How Squatting, Planning, and Patience fixed a knee injury:
So, right around this time last year I started my knee rehab program I had created for myself.
About a month prior to the program, I was walking around my house, and bent down to plug in a Sega Genesis. As I bent down, an extremely sharp pain shot down the outside of my left knee.
I couldn’t put pressure on the leg for a few weeks.
In those few weeks I developed a program for myself to assure I came back better than ever.
This wasn’t a quick fix program, this was a long term, 5-6 month program.
I reassessed my form, I utilized two great products from Mark Bell, the slingshot sleeves and hip circle, every day, and week to week I worked on getting deeper and deeper in the squat.
The first pic was day 1 of the program. That was exactly how deep I could squat without getting that pain back in my knee. I couldn’t even go lower than that with just the bar. It was that bad.
Over the next few months the squat got better and better and the knee did too, but I still wasn’t 100% confident I was ready to go.
My final test came 6 months after the injury occurred when I decided to challenge myself and squat everyday for the next month.
I knew that if I could get through 28 days straight of heavy squats, and squat variations, that I’d be good to go.
As the squat everyday program went by, and I got deeper and deeper into it, I felt looser and looser, and the form felt better and better.
By the end of the challenge I had squatted everyday with 300 plus lbs on my back each day for 28 days and felt amazing.
Cory Gregory and Matt Perryman were huge influences on my decision to attempt this final challenge. Cory had been preaching and practicing squat everyday for more than a year at this point, and I had read Matts book a year prior. I loved the idea, and was dying to try it, and this was the perfect time to try it and really challenge myself.
My confidence was fully back. My legs were bigger than ever, and I was getting deeper than ever in the squat.
Yes, I rehabbed a knee injury by doing squats. Most people think “but aren’t squats bad for your knees?”
If you do them correctly, no.
I was smart. Progressively worked on depth. Utilized new tools like the hip circle. Found my weaknesses and worked on them, and as a result I healed myself.
A lot of people try to jump back into shit right away and make things worse. If you are patient, and confident that you will return to form 5-6 months down the line, you will.