13 months ago I ruptured my quadriceps tendon on my right leg due to Crohn’s disease related side effects. I’ve had a lot of serious injuries but this is by far the worst, most debilitating injury I have ever had. 13 months later I still cannot run or jump caused by articular cartilage damage in the joint causing inflammation and acute pain. I’ve been working super hard at rehabilitating my knee, sometimes it is so sore I have difficulty walking and have to take weeks off of working legs. So here is what I did today to focus on activating my quad.
I’ve been doing my best to work legs once a week. So here is what I worked on today. I have virtually no quad activation. As a protective measure, my body wants to deactivate my quad under tension so I have to mentally get over this and reteach my body to activate my quad before my quad will grow. I put 5 pound plates under my heels for front squats and push from my heals to attempt to provide more quad activation
5 sets of 10 front squats
3 sets of 12 smith machine squats
3 sets of 10 1-leg press
3 sets to failure of lunges off a bench
1 set of bodyweight squats to failure
Calves seem to be fine on my knee as long as I use lighter weight.
3 sets of 15 standing calf raise
3 sets of 15 seated raise
3 sets of 15 donkey calf raises
FlaredupFitness 