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I might have made my knees permanently sensitive to loading and they fill up with synovial fluid whenever I stress them in any way. It started three years with my right knee when I sprained the MCL. Over time my left knee also started to fill up as it took most of the stress during training.

I kept draining the right knee (and posting about it in other forums like Starting Strength) and it eventually stabilized. But I was also doing stuff like repeated Smolov base phases throughout the year. Eventually I had to start draining the left knee. It's been about a year and I'm still having to drain it.

In any case, things were looking pretty good and the left knee seemed to be stabilizing. Then I went and did some dunk practice (with half-sized balls on a 9'10" rim) before some power snatch singles and squats. I'd also upped my squat frequency from the careful once per week I'd been doing to three times per week. Now this past week my knees have gone to hell.

They tend to fill up most when I stand around and drink. After all that increased stress, I had to fly in for the company Christmans part where I stood around for four hours and drank. That night I drained twice as much as normal from my left knee (40cc +) and had to drain my right knee again (30cc +). Today I've drained another 20 from the left and 15 from the right. The extreme pain is gone, but I'm sure the refilling will continue.

I think it was a combination of those landings from the dunks (the court is some kind of rubberized material covering the old concrete slab) and the increased squat frequency.

I wonder if I should squat at all anymore or try to jump. My knees clearly cannot take much stress and I wonder if I should be training at all anymore. I hit a double bodyweight Olympic squat this year and was excited about pushing toward 2.5 x bodyweight and dunking. I'm reluctant to give it all up and lose my quad mass and go back to being weak, skinny and slow. But I'm about to turn 36 and no one is paying me to abuse my body like this.

(And of course I use knee protection. Had Rehbands and just added Tommy Konos. I got through Smolov last time by using wraps on the work sets.)

Thanks very much for responding, Lance! Everything you wrote makes perfect sense.

Looking back, I realize that I'd been spending every squat session going to over 90%. I need to spend more time in the blood pump rep range and build up tissue and resilience.

I really like the idea of the pause squats. The last couple of sessions I did the first couple of warm up sets with controlled descent and a slight paused and noticed immediately that my knees felt better. I would then switch to the usual bounce style after 225 or so. I thought handling the most possible weight was important for progress and that using the SSC was preferable, but I am more than willing to try them out.

Interesting. Never tried paused squats. Should give that a go.

  Hey Gary, that can work but if you wave the rep range youre likely to do MUCH better in the long run . I cant find it right now but poloquin has a great write up on this as well.  Basically, your 2x12 week/2 weeks, could be immediately followed by 3 x 5 etc, but then go BACK to 3 x10 etc. etc. for a higher rep week/micro cycle, before waving the intensity back up again, (6 x 2 etc).  You can literally do that to infinity if you want, and you dont lose the benefits of the previous cycles when you drastically switch up the emphasis.

  Also, be sure to not neglect the sub max hops, jumps, movement effeciency and prep work for the tendons and ligaments.  That will for SURE help you if youre planning on jumping higher.  You could easily cycle the less intense higher volume stuff with the high rep weight work, and then up the intensity and lower the volume on the lower high intensity weight work weeks.  Hard to burn out when you do it that way and I think your knees will love you for it. 

Lance, thanks again! I will take the advice on alternating rep schemes. Did 50-rep leg curls tonight and they did make my knees feel a lot better. Still had to drain them both a bit and they still hurt, but they feel more "solid" after the pump.

You bet man, glad your knees felt better and hopefully you can make some big strides with it and not have to drain them as much eventually.

This all makes me wonder about trends and "lost" training knowledge. Back before the 80's, powerlifters often did isolation work, did they not? Nowadays, everything's all "Bulgarian" and minimalist specialization, but there seems to be a lot of wisdom in including bodybuilding/isolation work, especially as a trainee ages.

thats a great point.  Back then, things that worked were figured out in the gym by trial and error, and not from listening to so much theory on the internet and in magazines.  What made it through over time were the same things that still work today, sure we have some solid improvements in some aspects, but there is also a decay away from smart, focused, CONSISTENT training, where many are searching for magical methods that dont exist.

I think we all assume that the main lifts will take care of everything, but that ain't necessarily so. The main lifts can really beat up the joints and connective tissue without developing them, especially as things get heavier.

absolutely, ESPECIALLY if someone is trying to specialize in something other than the lifts, like jumping.  Most those bulgarian based coaches will tell you that if youre an athlete, the training program has to accommodate the other actives needed, as lifting is supplementary to the main event/schedule.  Sometimes you have to do other work, to be able to safely and successfully do the main lifts.

And also training more often over time may not be for every trainee. Those blessed with unusual resilience and recovery (and aided by drugs) may thrive on it, but a lot of us may be better off cutting the frequency over time.

 yep, everything has to be progressed, and if frequency is increased, something has to give, or youre gonna dig a hole for yourself.  I like increased frequency IF the volume is cut down, and the cns and muscular fatigue is monitored, but thats very hard for many to do, especially without having someone who has been there and done it before to tell them when to stop and call it a day. 


  Just look at broz vids, rarely ever do you see a big "strain" on those squats.  I would imagine hes putting up the heaviest set of the day on youtube as well, as that would be the most impressive load.  Most the guys trying to implement his style of lifting dont have someone there to tell them thats it for the day and back off, and they end up going waaaaay too far with the load, grinding up reps, beating up the cns and soft/connective tissue etc.  Do that enough times and you have a big issue.

 Hell, just look at mendes 800 squat, thats the most "grind" on pretty much any lift on his channel, and I would imagine that was a pretty infrequent event, and had to be accounted for the next few days as well.  If you look at many of the lifts you see in other peoples videos, they might have a few SETS at that intensity, and grind nearly every time they train.  Those two things wont ever go together, high frequency and grinding up reps, its one or the other, and its hard to tell the difference in many cases.  There are many different things going on muscularly, cns wise, and joint/tendon/ligament wise, when someone grinds reps vs doing an explosive rep that is capable of being constantly accelerated throughout the rom.