I haven't leg pressed this much in over 2 months! I don't expect anyone to be impressed but I am. I am impressed that I could do it with no pain.
Of course, I was shaking after the 3rd set of 25 reps so the weakness is obvious. Still, it's progress and I will gladly take it.
I would say nothing has changed since the last coach log but that would only be in the sense that I am still doing everything the same this week as I was last week:
kinesiotape on the right knee to help the patella track correctly
stretching religiously to allow the patella to track correctly
not training calves and hamstrings so that there isn't a strength imbalance from the quad to the hamstring
What I found while doing the leg press is that there is some initial pain (minor) at about 20-25 degrees during the eccentric portion of the movement, only. Due to this, I am starting in the bottom position of the press and doing short reps to avoid the minor pain that is felt at only the 20-25 degree mark. What I noticed is after starting with short reps, I build the ROM for every rep a small amount, and by the time I get to the 20-25 degree mark, I can go through it and past it without any pain. That may seem strange because it is — at least it is to me and Dr Fragiskakis. Keep in mind that this is a very light weight so this may not happen if or when the weight gets heavier but the main point is that this is progress.
I should also note that the LCL isn't bothering me during the movement or after, either. It is still not fully healed but it is healed enough to handle these light loads where in the last few weeks, even getting up from a seated position on the couch, I would feel the LCL, slightly, while in the deep squatted position where the upper legs are parallel (or close to it) to the floor. That is not happening during the leg press.
After leg pressing, I did body-weight squats while holding the frame of a machine. Everything felt fine but as the muscles fatigued and I got to the end of the set, I felt the LCL, again, slightly. No pain but I felt it. This indicates that the LCL is strengthening but that it is still in need of more recovery.
The plan is simple: to very slowly continue to use light weights to help strengthen the muscles around the knee and at the same time, not re-injure the knee to set the recovery back again.
Things like walking around, getting in and out of my car, going up and down stairs, I feel NOTHING. This is also a huge improvement because only 3 weeks ago I was going up and down stairs one stair at a time. I also had to lead with my strong leg so that I wouldn't have deal with the instability of the right knee.
Bottom line is that I am recovering quite well. I have no time table for when I will be able to train legs without limitations, but now that I am able to start training them lightly, it is less of a mental fuck. At the pace I am going now, I feel like 3-4 weeks will provide enough time to allow for full stability in my knee to start training legs again without the worry that I will have any set backs.
Upper body is going well. I am continuing to improve strength and having great workouts with the lower volume. My condition is improving slowly as I want to be at 220 or slightly below when I get the green light to start training legs again. I am at 221.5 as of this last weekend.
Once I get the green light for legs, I will then take another 4-6 weeks to build some strength back before stepping on the gas again. I don't want to step on the gas and increase strength too quickly on a knee that has just recovered from both PFTS and from the LCL.
It's a waiting game but the progress is motivating.
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