[Richmond_Hrvat]

So as you all know I play rugby. Whenever anyone questions the injuries in rugby, the answer they get is: "Knees, and shoulders... knees and shoulders..."

Whenever anyone asks me about MY injuries, the answer I give is: "Knees and shoulders..."

I have had:

Knee meniscus torn
Knee ligaments strained/torn
Shoulder Labrum torn (right and left)
AC joint separation

all in 1.5 years of rugby and 9 months of serious lifting. (I began really squatting and deadlifting in August.)

So, Sherdog S&P, give me diesel knees and shoulders. I am currently trying my best to recover from my AC separation so now is the best time for me to just sit and type. Forgive me.

When I'm recovered, my ideas are like this:

Shoulders:

Bench Press
SOHP
High Cable Row
BOR
Deadlifts
O Lifts
Pullups
External Rotation (Bandwork?)
Rear Delt Flyes
Lateral Raises
Shrugs
Neck Work


Knees:

Squats (what depth/weight for stability? I can only really squat with a wider stance. i've been told this is bad for knees, and sometimes my knees drift inward when I squat.)
Leg Press (high reps)
Weighted Barbell Lunges or Stepups
Pistols
Weighted Jumps
Sprints
LSD (running and acid)
Knees
Yolk Walks??? Barbell Walks?


So I've got some ideas of what to do, but I can't do everything. I don't know which are better. At this point I'm very happy with my strength, but my injury rate is getting annoying. I need stable, strong, WELL BALANCED, and diesel joints. Can those of you who have recovered from shoulder and knee surgeries/injuries or those who have done stability work give me some hints, separate the wheat from the chaff?

Sorry my ambitions change so much, but you guys like to solve my problems deep down, I think!

[magicman531]

I did chest expander cables for awhile. It helped heal my shoulder after I fucked it up doing pullups. Give it a go fo sho

[hollow]

Shoulder Savers (part 1 and 2 after the jump)

Knees

I haven't read those articles for a while, so I'm gonna guess they recommend using bands, isometric holds, and buying a product they are shilling. Might give you some good ideas as to what type of warm up exercises you should incorporate.

edit: probably not what you wanted, but still. prevention rather than rehabilitation right?.. right? *crickets*

[Richmond_Hrvat]

Prevention's a funny word when you're always injured. The longer you grappled, fight, play for, the more you come to understand that athletes in most sports are rarely if ever a real 100%. Everybody's working through something.

[Donut62]

Strengthening the vastus medialus?

Check out the video series I posted in this thread for good pre-hab type exercises that will go a long way towards preventing imbalances and tracking issues around the knee. I've been doing the exercies in that video for over a year, in addition to starting to wear knee sleeves, and I have no knee pain or clicking despite squatting twice a week, doing judo, etc.

[Richmond_Hrvat]

1) Are parallel squats dangerous for your knees, as opposed to say, ATG squats? I've heard ATG is both bad for your knees OR better for them than quarter or parallel squats.

2) Sometimes under heavy load my knees shift inward when squatting. I am trying to correct this. Am I training instability into my knees?

[the_harbinger]

Originally Posted by Richmond_Hrvat

1) Are parallel squats dangerous for your knees, as opposed to say, ATG squats? I've heard ATG is both bad for your knees OR better for them than quarter or parallel squats.

2) Sometimes under heavy load my knees shift inward when squatting. I am trying to correct this. Am I training instability into my knees?

I'm not sure about the second question, but ATG squats are probably more save than parallel. However, that being said...most people can't do true ATG squats due to flexibility issues. So if you forcing yourself down too far when you're not flexible enough...it MIGHT become a problem.

I say just try aim for ATG and see what happens. For most people will have them end upa little below parallel...which is perfectly fine.

[PariahCarey]

Don't let your knees travel inwards...widestance squatting puts less stress on your knees and is better because your posterior chain gets involved...spread your knees out with your toes pointed out to some degree.

Get rid of the leg press and when you do lunges make sure your ass on the leg thats going forward is going back and your are sitting on the heels. I turn my lunges into 1 legged dynaminc squats...no knee trouble.

[Cap'n]

Originally Posted by Richmond_Hrvat

1) Are parallel squats dangerous for your knees, as opposed to say, ATG squats? I've heard ATG is both bad for your knees OR better for them than quarter or parallel squats.

Past parallel is better than not. When you go past parallel the hamstrings take over and there's less shear on the knee.

2) Sometimes under heavy load my knees shift inward when squatting. I am trying to correct this. Am I training instability into my knees?

You have weak groin muscles. Really focus on pushing your knees out. You can try wider squatting for a bit to correct this, or things like lunges.

[Richmond_Hrvat]

Great, thanks. Anyone else?