Getting to the point you can even approach NROLFW

So I bought the book and read it after going through this forum. I am utterly impressed with the logic as well as the imperical evidence to support this workout. I plan to start this, I have one issue and want to hear from those out their if they have a solution for me.

I have knee injury issues and after attempting, I am not successful at the squat motion. Trying to read my body, a very small portion of this has to do with the knee as much with as how friggin out of shape I am.

QUERY: Does anyone know of a good exercise to get me to the point I can do the squat and its variations? I don't want to abort this plan, I just need to condition the lower body to be able to do Stage 1.

I tore my knee up in a motorcycle accident 2 years ago and had surgery to put everything back together so I understand the knee injury process! It's good that you are reading your body because you deffinitely don't want to hurt yourself by pushing too hard. I did a lot of conditioning of the particular muscles around that knee (stationary biking, one legged light weight leg presses, and balancing on that leg as long as possible) just to make sure I got those muscles prepared before jumping into full workouts again. I would suggest that if you think most of it has to do with being out of shape, than do the squats with just bodyweight, and do them as far down as you can. It all takes working up to it so just push yourself as hard as you can and you will begin to be able to get farther down into the squat position, and then eventually be able to add  weight onto it. That would be my reccomendation.

This would be a good question to also post on the fitness forum, where there are more people who are experienced at weight lifting, not just the folk doing New Rules of Lifting for Women.

 ckfyamaha that is exactly how I injured mine 14 years ago. Let's just say the technology to put joints back together wasn't as robust. It also is partly why I gave up physical activity.

I like your plan, is there any more detail I should know, cause I am going to try your suggested exercises.

alevin, which forum? I am brand new to CC.

So I bought the book and read it after going through this forum. I am utterly impressed with the logic as well as the imperical evidence to support this workout. I plan to start this, I have one issue and want to hear from those out their if they have a solution for me.

I have knee injury issues and after attempting, I am not successful at the squat motion. Trying to read my body, a very small portion of this has to do with the knee as much with as how friggin out of shape I am.

QUERY: Does anyone know of a good exercise to get me to the point I can do the squat and its variations? I don't want to abort this plan, I just need to condition the lower body to be able to do Stage 1.

I have issues with a bad elbow and shoulder and some of the workouts scare me - as I feel like my arm is just getting better and I don't want to go blow the healing by overdoing the weight lifting. 

This is the link to the fitness forum.

http://caloriecount.about.com/fitness-forum-f c3

To get there, go to "Community" in the top menu and click on Forums, then click on Fitness.

dbackerfan, glad to know I am not the only one worried. I just don't want to use this as an excuse not to embark on this road. Have to build up around it.

I don't think there's much more that you need to know. I would just try those exercises for your knee in correlation to the NROLFW exercises, as I said before doing the squats with body weight until you feel like you're strong enough to add on. It's hard for everyone in the beginning but having an injury like that just makes it that much harder! Let me know if you're having trouble with any of them and I can try to help you out or explain them better. Good luck!