Software engineers like to say “Don’t fix something that’s not broken.” If your program produces an error, you do not fix every part of the algorithm. What you do is find the one place where the problem is created. And you fix that. If you don’t, it doesn’t matter if you improve everything else tenfold. The broken part will hold back the whole system.
I picked up volleyball in my last year of university and fell in love with it.
Over the semester, I developed knee pain. At first it was only cracking when I squatted. Then it hurt to tie my shoes after games.
The more I jumped, the worse it got. I couldn’t play every week anymore. I waited 2 weeks between games, then 3 weeks, then a month. But rest just delayed the pain instead of fixing it.
Once, after a long break, my knees felt good and I went into the game full of energy. Towards the end jumping became painful. And then it hurt to walk.
I realized I had to strengthen my knees if I ever wanted to play again. I couldn’t give up volleyball, so I got a gym membership. Knee recovery became my number one priority.
I decided to follow everything by KneesOverToesGuy. His advice fixed my shoulder pain in the past and now it was time to fix my knee.
I started with the sled. Backward, then forward. I got a huge pump in my VMOs and noticed that after sled work my knee didn’t crack during squats. Great. Over months I increased the sled weight so much that the rest of the workout felt like a breeze. But outside of that immediate pump, it didn’t help with the knee pain. It went back to baseline the next day. Jumping still hurt.
Next were deep squats, split squats, slow, heavy, controlled all the way. Full knee bend wasn’t new to me. Before the gym, I was training calisthenics with high rep squats, lunges, and assisted pistols. So my knees were already used to their full range. Over the next year I got pretty strong at the weighted squats. I met the ATG standards and went beyond. But I didn’t feel better.
The biggest clue I missed was that training more sleds and squats didn’t improve my knee. But that’s the first thing you should pay attention to when you want to heal. Does this exercise make you feel better, worse, or the same? In my case, I felt the same. So I kept searching.
I read an article that linked weak hamstrings to knee pain. Supposedly tight hamstrings unload pressure on the knee joint, which leads to pain. You can test if you have tight hamstrings by lying on your back and extending the knees. “Normal” flexibility is considered 90 degrees. But even that was difficult for me.
First thing I noticed was that the bigger the angle, the more stretch in my hamstring, the louder the knee crack.
Second, when I landed backward from handstands, my knee hurt. Landing from a handstand has far less impact than landing from a jump. But I was landing in a pike position which put my hamstrings under maximum stretch. That’s why it hurt.
I wasn’t new to the idea that weakness in one area can lead to pain in another. Training the rotator cuff fixed my front shoulder pain. Now my tight hamstrings were causing knee pain. Training them became my focus.
I started with static stretching. One thing about static stretching is that it’s boring. Uncomfortable and boring. I did the towel stretch for about a month before giving up. I didn’t see progress and couldn’t make myself do it anymore.
Then I learned that RDLs can develop hamstring flexibility. I already trained them but with moderate weight. I remember looking at ATG standards for RDL in disbelief. 100% bodyweight x10? I was doing barely above 50% for 5-6 reps. It was my weakest lift.
My lower back was always on the brink of caving in. I didn’t want to go up in weight because I was afraid I would hurt myself. And I think I was right. So I stopped training them for a while.
One exercise that doesn’t get much spotlight is Jefferson curls. I picked them up because of lower back pain from volleyball. I was doing 10kg at most, very slow and controlled the way it’s usually explained. But this already completely fixed my lower back pain.
Because I wasn’t chasing anything, I progressed them very slowly. I trained 2-3 sets once a week at best. I went up to 15kg, then 20kg over the span of a year. At 20kg I realized it’s better to hold the weight in your elbows Zercher style. You’re much more stable on flat ground.
And when I felt the stability, I started adding speed to the Jefferson-Zercher curl. From there I increased the weight fast. 30kg, 40kg, 50kg. I still trained it no more than once a week. But my lower back strength skyrocketed. My hamstring flexibility skyrocketed.
At some point during these months, my knee felt better. I noticed I could jump without pain. It took me a few games to realize I don’t need to hold back anymore. And then the fun began.
I started playing volleyball every week again. I didn’t train plyometrics and my squat weight stayed the same. But with the newfound freedom to jump, I was doing it every game, every week. I touched the basketball rim for the first time. I’m 178cm and 3 years since starting volleyball, that felt like reaching a summit. But the most mind-blowing thing was that I could do it without pain.
Another thing that improved were my RDLs. When I hit 60kg on the JZ curl, I gave RDLs another try. They felt so easy. They felt safe. Because I was doing the JZ curl with the same weight I did RDLs, I could round my lower back at any point and it wouldn’t hurt because it was already used to the position. That’s why I believe everybody should be able to JZ curl 75% of the weight they do in RDLs. And when your lower back is strong, RDLs can give your hamstrings even more length.
Playing a sport, getting injured, or even strength training can put your body out of balance. If you want to move freely without pain, you need to regain your balance. And it starts with taking an honest look at your weakness.
The back of my knee was weaker than the front — this was my imbalance. My weakness was the hamstrings. I didn’t like training them because they were weak. And they were weak because I avoided training them.
Realizing this and giving them attention had the biggest impact on my knee health.
A good heuristic for what you should train is when you look at an exercise and it scares you. It looks uncomfortable. It looks like it will hurt.
What you do is find a regression that is not scary, that you can do safely, and train it. Once that’s easy, move to a harder progression, and repeat.
Like any system, the body is only as strong as its weakest part. Fix that, and everything else falls into place. Your protect your body not by avoiding your weak ranges — you protect it by exposing yourself to them gradually.
…
I have a section on knee health in my exercise library. I know all too well how long knee recovery can take. So if you need help staying consistent, I can help.
Join now