VMO Rehab - input appreciated

[snowpatrol123]

Long story short, I got enthusiastic about catching my high-bar squats up to my old low-bar numbers and was trying to set PR's every leg day (every five days this cycle, zero breaks for the last four months) One morning my leg day got cut short to go boost my girlfriend's car so she could get to work, and that night I decided to do 20-30 mins of accessory work while waiting for my buddy to meet up with me. Wasn't warmed up or tired the way I normally am by the time I get to the quad extension machine, and decided to see how many reps I could do with all the plates...felt a little twinge in my right quad but no pain. The next morning I was reaching for my ice scraper in the car and my VMO seized up so hard I fell over. Tried squatting every two days of course to see if it was better and of course it wasnt.

So, I rested it for the last 8-10 days, and as of this morning on the advice of a knowledgeable powerlifter at my gym I'm trying to implement a variation of this protocol:
An Error Occurred Setting Your User Cookie

Except subbing quad extension chair (which I believe is how I injured myself in the first place) for light high-bar squats and/or hack squats and/or leg press.

This morning was my first experiment squatting 10xbar, 10xbar, 10x95, 10x135, 10x185 to test discomfort...I definitely felt it slightly but no sharp/tearing pain.

Any criticisms of the proposed method (Table 1 on page two of that PDF sums it up pretty concisely) or my implementation would be fine, additional input also greatly appreciated.

 

[snowpatrol123]

OK here's my attempts from this morning: Temporarily removed
Remember this is after ~15 days off, just trying to get my quad/knee moving again & feel out discomfort level.

And I found one where I wanted to check if I was going parallel a few months ago when I first switched to high bar: Temporarily removed

(Gentle) form critiques are welcome

 

[snowpatrol123]

Not sure if I would call it a huge setback but tried 225 this morning & lots of pain ensued...going to ice VMO at work today & probably skip trying to squat or exercise legs at all tomorrow since it's a chest day anyways. God I hate injuries & rehab.

 

[snowpatrol123]

Saturday: skipped rehab attempts, focused on chest
Sunday: 10x205, mild discomfort

Today: 10x215, mild discomfort

 

[snowpatrol123]

Tuesday: sick day from work, not faking it either...did a medium intensity arms workout with some volume bench pressing added in, skipped VMO work to let it rest for Wednesday (today, leg day)

Wednesday: Lots of posterior chain stuff (SLDL, romanian deads, good mornings, calf raises) then hit low bar squats@ 10x225 ATG, minimal discomfort but still very wary / careful on form & toe angle. Also did a few 1-leg seated quad extensions, as per DAPRE protocol but skipped the fourth set:
-10x37.5
-10x50
-10x62.5
No real discomfort, felt sore afterwards / walking around though

 

[snowpatrol123]

Sick as hell, hit the gym anyways and had a lacklustre chest workout. VMO stuff:
Seated quad extension (one-legged) 10x37.5, 10x50, 10x62.5, 10x75

Felt pretty good, no pain from the VMO area just slight knee stiffness from the awkward chair pivot angle

 

[snowpatrol123]

Hate. Being. Sick.

Worst back workout in a while, skipped deadlifts - just didn't have the energy. Winded from supersetting pull ups and rows, normally that's a breeze.

Added weight to the seated quad extensions, I don't think it was productive though I didn't want to injure anything so it looked like this today (one-legged)
10x42.5
10x55
10x67.6
5x80

Looked at the squat bar for a good two minutes trying to work up the energy to do it and just couldn't. May be time for a day off...last one was in October I think.

 

[snowpatrol123]

I hate Christmas gym closures. But, I still made some progress:

Front squats: 10x185, had more in the tank but was saving it for back squats.
High bar squats: 10x225,
Low bar squats: 10x265, 5x315 - wanted to do more but didn't have my belt & didn't want to push it too much.

