Knee pain and the Olympic lifts

[dws]

I'm old (52), fat (250ish), and weak (squat 3x5x235). My right knee used to hurt with any exertion - walking quickly or what have you. It was never diagnosed, but it was almost assuredly some combination of age, weight, and sedentary lifestyle.

After reading SS, I began doing the exercises and pretty soon the squats fixed my knee pain. Thank you.

Fast forward to about a week ago. I decided to do some snatches and cleans (light weights) to practice the full lifts and use it as a conditioning workout. I warmed up to 95 lbs. in both high bar and front squat. Felt pretty good. I worked on snatches with the empty bar, and missed with 55 lbs. On to clean and jerks, I warmed up, and did 6x2x95 lbs. with not much rest between sets. Good workout; no pain.

Later that night, and since then the top of my knee hurts. I can do my back squats, no problem, but even a body weight front squat hurts or for that matter pretty much any knee flexion beyond 95 degrees.

Any suggestions (besides the old "Dr. It hurts when I X. Well, don't X"?

Thanks for your time.

[Mark Rippetoe]

The "top of my knee hurts" is not much information.

[dws]

No, I guess it isn't. I'll try again. The pain is in the soft tissue right above my kneecap, but below my quadriceps. It's a sharp pain that comes on suddenly when the knee flexes past maybe 85 degrees. (I think I got the first post wrong - the knee feels fine flexing up to and a little past 90 degrees.)

[Mark Rippetoe]

That is quadriceps tendinitis. SEARCH FUNCTION.

[Steve Hill]

Mark,

Also a possibility is the same condition that I have - calcium deposit at distal end of the quadriceps tendon where it attaches to the superior aspects of the patella.

OP:
Hit the search function for Quadriceps tendinitis as Mark suggests, since this is far and away the most likely problem, and do some treatment. If it does not alleviate the symptoms after, say, 6 weeks, go and talk to a decent ortho and get an x-ray (this diagnosis, thank G-d, can be made with a simple x-ray) and see if you have a bony deposit as described above. Older folks tend to get them, but they are only revealed by extreme flexion of the knee, so most eldsters don't complain of it since they are sedentary.