To first start it off, I’m 20 years old, body building for over 1 year. I went from 150 lbs to 215 lbs in about 6 months following a bulking plan. I then went on a cutting diet, shed some fat, and did one more bulk (which I am on currently).
I weigh almost 230 lbs (around 225+ at the moment) my goal is 250 lbs, and just recently my knees have been screwing up. I’ve been squatting ever since I picked up a barbell for the first time, and over the last 2 months I’ve been dreading leg day because of the pain I have to deal with, outside of the gym as well.
And no, it’s definitely not an uncomfortable pain. It’s the sharp, stop-you-in-the-middle-of-something pain. It hurts a lot during squats, and the aftermath is even worse outside of the gym as the following day I’m having to wear heating wraps.
I JUST now got back from the gym and decided to try the hack squat machine. Without any plates, I had no issue going parallel and ATG. As soon as I put something on there, that familiar pain started.
I immediately went on the leg press only to be disappointed with the same problem. I continued to mess with the hack squat and leg press machines for about 45 minutes before I become so frustrated, I left. And this is after coming back from an almost 2 week break from leg day.
I’m not exactly concerned with strength (I know that strength follows size, size follows strength, etc. etc. but size is my main priority), but I’m wondering if there are any alternative workouts to my problem, for size.
I usually NEVER do leg extensions and I climbed on it before started with my experimentation and I had no pain in my knees even with weight, and while the thought to use this instead has crossed my mind (anything’s better than nothing), I DO know nothing will ever have the benefits of lower body exercises as squats do. I tried body weight lunges as well, and the sharp intense pain would start reaching the bottom.
Please, any feedback will help me.