Pharmacy genius sold me 5/8" 25g pins instead of usual 1", I didn't look carefully enough (was in a hurry) and injected 2mL of prop/tren sub-Q or half IM/half sub-Q in my quad...jesus christ that was a mistake. It's been a painful two days of walking, shitty sleeping and skipping VMO rehab stuff.

 

[snowpatrol123]

Right quad PIP / whatever is still hella painful. Chest day, but threw in some seated leg extensions.... 12x37.5, 12x50, 12x62.5 and 10x75.

Good news is I couldn't feel any VMO pain over the burning vastus lateralis.

Sigh...going to see a quack tomorrow if it's no better.

 

[snowpatrol123]

I lied. It still hurt like a bitch, but I didn't go to the doctor. And the next day it's down to a 1/10 pain from 6-8/10...take that medical professionals. Like my girlfriend's philosophy with her check engine light - it'll take care of itself. Seriously though, I'll never use a short pin again for quad, I imagine the same would've happened in a glute. The 5/8" pins work fine for delts & ventroglutes though, if I had to guess for whatever reason my quads are too grainy or something, and even though I'm fairly cerain the 5/8" goes into at least half an inch of muscle, the oil seeps back into the sub-Q area.

Back to training:

-High-bar squats: 10x235, with belt -> trying HB to emphasize quads over posterior chain & see how VMO is really doing. No real pain/discomfort
-Deads: 5x425, double overhand grip w/ straps - first PR in a month, felt pretty good; form wasn't great though. Not really a VMO stressing lift, but included because I left out low-bar squats in favor of leaving something in the ol' posterior-chain tank for deadlifts.

I can pull that much with alternating grip & no straps, but someone who's experience dwarves mine told me double-pronated, even with straps is a better "bodybuilding" pull. Wouldn't mind input on that statement.

 

[snowpatrol123]

My wonderful other half sneakily captured my set! Not sure if my lumbar spine will support 495x5 with this form; thoughts?

Temporarily removed

 

[snowpatrol123]

Arms day this morning which really just means "close grip bench, chinups, curls and a bunch of other random shit"

Low bar squats: 10x275; no noticible pain from right VMO, hips (hip "hinge"?) are starting to bother me coming out of the hole though. Need to take a shakycam vid & check my own form again I think.

 

[snowpatrol123]

Leg day Saturday: 10x245 high bar, no specific VMO pain so I went to the incline leg press. 8 plates a side, deep ROM for 10 or 12 I believe, still felt good. Between other accessory / calf stuff and some abs, I ran out of steam before I made it to the seated leg extension & prone hamstring curl machines though.

On a very mild cut (looking to drop about 5lbs in the next 3-4 weeks, so down to 205-210 or so) I feel like it's affecting my energy levels pretty drastically though. Went from 4,000-5,000 down to approximately 3500 cals over the last week, pretty big difference in motivation & strength even. If I feel this tired again tomorrow morning, I may take my first day off since the forced break on Christmas day due to gym closures.

 

[snowpatrol123]

Delts this morning; did 4x10 high bar squats anyways ending with 10x255

Definitely not back to my old numbers yet, but still I'm very excited about just being able to work legs again, four to six times a week even with no issue. (Previously once per five days, so approx 1.3x/wk)

Shoulder workout went pretty good too, matched my OHP PR @ 5x185, and that was -after- eight sets of DB shoulder pressing and hang clean & press. Would love to see that many OHP reps at 205 or better yet 225lbs but I have a feeling that's a year away.

 

[snowpatrol123]

Guess this is becoming more of a training log since my VMO feels like it's 80-90%. I'll probably continue until someone tells me to stop, since I'm pretty bored at work some days.

Arms day...so of course I matched another PR on flat bench this morning (progress, since for whatever reason I haven't been able to repeat it recently) even after doing five sets of rope pressdowns, four heavy sets of close grip bench. Also went hard on chinups, preacher ez curls, hammer curl machine and dumbbell pullovers that I forgot to do on back day. My abs are still twitching from going hard on the hammer crunch machine too, they seem to have a few pieces of equipment that break the "machine" mold and actually kick ass. Should've finished with dips but didn't think of it until I'd left the gym.

