards tried to do some quad work. First I tried step-ups, but it was too stressful on the knee. Tried lunges after, but it was equally painful. Even leg curls hurt the knee. Reading your injury sticky gave me a glimmer of hope.
My question is basically: do you think at this point it's necessary to consult a medical professional and get an MRI, or is it worth giving your idea a try? It's not something I can do everyday, due to my work schedule, but probably 3-4x a week.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you have a cartilage injury, and I think you need an MRI. Chondro is a chronic condition, not an acute injury that occurs as a pop. But you didn't precisely specify the location of the pop or the pain.