OK...my son is squatting pain free...now?

[Cowart69]

background...my son (just turned 15 this month) sustained a knee injury towards the end of last season.....he has been taking it slow and slowly progressed his rehab....lots of pullwork over the last couple of months......then bodyweight squatting and lunges.....and yesterday he did his first squatting since last year.....happy to say it was pain free and no problems with pain or swelling the next day.

But he did say that he was very sore the next day...not in the knee but in the areas where squats work. He started off with just the bar and finished with a 45 on each side.

So now my question is......any thoughts on sets/reps/weight to start out with and progress up? He is doing 160 pounds and his other lifts are:

Bench - 205 pounds
Powerclean - 150 pounds

[deldrar]

being sore is fine. ive been there myself after a long break from lifting. the first couple sessions back really kick your ass and then you adapt to it.

its sharp pains he/you should be worrying about, imo. especially anywhere near his injury.

as for weight, that depends on the reps/amount of sets. just make sure he can complete all the reps every set.

[AJS11]

So now my question is......any thoughts on sets/reps/weight to start out with and progress up? He is doing 160 pounds and his other lifts are:

Bench - 205 pounds
Powerclean - 150 pounds

I agree with deldrar, being sore is to be expected after taking time off. I actually still get a little sore after my squat days and I've been squatting basically once a week for months.

As far as sets and reps its going to depend on what your son's goals are. I would start with sets of 8-10 for a couple weeks just to get back into it and make sure there are no problems with the knee. After a couple weeks, if everything is going ok, I would start to focus more on heavier weight and lower reps. 4x6 or 5x5 with full recovery between each set and focus on good technique. No cheating is especially important in the squat. After a few weeks of that you could start going even heavier with lower reps. Sets of 2 and 3 reps with heavy weight. The amount of weight is all going to depend on what your son can handle with good technique. You really can not stress good technique enough with the squat.

You should try to switch things up every few weeks. Maybe after 4 weeks try front squatting or box squatting for a couple weeks then come back to the back squat.

[Environ]

What kind of knee injury was it and how did he sustain it? More to the point, WHY did he sustain it? And, what can you do in the weight room to make sure it doesn't happen again or it's unlikely to happen again.

Rehab and returning to his orignal level might be the primary goal in both yours and his eyes, but in mine they are to strengthen up the legs so that this problem is less likely to ever reoccur, as well as to remove any muscular imbalances he may have.

I've had people (mostly rugby players) for post-rehab training in the past. I've found that a combination of squats, unilateral work and time under tension work best. You probably won't want to hear this, but heavy squats should take a back seat for a while (keep the weight low to moderate and focus on technique using a 4-0-1-0 tempo). His rehab should also focus on split squats, walking lunges, high step ups, glute-ham-gastroc raises, single leg hamstring curls, straight leg deadlifts and finish off with isometric wall squats.

As for sets, reps and tempo, consider:

Squats: 3 sets, 12, 10, 8 reps, 4-0-1-0 tempo
Glute-ham-gastroc raises: 3 sets of 10, explosive on the way up, slow on the way down. Add weight when he is capable to hold it and then switch to 12, 10, 8.

For the rest of the workout, pair off two more exercises, one each for the quads and hamstrings from the above list and do 4 sets of 10 (mix them up over each workout), this time using a 2-0-2-0 tempo.

Finish off with isometric wall squats: 3 sets to failure.

Good luck.

[MoonMan12]

High reps 10 - 12 to work on form and get his endurance back, form is more important than ever here. Perhaps let him go down 2 reps when he shows you 12 perfect, etc.

[Cowart69]

What kind of knee injury was it and how did he sustain it? More to the point, WHY did he sustain it? And, what can you do in the weight room to make sure it doesn't happen again or it's unlikely to happen again.

Rehab and returning to his orignal level might be the primary goal in both yours and his eyes, but in mine they are to strengthen up the legs so that this problem is less likely to ever reoccur, as well as to remove any muscular imbalances he may have.

I've had people (mostly rugby players) for post-rehab training in the past. I've found that a combination of squats, unilateral work and time under tension work best. You probably won't want to hear this, but heavy squats should take a back seat for a while (keep the weight low to moderate and focus on technique using a 4-0-1-0 tempo). His rehab should also focus on split squats, walking lunges, high step ups, glute-ham-gastroc raises, single leg hamstring curls, straight leg deadlifts and finish off with isometric wall squats.

As for sets, reps and tempo, consider:

Squats: 3 sets, 12, 10, 8 reps, 4-0-1-0 tempo
Glute-ham-gastroc raises: 3 sets of 10, explosive on the way up, slow on the way down. Add weight when he is capable to hold it and then switch to 12, 10, 8.

For the rest of the workout, pair off two more exercises, one each for the quads and hamstrings from the above list and do 4 sets of 10 (mix them up over each workout), this time using a 2-0-2-0 tempo.

Finish off with isometric wall squats: 3 sets to failure.

Good luck.

Thanks this is exactly the info we need....to be more specific.

- The injury happened with 3 quarters of the way through last season.....he was a 3 way starter on the freshman team and the injury happened on a special teams play....he and a teamate went for the ball carrier and his teamate missed and went into the side of his knee. The original dignoses was a sprained MCL so he took 3 weeks off and went back.....with one game left to go in the season his appt finally came up for his MRI and since it was already scheduled we decided to still take him....it was then discovered that he fractured the growth plate in his knee. Needless to say sadly his season was over right there.....he waited a month and then tried to go out for basketball.....in the very first tryout he made the team but told me afterwords that he had a lot of pain in his knee......skipped basketball.

He sat out for a month with no activity for his legs....then the doctor recommended pool work using swim fins to rehab. He did that for the next 2 months.....

Then he started working on bodyweight type squats and lunges for the next month.....

Now he is at squats because he feels no pain in his knee but he says they feel very very week. Today he did 3 sets of 8 starting off with the bar and working his way to a 45 and 25 on each side. He also does lunges, hamstring machine, calve machine, and pool work when he does legs.