Bench this morning was volume, well technically wasn't supposed to happen but after CGBP it was so tempting; so 12x185, 12x205, 12x225, 10x245 and finished with 11x265. I think I had #12 in me but without a spotter didn't feel like risking it. Nothing to write home about, but this isn't home it's my favorite forum/board & I'm literally up 100lbs from when I started benching a year ago, before that I only used DBs due to jacked up rotator cuffs.

Skipped any VMO / leg stuff today in order to see what I can do tmr morning on leg day. I have a can of redbull with me to mix with my clen and preworkout - here goes nothing.

 

[catalyst]

Have you tried TKE's for your VMO (terminal knee extensions using bands?)

 

[snowpatrol123]

Have you tried TKE's for your VMO (terminal knee extensions using bands?)

I hadn't heard of them until now; I'll look into it. I wouldn't mind doing extra/preventative work since clearly something was wrong either with my VMO or form to have had a problem in the first place.

Leg day today - woke up too late for my whole routine, but decided I'd rather be a little late for work than skip the gym. So I still manged to fit in front squats, low bar back squats, stiff leg DLs, 45degree incline leg press and calf raises. Last working set on low bar was 10x285. Getting closer to my pre-injury numbers (10x315 high bar, probably works out to 10x365ish low bar)

So tempting to add more weight but definitely don't want to re-injure, I'll just keep going 10lbs heavier per week until I can't

 

[snowpatrol123]

Back day on Saturday; heavy dead lifts (failed trying 435x5; alt. grip / with belt but no straps) Bumped my high-bar squats up another 10lbs, finished my back workout with 10x265 high bar. "Officially" only 50lbs until I'm caught up now, on high-bar at least.

Was very tired/lethargic all weekend. Arms day is normally do whatever, but I basically just did three tricep exercises, one and a half bicep exercises - 3x12 preacher ezbar curls & 4x10 chinups, abs, dumbbell shrugs then called it a day. Delts this morning was a little better energy-wise, made sure to eat a bunch of carbs/sugar when I woke up. Seemed to help.

I feel like it's a combination of trying to take a few weeks off of pre-workout, not using clen as an additional pre-WO and tapering down T3 (maybe too quickly, and of course I shouldn't do it all at once but I just can't help playing with variables.

 

[snowpatrol123]

Leg day today. Dun dun dun. Warmup with front squats 4x10; finished with 10x205 -not bad. On to low-bar squats. 5x10; finished with 9.28x295...not pleased, guess front squats + shitty sleep and lack of pre-WO aren't doing me any favors. I don't want to make excuses though, since I want to be caught up to old #s within a month...will try again soon. Maybe with safety guards up this time. 9.5x295 squat (failed) - YouTube

 

[snowpatrol123]

Was pretty bummed about my fail all day yesterday, slept poorly (just a general thing, not due to that) and was super tired on my way to the gym this morning.

50mcg clen w/ 24mg ephedrine & large Tim Hortons coffee to the rescue!

Chest day today...after my shoulder warmup, I started with a pretty strong 4x12 incline DB set, 12x100 fourth set & no rotator cuff pain woo hoo. Even had enough energy to superset a bunch of unsupported hanging leg raises and hammer machine crunches during the rest of my chest exercises. Over to flat bench press, 10x275 without a spotter, maybe it could've been 12 but I'll take the ten at this point. Weighted chest dips, flat DB flyes and cable flyes - ended with a few incline bench sets but they were kind of pathetic tbh.

Did one leg seated quad extensions, 5x12 ending with 12x87.5; no VMO-related pain but the motion on that machine, despite being hammer strength doesn't seem like it's great for the joint. Probably won't go past 100 single leg, or 200 if I start using both at the same time again.

Have to say I'm very happy to almost be done tapering off T3; despite low energy levels (no pre-workout, shitty sleep lately) my actual recovery/cardio in the gym seems much better.