preventing blown out knees

[blond bomber]

A friend of mine recently told me that doing too many squats could result in a blown out knee. He said when he used to really want to dunk (that's what I'm going for), he did squats almost every other day. And, he blew out his knee, ending his career.
I also really want to dunk and squats I feel is the most efficient way for me to go (I also do plyometrics once in a while). How can I prevent my knees from blowing out. they already hurt when i run and jump before getting warmed up (i don't know if that's natural or not). Please help!!

Any exercises, supplements, etc. that prevent this?

 

[Arnold]

I think he confused the cause of his blown out knee, it was most likely caused by the jumping, not squats. Although I would not recommend doing squats every other day, that is rediculous.

The best prevention for any injury in regards to weight training is proper form, adequate warm-up, not overtraining (as it sounds that your friend did with squats), using weight that you can handle with good form and technique and adequate rest & recovery.

Squats are one of the best exercises you can do, assuming that they're done correctly. Did you know that squats are often used as a form of knee rehabilitation?

 

[gr81]

Like prince said squatting correctly will definately strengthen your knees. However squatting isn't necessarily the answer if you want to jump higher. Don't get me wrong the squat is the best exercise for adding muscle mass and strength. If I were you I would focus on hamstring work and calf work if you want to improve your vertical. This doesn't mean going and doing ham curls to no end either. Start doing more plyometric work at least several times a week. You want to focus on stimulating the fast twitch muscle fibers of the calves and hams so go and read about this topic. There is another thread in the training forum explaining about muscle fibers.

 

[blond bomber]

thanks for the info. i'll look into it