. In late July , after a couple of weeks to recover from the mini bout on
the stepper following a long layoff from leg work, I started performing some
freehand squats to give some activity to my knees and thighs, but using a
different stance to what I had used before. In August I started to squat with
a bare bar over my shoulders. With a stance about inches wider than nor-
mal, toes flared to about degrees (as against the usual degrees or so),
and no inward travel of my knees, I found a more comfortable groove for my
knees. I added pounds every week to the bar. My knees felt much better,
and I could soon sit up and down without getting much knee reaction. is
was great progress. But then I would have very low weeks when the soreness
would reappear and I seemed back at square one.. During two weekend breaks in the summer of I could not dive into a
swimming pool, and could not jump in no matter how carefully. I went into
a pool once during both weekends, and the reaction from my knees made me
regret that single entry.. Here I was, someone who had never smoked, never had a single beer, had
not eaten meat for about fifteen years, had been very careful with his diet
for twenty years, had been taking vitamins for supposed health benefits for
many years, had exercised consistently all his life (except since July ),
and still looked quite athletic and fit (but did not feel it). But I would not
have been able to out-run my little daughters, or out-play a five-year-old at
soccer, without incurring considerable discomfort for a week or two.. In the fall of , well over a year since ending my last serious training cycle,
my toe, shoulder and lower-back injuries were still incapacitating me. ere
was a bit of progress in my knees, and the discomfort in my left leg due to
the lower-back problem has eased a little, but that was it.. I was now so desperate that I started to think my training days were now
behind me, and retirement at age was in order. I had long known that I
was not genetically gifted to do great things with weight training, and I was
never interested in using steroids to shore up genetic short comings. Perhaps
now I should have given up the thought that I could ever get into even “keep-
ing in shape” training, let alone hard training.