Eccentric Decline Squats - Third Progress Report

Over the last few months I've been gradually adding weight to my one legged squat routine. I've stuck to 3x15 squats (on each side) before bed, and added 200g every four days. Although no miracle cure I have continued to see gradual improvement and am now at 3.6Kg. I no longer get any neurological feelings and am less prone to pain on the pat and quad tendons. I would say now that I suffer mostly from very stiff and sometimes sore knees - rather than pain. If I do too much then I will still get a flare up though. Those flare ups begin with twinges in trigger points on the outside of my thigh above the knee and then spread to cause a wider flare up. Sitting and driving are still the worst for causing it to stiffen up and feel nasty

My physio has had me on a gradually increasing walking program as well - which has been a huge psychological boost. I walk three time a week, one without any support and add 10% to the time each week. I have gone up from 15 mins to 70 mins - which is a huge improvement. I have continued to benefit from accupuncture into the sore area - and get a strong, positive improvement for a few days - particularly on the quad tendon directly where it joins the patella - which is my last remaining spot which is regularly sore.

Tendons/knees are still very grindy and clicky - maybe that will never go and I just have to accept it. Now it seems like carefully managed gentle movement, walking, yoga, physio is the most effective thing at managing the stiff, sore feeling. Also interesting has been my gradual mental shift - it is true that, given long enough, you can get used to most things! I'be sort of adapted my life to not running, swimming, cycling and instead look forward to my yoga classes, walks etc. I would not have believed it - but there it is. Perhaps one advantage of this whole awful experience is that I'm learning to be more gentle with my body and exercise. When I do get back to a wider range of exercise I'm going to approach it in a much more 'for fun' and gentle kind of way

I think I have now got as far as I am going to go with the squats though. At the weight I'm at they now feel like they are starting to antagonise other parts of knee and overload it - I really don't want to cause a whole new set of problems. Through my Astanga Yoga I've learnt loads of eccentric leg exercises which are static loading and seem to have the same benefits - so I think I'll focus on those, gently building up my walking etc and see how that goes.

I'm not sure if I'll ever recover 100% - but I can already do so much more now - perhaps it's a case of finding what I can do, gradually building that and see what happens in the long term. So many of my problems seem to have come from 'heel-striking' and poor running posture - so I'm also reading a lot about barefoot running and walking - could be a way for me to go in the future. Might start up a blog on that as I get into it a bit