Doing SS and Squat after an injury

[^pala]

Hello, I'm new to the forum.

I did not exactly know which is the better place to post my questions, the Recovery section or this, since it's both about training advices and my injury, however my questions are more training related, so therefore I have posted it here.

A small background about my injury:
I had an injury in latest May 09. I twisted my leg while shooting very hard while playing Soccer. After 2 weeks I had an surgery, and my injury was Meniscus tear. The doctors said it was very big and were deciding whether to remove all of it or to "fix it up", which is what they eventually did. I had visits with my surgery doctors every 3rd month, where they saw the improvement, and told me what I can and can't do. Last and least visit was a week ago, where the doctors said my knee is looking great, however since I had an serious injury, he warned me that I can get injured again one day by either twisting or bending too low / heavy and not been careful. Important notes: I had been doing a lot of physiotherapy.

Basically, my meniscus is now much weaker and so is my knee, and I have a higher chance of getting injured (the doctors explained to me, that while bending, you "give stress" to the meniscus, making it vulnerable, and I have higher chance of getting injured in squat than others).

I'm currently doing SS, with very low squats, I have started with empty olympic, and added plates of 1.4 KG (sorry I'm euro!!) in each side every training.
I'm now with 45 KG squat overall, and I'm very nervous and scared. I still want to do this training, the same for squat, however, my knee is still weak. And it hurts also. On lower it's fine. Only adding weight to my squat will just get me injured again one day...

Do any of you have any advices?

I have had a though in my head, to do an overload to around 30KG' and then progress untill 50KG, where then I will do an underload to 40KG, and get to 55KG, basically, 5KG progress. Why I though of that? Since my Knee hurts real bad on this kind of weight, and I can barely squat below the parallel, as it hurts a lot and with such weight I can actually injure it very fast.. I'm doing fine with lower weights.

Should I add another exercise to my legs, such as Leg Press to improve my legs and squat, allowing me to lift more without my knee hurting?

I hope you understand!

[jameson]

I have no medical background, but the physiotherapy helped because you were stressing the meniscus am I right? It seems contradictory for the doctor to tell you not to provide stress to the tear but still send you in for therapy... It would seem that you should provide stress to the injury to promote recovery. Just don't overdo it. And no, I wouldn't leg press if you can squat correctly and safely.

Keep the squat weight low and with high reps? Others can probably expound on this.

[^pala]

First, I would love to do squat only. Allthough, I don't know what is the best option for me. Having low squats higher reps, or adding another exercise.
The first thing you mentioned, in the physiotherapy indeed I have done stress, however, that was on a bodyweight, and also, I did not bend as much as in squat. In Squat, not only I bend much lower (which is a higher risk, the lower I bend) but I also have an extra 40KG for my leg to hold. The longer the time passes, the stronger the meniscus will be (however it is a very long and slow conditioning)

What I can say is, starting from empty plates up to now, I experienced an significant boost in my knee and leg performance, and I'm extremely happy, however, my knee also started hurting a little bit more. I believe Squat gave me a lot, but now I'm kind of stuck..

By the way, thanks for the comment, appreciate it.

[jameson]

Google "meniscus site:startingstrength.com". This turned up a bunch of relevant information.

Unfortunately, I'm sure your doctor will most likely tell you not to squat. Best to hear from other guys who have been in your shoes and are now lifting some pretty heavy weights.

I'm sure there are others on this forum that'll give you more relevant advice.

Best of luck,
J.

[^pala]

Google "meniscus site:startingstrength.com". This turned up a bunch of relevant information.

Unfortunately, I'm sure your doctor will most likely tell you not to squat. Best to hear from other guys who have been in your shoes and are now lifting some pretty heavy weights.

I'm sure there are others on this forum that'll give you more relevant advice.

Best of luck,
J.

Well, my Doctor said he can't limit me to not do squats, but he did say it's a risk and he wouldn't recommend. When I heard that, I was already doing squats with weights for about 3 weeks (weak weights though). Thanks, and I hope to hear from some more here.
I have tried your first sentence, and it led me to Mark Rip's Q&A, would it be better to post this question there, or shall I rather wait here? Does Mark also visit this section? (if he ever visists forums anymore?)