So today I squatted...

For the first time in about 16 odd months on our Smith. I have been getting a bit of gyp in my knee on leg days, so had ditched it as I thought the smith may have been the cause. (no squa rack available)
 
So I havent trained legs for 2 weeks for a reason I wont go into, and my knee felt fine. Anyway, to cut a long story short I had a quick blast on the leg ext. machine, and for two days after myknee gave me gyp.
 
So I think that was the cause.
 
So today I squatted a measly 100kg, was a shock I can tell you! My quads are still pumped to death 6 hours later!!!
 
Fingers crossed besides a bit of doms my knee will be fine and I can get back on the squats!
 

Leg exts kill my knees, I steer well clear of them.

I wouldn't worry too much. You've had a short layoff, and training for your ego is one thing. In the perfect world maybe we'd all have a training partner who set up the weights for us and pushed us to do the reps, we wouldn't ever need to know what the weight was.

It'll pickup though mate.

So woke today with slight doms but my knee feels great (well, normal)

Time to get my squat back into gear, should be about 160 tbh so quite a bit of work to do. Plus I am doing extra work on my core (well, im acyually dong core work lol) to try and increase my lifts a bit.

Happydays

Good luck with the return to squating. Knee ext are not nice on many knees.

Thanks Iain.

You think a lack of any quad isolation work will be an issue at all?

Think about how much your quads are working once you're stood upright and your leg is straight.. not at all. It's un-natural for your quads to work hard in that portion of the movement. It's also un-natural for your quads to work in isolation, in squats, lunges etc. they work in unison with all your other lower body muscles and core etc. Think of then isolating one and overdeveloping it relative to others and imagine the effect it will have on the knee joint. IT affects the balance of strength around it. 

Leg extensions are a waste of time growth-wise as you don't shift enough weight and are un-natural and dangerous to the knees as they generate shearing forces during the movement and lead to imbalances round the joint long term. Their purpose is to make the muscle work in an un-natural way to make it grow in an un-natural way (shape) for bodybuilding purposes. This is only worthwhile as a minor addition to a compound based leg routine IF you're already massive and going to compete IMO.
Oh, and be careful with Smiths and the set up as they can cause a change in the forces through your knee which is damaging over time too.

S777


Thanks Iain.

You think a lack of any quad isolation work will be an issue at all?

BFC has it pretty covered. I'd rather do single legged stuff such as lunges etc or even staggered leg press (good lift that for assistance work).