I would like some ideas for squat-, deadlift-, and clean-substitutions that do not require more than 90 degrees of hip flexion.
I was diagnosed with femoroacetabular hip impingement (yes, both from x-rays and the physical test) so in the event that I can’t or decide not to get that fixed via surgery, I’d still like to go back to doing heavy compound exercises for strength emphasis.
I’m thinking I can do hang cleans in replacement of power cleans. Not sure what to do for the big two, though, besides trying to put together some chimera program with glute-ham-raises and back extensions or something.
Before my surgery I only did partial hack squats (on the machine), leg extensions and leg curls. If you can do sprints ( I couldn’t because my impingement caused my muscles to strain often) do those, sprints destroy your legs. Maybe look into rack pulls. Some people recommend sled pushes, I never had a practical way of doing them with my equipment. Glute Ham raise, i didn’t have a machine and hated “natural” GHR but again they shouldn’t cause an issue.
The thing that worries me about partial squats is that they put a lot of anterior force on the tibia without the posterior forces that come from below parallel, thus causing the knee shear that docs like to warn about. Or so I’ve been led to believe from my reading.
I like the ideas for the rack pulls and partial hack squats. Sled push would be great if I can find a Prowler somewhere. Hm…
[quote]Mangoose wrote:
…they put a lot of anterior force on the tibia without the posterior forces that come from below parallel…[/quote]
Not sure what you mean by this. Are you referring to quad/ham tension? or the load on the bones?
[quote]Mangoose wrote:
…they put a lot of anterior force on the tibia without the posterior forces that come from below parallel…[/quote]
Not sure what you mean by this. Are you referring to quad/ham tension? or the load on the bones?[/quote]
The former, is how I’ve been educated.
I’ve heard and read that a lot, too, but it doesn’t make sense. I don’t know about you, but I don’t short-step-walking-lunge any time I’m carrying a heavy weight (that would be funny as shit, though). Science is rooted in observation, and I think they failed us on this one.
During a squat, the quads extend the knee and the hams extend the hip. As the knee bends, so does the hip, and the femur is the armature for both so the tension will be fairly even at any depth. The quads cross the hip, and the hams cross the knee, and the whole thing holds itself together. The design is pretty damn solid.
That’s for a real squat, though. The balance of the system is fubar’d when the system doesn’t have to balance. Imagine doing heavy Machine Hack Squats as a main lift. Single plane of movement, knees go forward but the hips don’t go back. The stress on the hams is much less because the weight is sitting directly above the hip (relative to plane of motion), and the stress on the quads is greater because the effective armature (femur length minus forward torso lean) is longer(torso lean = 0). NOW you have a knee problem.
I guess a major question I have is that if I HAVE to choose, are above parallel squats or lying leg presses better and safer? Which is the worst of the two ‘evils’? Or am I missing an alternative? Or should I just stay away from the gym?
[quote]Mangoose wrote:
Makes sense. Really I dunno. I mean if the quad-hamstring tension balance is so important, then wouldn’t Front Squats be terrible for the knees?[/quote]
Probably would be if the weight wasn’t so much less. You are more upright and you have to limit rearward movement of the hips, which shifts most of the load to the quads. But you can’t cheat with other muscles because you still have to maintain balance, so you have to drastically reduce the load, which puts you back in the safe zone.
My max was 435 when I was doing PL-style squats. I can muster 250x2 on FS. The equivalent of 250 on a hack squat machine would feel like child’s play because of all the other muscles I could bring into play, but all those other muscles wouldn’t reduce the pressure on the knee.
[quote]Mangoose wrote:
I guess a major question I have is that if I HAVE to choose, are above parallel squats or lying leg presses better and safer? Which is the worst of the two ‘evils’? Or am I missing an alternative? Or should I just stay away from the gym? :([/quote]
High squats would be my choice every time. Sucks not having the advantages that full-depth squatting offers but it beats being a bench-n-curl monkey. And it damn sure beats staying home.
