Thanks for the wooden shoe info. Not that locating and using a pair would elevate my
legs above mediocre status
. . .
Dont a lot of PT's/Dr.'s recomend avoiding leg extensions and are the cause of a lot of knee issues, not the deathly squat.
And as far as leg extensions are concerned, it is my opinion and the opinion of others
(I knew the world’s foremost authority, a surgeon of knees and backs, and who invented
the knee brace as it is now known) that the leg extension, properly performed, has saved
more knees than it has destroyed.
Now . . . the ‘deadly’ squat does have a reputation of destroying knees and, but again,
properly performed (think weight and reps), it has rehabilitated, saved more knees than
it has destroyed. As a piece of anecdotal ‘evidence’ . . . having spent no small amount
of time in so called third world countries, wherein these countries people, young and
old, are accustomed to spending large amounts of time in a full squat position, either
working, waiting for a bus, etc., and the incidence of knee problems there is, dare I say,
rare. And if you think about babies, once they learn to walk, will instinctively squat to
pick something off the floor, will not bend over like most of us do. I don’t know at what
age we lose that, but we do. Squatting is good for healthy knees, the key word is
‘healthy.’ Not knees that have been destroyed by far too much weight. Even Tom in his
video advocated 50 rep squats and that leg size is largely the result of high reps and to
be fair, heavy weights, but if I can but words in his mouth, heavy weights developed
as a function of, though, high repetitions.
If you look at the bodybuilders of past, many if not most have knee and hips issues
as a result of heavy, low repetition squats and have had or will have full knee and
hip replacement surgery. Tom Platz seems to have skirted this problem or it has
not manifested itself at his 60+ years of age but those explosive, fast repetition
legs extensions still make me cringe. He must have knees of steel or his perfectly
performed squats have guarded against this. I don’t know. More time will tell I guess.