ThatBelgianDude

There's no such thing as a tie breaker here. I struggled with runner's knee for over a year, and the solution for me was intense cycling. At the moment I go to the gym 4 to 5 times a week for cycling & weightlifting and at the moment I have it very much under control. As stated above, the first thing you want to do is see a physiotherapist. It's impossible to get diagnosed properly on an internet forum. In the meantime: stretching is something that can't make it worse and get a lot of tension out of your legs and knees. By stretching the muscles that are connected to the knee, you take away pressure, which can (possibly) take away the cause of your pain. What you can try is dropping the weight on your squats and perform the movement very slowly, to really focus on the muscles during the movement. I'm talking 30 second for one squat movement. If that works, increase the speed, and go from there. Cycling (on a very light gear) can be an answer, because it's a movement that doesn't really put pressure on your knees. It was the miracle cure for me. There's a LOT of options, and a lot of things to avoid. Really, really go and see that doctor if you can. Medical costs repairing a busted knee far outweigh the cost of seeing a physio once or twice.

I've started to incorporate deadlifts in my workouts, taking a lot of time to practice good form. I thought I had it nailed pretty good, but as I'm going up in weights I notice that after workouts my lower back is a bit cramped. I'm still in very low weights (110 pounds) so it's raising some doubts. It doesn't hurt, it's just very sore after 3 x 5 reps. Is this a signal that my form is off or just a normal consequence of lifting stuff?

I changed my routine to do a more full body workout twice (or sometimes three times) a week, which normally includes: - deadlift - squats - pull ups - some kind of annoyingly hard push up - core exercise like planks etc. And some cardio / cycling on off days. I'm going to see if that is enough to make some progress!

Due to the new year and everybody's good resolutions, my gym turned into an ant hill sprawling with, basically, idiots. As a result of my schedule I have to endure the after work rush or get nothing done at all, so I started switching up my routine, grinding some hours on the stationary bike during the work week (which is fantastic for my busted up knees, so I don't mind really) and doing weightlifting during the much quiter weekends. basically it comes down to a 'leg day' on saturday: squats, deadlifts, lunges, planks and an 'upper body day' on sunday: pull ups, bent over rows, all kinds of crazy push ups, push presses, etc. I started wondering, will this be enough to really make some gains? As I'm basically breaking it down into 2 day - 5 day intervals and only doing two strength workouts a week. Any thoughts?

Allright thanks for the advice. Out with running shoes, in with flats!

How long is your daily ride? If you have a short route there is little chance that you will actually improve much beyond a certain point. The only way to really improve your cycling is taking long-ass trips with medium speed, 2 or 3 hours long. That being said, in a dense urban area you probably have little chance of doing that. A way to track progress could be to measure heart rate. Heart rate goes down: you are improving. If you have a bridge on your route, make that your daily test: select a gear and try to get up the bridge at maximum speed. This however, will only test your advances in strength, not stamina.

I have been working out following all the rules for form etc, but have never asked myself if my shoes are of any importance when lifting weights. Are they? Right now I'm wearing my good ol' running shoes, but I came across some comments on this forum that seemed to indicate that those aren't the best option. So, is it of any importance what kind of shoes I'm wearing? Also, on a non-fitness related note, thinking about my ol' shoes I remembered the absolutely fantastic movie Wag the Dog, which everyone should see. It tells the story of old shoe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1v4ZLwevXAI

I have had a significant bit of trouble with both knees - it really all depends on what kind of pain you are experiencing and when/where it hurts. Some knee injuries can be solved by strength training, others by rotating the knee joints frequently (cycling comes to mind). So there really isn't one catch-all exercise. Depending on the injury, some may be very good for you, or wreak havoc.

@Marvinrobot Thx, I'll remember it - we Belgian people tend to be a contrary bunch

Thanks for the advice. I'm doing all my exercises with about 8-10 reps to emphasise on strength so I'm trying to achieve the same with core exercises. Time to upgrade then

I'm moving up in the world of planking, currently entertaining myself with 1-1 planks during work outs. What is a good max. time to look for before moving up to something more difficult? I was doing 2 minute regular planks and have now started with 40 second 1-1 planks. I realised I have no idea what I'm going for: 1 minute, 2, ... any thoughts?