Thread: Knees?

Get rid of the leg extensions entirely? Just do squats and leg press for example. There may just be too much sheer force on the knee with that movement. Definitely I suggest laying off it for awhile at least.

What kind of reps do you do with the leg extentions? Just curious.

I agree with Cardinal, if your knees arent very good to start with you should avoid the leg extensions you can still get a great leg workout without them. Squats and leg presses will do find. I dont have that great of knees my self and I have found that doing lunges with dumbells helps my knees. I dont really do them for the leg muscles more for knee strengthening.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if you do full squats you should strengthen your knees a lot.

Originally Posted by Mudge

What kind of reps do you do with the leg extentions? Just curious.

I usually do around 10, they seems to get the front of my legs really well.

I end up doing 12-15 reps, 10 sounds heavy for leg extentions. Leg extentions or smith squats place a shearing load on the knee, like mentioned, so leg extentions should be somewhat light IMO and a finisher with a low volume.

Originally Posted by XcelKrush

Last year I began to have sharp pains in my knees sort of like tendonitis that I would experience when I ran or excersized. I got some knees support things at the store and it went away but now, a few months later, I have the same pains when I do legs extensions, but never at any other time. Im going to try wearing my knees braces from now on and when I do legs, but does anyone know how I can best get it to heal? Ice maybe?

Any help is appreciated

How about seeing a Sports Medical Doctor for starters. You do not want to fu-k up you're knees!!

Originally Posted by ForemanRules

How about seeing a Sports Medical Doctor for starters. You do not want to fu-k up you're knees!!

I know, especially because I'm only 16. But today I worked my legs and noticed that its not the tendon its the pad underneath your kneecap, or so I think, its hard to tell. One guess is that it mightbe that Im lacking fish oils lately. I havent had any for 2 weeks(Im not so rich) and thats about when if first started to notice it. Not sure if that would matter though.

ya just make sure your not doing workouts that will hurt your knee, you might want to take leg extensions out of your workouts for awhile to see if your knee gets better. im one step ahead of you...have knee surgery tomorrow morning, how much does that suck? lol..tore my lateral miniscus. but just make sure you keep great form and try staying off extensions awhile and see if your knee feels better.. stick with lifts that dont put as much strain on your knees. good luck with it man

drop the extensions, there is tons of stuff to do with free weights for your legs i don't really see a point in doing extensions really. like mudge said though if you are really set on doing them, just go lighter and use them as a finisher.

otherwise you have:

squats
front squats
lunges
step ups

leg press
hack squat

and all of there variations...thats a ton of stuff you can do for your legs without ever touching a machine, add to that all the other variables you can tweak (sets, reps, tempo, RI etc) and you can keep changing things forever without ever really needing a machine. Machine's in general (excluding cable stuff) are fairly worthless IMO, they do not offer anything over freeweights and have quite a few drawbacks.

Yeah, Im going to drop them for now.

Thanks

Do you do lunges? I mentioned this earlier in the post but I had the same problem when I was younger. I think it may becoming from underdeveloped hamstrings or something. Good luck, having bad knees definetly is not fun I know.