Short term

• For two weeks I’ll suspend my leg training. – That’ll be really hard to do, because I love my squats and deadlifts.
• So that my core doesn’t feel neglected without squats and deadlifts, I will do some hyperextensions and abs work. Gotta get toned for summer anyway.
• Say goodbye to my gains (for now).
• If the knees feel better after that, good!
  If not, time to see a doctor and get his opinion on the rest of my plan. (If he says I shouldn’t squat, I’ll try to find a competent doc.)

Long term

• After that I’ll start training the knee stabilizers with wall sits, lunges and maybe single leg squats, while also focussing on glutes and hamstrings (I’ve been wanting to try single leg romanian deadlifts for a while now, since I can do them at home with my limited weights).
• A few weeks later, I’ll try squats again.

General

• Work on flexibility and stretch more.
• Pay more attention to not lock my knees. – Of course in exercises, but also in every day life.
• Add glucosamine and chondroitin to my supplements.
• Review my diet. – Wanted to do this anyway. More omega 3, selenium, anti-inflammatory, anti oxidants.
• Finally get a foam roller.
• Consider getting knee sleeves. But only if I can’t go without them and not without a doc.
• Leg extensions: Never again!

Already doing

Of course, I am already doing other stuff for quite some time and will just state that here for the interested reader, that might have similar worries or problems.

• Train the legs. – While I can also search the cause for my worries here, this is also the way to help the knees. Stronger leg muscles will support the knees. I hope I’ll just need to add a few exercises.
• Maintain good form when training. – Again, while I can also search the cause for my “problems” here and there’s often room for improvement, I’m quite confident my form doesn’t suck. I also often get compliments on it from more experienced lifters and novices ask me to coach them.
• Warm-up! – On Leg days, I’m running a few minutes as well as 2-3 warm-up sets. But I should pay attention to no cool out and if I do, warm-up again.
• Stop if it hurts. – Duh!
• Maintain a balanced diet and drink a lot. – Well, I mostly do that, but I have to admit, that I’ve been cheating a bit more lately.

Links

I’ve read several articles on the topic and here are the most relevant and/or comprehensive links about it.

• eMedTV: How a Healthy Knee Works [Video]
• YouTube: Basic Knee Anatomy Video [Video]
• YouTube: Basic Anatomy of the Knee and Associated Injuries [Video]
• Wikipedia: Knee – Obligatory link
• T-Nation: No Need for Knee Pain – How the knee works and how you can counter problems with them.
• T-Nation: 18 Tips for Bulletproof Knees
• Stronglifts: 10 Tips to Stop Your Knees from Popping and Cracking

Ten minutes and a bit of searching later I knew more. The song I wanted is “Hold On to the Vision (in your eyes)” composed by Frank Harris and sung by Kevin Chalfant and never made it to the stores. Even the master records seem(ed) to be lost. But years of asking, begging and sacrificing virgins have finally been yielding some fruits last year. Harris released a CD with all songs of the movie and some remixes: No Retreat No Surrender Original Soundtrack Album

I also found out that by now a German band recorded a very good cover song of Hold on to your vision, which can be ordered on their website.

So, anyone who is searching a little present for me because… uhm… I’m such a swell guy, has my permission to endow me with those CDs. Please, go ahead.

And if you want to listen to a full length, low quality sample of the song, check your friendly YouTube neighbor.

But iirc, they stated to do this movie old style, with only a minimum of CGI. So, why do I see so much that came out of a computer? Heck, the first thing they showed wasn’t real (and if it was, give PETA a call). Sure, it’s not as bad as with many other movies. But one shouldn’t brag about something they won’t do.
Just my two cents.

Now, a funny thing came along afterwards. Some Russian Communist Party members want to ban the movie, ’cause it’s anti-Soviet propaganda that distorts history. They are afraid that the teenagers, who are not aware of what happened in 1957, might believe the Soviets were chasing after crystal skulls. So they not only think that their kids missed a few history lessons, but also imply that the modern russian teenager is just frickin’ stupid and can’t distinguish obvious fiction from fact. Better tell them that the world did not get run over by aliens, like in various movies. Hey, we Germans should sue Hollywood as well, since our youth might believe Nazi Germany has been hunting down whip-wielding archeologists in search for a golden box filled with dust or the ancient goblet of a mere carpenter. And better call New-Delhi and give them a hint where they can find the Sankara Stones, which help them solve all problems.

And as a final related thing, I got myself a fedora. Not the wool-made official one, which isn’t more than a non-authentic gimmik, but a real fur fedora. I wonder why all the other movie-goers were eyeing me at the preview. Anyway, I’m considering to become a regular hat wearer. If it just weren’t ruining my hairdo…

Of course, if that is a bit far-fetched for you, you might prefer 5 Kick-Ass Sci-Fi Apocalypses (That Could Actually Happen). How ’bout we discover a giant asteroid that could put humankind on the list of endangered non-space-traveling species, send a fleet of robots to take care of if, which happen to be/become sentinent (and hate us) and make sure the asteroid hits us good. Of course we are prepared for something like that as well, but the asteroid carries an unknown virus, which causes deathly mutations. While scientists search for a cure, they unleash a terrible monster/whatsoever.

There you have it. One or the other way, we’re doomed. Better get the old family suicide knife ready, to escape the horror.

Diese und weitere Fragen klären die Erhebungen im Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache (AdA) von den Germanistikern der Uni Augsburg. Hochinteressant.

Free software… free as in free speech, not as in free beer. Well, that is the GNU definition of free software. But Open Source can even bend that rule somewhat, with the free beer projects by FreeBeer.org and [project 21]. You can buy the booze or brew it yourself. Now that’s the Open Source spirit at it’s best. So now, we still won’t have free beer, but free beer instead.

Too bad I don’t drink… but luckily there’s the good old OpenCola as well.