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Quote from: Raptor on December 06, 2012, 12:59:50 pm

I don't have a problem with VAT tax. The problem is that stuff that comes from the USA come up with HUGE transport taxes, customs taxes and warehouse taxes, and you need to go to some kind of warehouse to get it from.

Thanks but I'm not available for that kind of an effort.

what are you talking about? i was gloating about things being cheaper and more freely available in the US, nothing more. 

We also pay for our own medicine here. If you end up in a hospital, even if you pay medical insurance, you will need to pay the doctors, nurses, your meds, everything, otherwise they won't look at you and pretty much let you die. This while paying your ensurance. It's pretty cool.

None. Just that. And some mild pain that is just enough to shut down my quad when trying to be explosive. I can still put out force with it though. I also have Osgood Schlatter on that knee, a pretty big lump, ever since I was 13 or so. Never got better since then. No wonder my right quad is so dead, I guess I'm involuntarily protecting that knee when moving around so my quad has gone down in terms of size, for such a long time.

Probably some kind of compensatory thing is going on too, with the right glute firing pretty well, and also with the left leg getting stronger. When I do depth jumps I never jump straight up - I always end up jumping a bit to the side.

LBSS, what is VAT?

Also, Raptor, where exactly is you knee pain? What movements cause it?

I've pretty much eliminated all of my knee pain so maybe I can help.

1/8 to 1/4 squat range. First 20% of knee flexion, starting from an extended leg. The pain is on the lateral side of the knee, in the "knee hole" on the lateral side (basically to the right of the patella, in that "hole" in the knee). Some thing in there "snaps" when I get past a point of flexion.

I'm not living in the USA so I don't have access to all these stores. Even if I did, it's really complicated to get them here. My only choice is getting whatever it is on eastbay.com since I have friends that bribe the custom house to pay less tax.

So... I only got those few choices on www.eastbay.com

Don't bother with any other US sites or whatever.

what's wrong with your knee that it hurts even on HBBS? try leg curls, maybe? BSS with front foot close to the bench, so knee flexion emphasis?

I have no idea what's up with my right knee. There's "something" moving in it and it hurts there. It happens after the first 20 degrees of flexion or so (basically 1/4 to 1/8 squat). If you push your finger in that area and keep... whatever it is out there from moving it's OK. But if you take the pressure off it moves and it hurts. Maybe it's a piece of meniscus that's loose? The doc didn't know what to make of it. He said I need an MRI but it's about 200$ or so. And I'm afraid of going into a weird, claustrophobic tube.

But that right knee is a HUGE factor in my sucky two leg jumps... I put a ton of force into the ground but before the take-off I decelerate to take pressure of it... it's pretty much automatic, like the body is trying to protect it. So I guess there's no hope in me jumping well off two feet considering all this.

Yeah, the narrow stance BSS is one of my ideas as well. I really like the slow tempo leg press though - I can put my feet in a series of ways on the platform.

So I went to the gym to do my "volume day" of squats and thought "OK, let me try some ATG, heel elevated narrow stance squats to hit the quads more" - also with a more upright torso.

Well guess what? 85 kg x 8 reps was HARD... this coming from a guy with a wide stance, heels not elevated, low bar squat 1RM of 160 kg. I'm also at 87.5 kg so I'm struggling to do 8 reps with a weight LOWER than 1x.

If anybody was wondering why the hell I suck at jumping off two feet and why my half squat is so bad well - there you go.

I think in the half squat I'm lifting as much as my quads allow - the same happens with the full low bar squat - I'm limited in both of these exercises by the quads, so there's no difference in between them (not such a big difference, that is).

I will continue to use narrow stance, ATG squats and 20 rep slow tempo leg presses to build my quads (as long as my right knee will allow it).

If anybody has any other ideas it'll be appreciated.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ySblouCKs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0ySblouCKs</a>