I received e-mails lately from people with knee injuries. The most common problems seems to stem from squats and leg presses, two staple exercises among serious bodybuilders. There are many things that can influence whether you get a knee injury or not, but there are steps you can take to minimize the risk. Here are my five best bets for keeping the surgeon away:
1. Make sure that your knees are aligned with your feet. By that I mean that during a squat, your knees should be traveling forward in the same direction as the toes. If your toes are pointing out to the sides, but your knees seem to be going straight forward, you know you're asking for trouble! Imagine an invisible line to which your feet are aligned. All you have to is keep your knees strictly in the same line.
2. Use good form. Don't stand on your toes during the last two sets, and whatever you do - no squirming around!
3. Don't wrap your knees all the time. By always babying your knees you will build muscular strength, but you're not preparing your knee joint and supporting muscles to handle an un-wrapped squat. Over time, your muscles will get more powerful, while your knees stays the same or may even get weaker. At some point, this will come back to haunt you in a big way, be it at the gym, a company softball game or wherever.
4. Get good shoes. Inch-thick, gel-filled or gas-pumped soles are great for basketball,
as they help absorb the impact from all the jumping. You don't see much jumping in the gym, however, so what's a good shoe on the court is not necessarily a good shoe everywhere. With a couple of hundred pounds on your shoulders, you want to be sure that you're stable. Pick shoes with thin soles and very little "bounciness". Try to get a feeling of having solid contact with the floor.
5. Check the ego at the door. A muscular guy that can leg press 1,200 lbs for reps is respectable. A wannabe that barely does 3 sorry reps while cheating badly is not.
Use a sensible weight that you can do at least 6-8 strict reps with, keeping the focus on safety and control at all times. That will bring you the fastest results and the least risk of injury.
1. Make sure that your knees are aligned with your feet. By that I mean that during a squat, your knees should be traveling forward in the same direction as the toes. If your toes are pointing out to the sides, but your knees seem to be going straight forward, you know you're asking for trouble! Imagine an invisible line to which your feet are aligned. All you have to is keep your knees strictly in the same line.
2. Use good form. Don't stand on your toes during the last two sets, and whatever you do - no squirming around!
3. Don't wrap your knees all the time. By always babying your knees you will build muscular strength, but you're not preparing your knee joint and supporting muscles to handle an un-wrapped squat. Over time, your muscles will get more powerful, while your knees stays the same or may even get weaker. At some point, this will come back to haunt you in a big way, be it at the gym, a company softball game or wherever.
4. Get good shoes. Inch-thick, gel-filled or gas-pumped soles are great for basketball,
as they help absorb the impact from all the jumping. You don't see much jumping in the gym, however, so what's a good shoe on the court is not necessarily a good shoe everywhere. With a couple of hundred pounds on your shoulders, you want to be sure that you're stable. Pick shoes with thin soles and very little "bounciness". Try to get a feeling of having solid contact with the floor.
5. Check the ego at the door. A muscular guy that can leg press 1,200 lbs for reps is respectable. A wannabe that barely does 3 sorry reps while cheating badly is not.
Use a sensible weight that you can do at least 6-8 strict reps with, keeping the focus on safety and control at all times. That will bring you the fastest results and the least risk of injury.
8 comments:
This is spot on - I injured my left knee and it took me several years to get it right again. But I ALWAYS followed these basic steps when working out.
Now, the knee is fine and workouts are no problem.
I injured my knee as a child, and when I was growing up had regular problems. My kneecap seemed to dislodge itself and my knee would become locked. As I've grown older this problem seems to have disappeared even though I'm a keen gardener with a large garden to tend with lots of digging, bending etc.
Knee injury is always one of the bad injuries one can suffer from.
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I love Bodybuilding blogs to me true bodybuilding means doing everything possible to get your mucles to grow such as eating a lots of high protein foods and using anabolic Steroids UK if your natural growth has plateaued. I'm
always looking for the best places to Buy Steroids so if you have any suggestions please let me have them. I think it's very important for steroid using bodybuilders to learn as much as they can about using anabolic steroids safely. My own steroid use has been far from perfect so I have made it my priority to help other bodybuilders before they make any of my mistakes. Working out at the gym should of course be fun. If it isn't fun then you won't want to dedicate enough of your time to your bodybuilding and steroid program. Most trainers would suggest a minimun of three workouts a week to ensure good and steady progress is made with your bodyuilding routine. I hope to see you all at the gym on a regular basis and lifting some heavy weights.
I have hurt my knees before whilst training and it doesnt half hurt .
I had problems with my knees for years then a friend told me to concentrate on building up my thigh muscles and it really worked.
I agree the best thing to do is strengthen your quadriceps.
i take glucosamine sulfate supplements everyday after injuring my knee playing badminton.
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