Question for all you Weight Lifters:

no. dont extend your legs. not ever.

I actually use them as a warm-up for squatting, as doing them a) warms up the muscles in your quads and b) helps release natural lubricants that help your tendons to track better, and keep everything running smoothly... so I would say that they're more or less good for your knees

it's the same as with any other exercise- don't over-do it and you'll be fine.

yeah he's right. I would limit its use as much as possible because there are many other exercises that are equally or more efficient for hitting your guads. It puts a great deal of stress across your knees so I try and stay away from it.

i used to do these until i dislocated my knee cap and my doctor told me that this probably encouraged my knee cap to do so. there are other safer ways to strengthen your quads. i would suggest not doing them

after acl surgery the doctor told me not to do them till almost a year out...

I lift a lot and recently I have been having crippling pain in my bicep and triceps on my right arm, even into my forearm muscles. The pain is localized right near my elbow and huts really bad. You know when you "know" you have broken a bone and you are really thirsty? It feels like that. My tricept also seams to get very tight like a cramp. I drink tons of water so I think it might be tendentious but it hurts even when I don't move my arm.

I stopped lifting anything that used my arms, just legs and cardio but the pain is still present. I have had the same pain in my shoulders before and I stopped lifting shoulders and it went away.

I am not looking for a lecture here to stop lifting just wondering if anyone else has had these problem and what they did about them? I am thinking of getting a cortisone shot it has gotten that bad but let me know what you think.

my left elbow would feel like it lit up on fire when i would do tricep extension exercises like skull crushers. Anything where my elbow was the flexion point and was shouldering if you will all the stress. I stopped doing them, and did different movements that places less stress on the joint. It kept up for almost a month tho because i would try to do them again and it would be so painful right away even after it was totally warmed up. Find different exercises for it that place less stress on the elbow joint such as using cables for pull downs or working in some close grip bench presses. Dips didn't give me any trouble either. If it's that bad though (as you described) I would talk to a doc. I should have talked to one but I just kept putting it off. But i would go see an orthopedist if possible.

same here, i tore my ACL and MCL and my doc said to avoid them. I never was a huge advocate of them anyway so i don't mind but even for somebody with good knees it's safer just to stick to squats/lunges/leg press/etc (in my opinion)

If you do insist on doing them, make sure to never lock your knees, when you extend, come about 90% up and then start the next rep.

They kill my knees. I think they're a shitty way to work out your legs.