Squat and Lunge substitutions?

[Mogstradamus]

I love so many of the programs here, but I've always run into problems come leg day. I have a bad knee. It does not like to repeatedly bend past a 45-degree angle. I can do high squats, but I'm not sure those are good enough. And lunges are the devil. Anything that puts direct forward pressure on my kneecap is excruciating. I've looked around the site, hoping there was an easy substitutions list or something, but I couldn't find anything. I've read some advice here to just go ahead and substitute whatever or do whatever works, but I don't even know what my options are. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Henry (thinman)]

How about a standing hold? you can have your back against a wall and squat down a little and hold for time. When I did tai chi class we held this for 15 mins, you can go deep with feet further apart.

 

[Damer]

@Mogstradamus we have a whole list of exercise modifications you can employ. You will find it here: https://darebee.com/modifications.html (and, welcome to the Hive! )

 

[Germanamazon]

Hi
I can't do lunges either. But I subsitute them with the sumo squats. Easier for me personally, but I get the good workout. There is a knee workout here in the library. Helps strengthen them. It helped me, just can't remember the name of it to save me life. So open the filter and typ in knee

 

[Maegaranthelas]

Is this knee trouble something that might improve with more strength?
I used to not be able to do squats or especially lunges, but you don't have to squat deep to build strength.
If you feel you muscles working on high squats, just do high squats and you might be able to gradually go deeper as you build strength.
For me, a wider stance was easier to begin with, like those sumo squats @Germanamazon mentioned.
I also found backward lunges far easier to control than forward lunges, and again I started very shallow.
My range of motion has improved a lot, just by starting with very shallow squats

 

[avatar]

Hello and welcome!
If you can do “standing hold” it is a good exercise for the feet.