Working around mild injuries.

[L.Stokes]

Coach,

My experimenting with full squat cleans has left me with a mild knee injury (sufficient enough to give me a limp nonetheless, i'm not that much of a pussy and wouldn't be complaining otherwise). I'm pretty sure I know what caused the injury, namely letting the bar travel too far away from my the body in the second pull and consequently leaning forward to far on the front squat portion of the clean, thereby vastly increasing the shear force on my knees.

Presently, however, what injured me isn't my biggest concern; recovery and the continuation of my training is. My prognosis is that my knee will recover itself quite quickly (being only 18 should help me here). I'm currently doing a westside style training regime (Upper/Lower Max effort/Dynamic effort split - you probably know the drill) and don't want to completely eliminate the lower days. Whilst i'm trying to avoid complete knee flexion (aside from the injury Q and A method) I was wondering whether exercises like sumo deadlifts, wherein there is little knee flexion, would be ok to perform until i'm sufficiently recovered to reintroduce squats etc.

Whilst the injury is annoying, it reminds me that unlike the large majority of students over here in the UK i'm not simply sitting on my ass all day and getting paraletic every night.

Thanks in advance, Laurence Stokes.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Unless you're rather oddly built, sumo DLs are done with a more acute knee angle and a more vertical back angle than conventional style.

[L.Stokes]

Ah, I wouldn't have thought that. I guess that serves to teach me not to judge something simply through activity. I obviously noticed the more vertical back angle (I would be positively retarded if I hadn't); I just always thought as you seem to "drop" less far down to grab the bar sumo style, there was less knee flexion. I generally don't like doing sumo deadlifts as i'm worse at them, so this works in my favour anyway.