New member introduction and question

[Stefano Di Virgilio]

Hello everyone. My name is Stefano, I'm 24 years old and I'm Italian, so I'm sorry if I will make some grammar mistakes. I've been following you for a few months and now I've decided to introduce myself.

I've always been interested in sports, expecially martial arts. Infact I've done judo for 9 years (the last five with also weight training), until one day I broke the medial meniscus of my left knee. After surgery I went to university, and I haven't done sports for 4-5 years. Then last year I decided to start doing something again.

I was very impressed by street workout (Hannibal for King, Barstarzz, Barbarians etc...), so I decided to start training myself with a purpose. After few months a friend of mine told me about this forum, and I became very curious at first, and then very enthusiast about your type of training.

Now I have a question. I am very interested in the Foundation and Handstand series (don't worry this isn't the usual question "How many years it will take to finish Foundation" etc...) but I have a problem. I told you about the medial meniscus of my  left knee, now it's fine, but three months after surgery I discovered a lesion in the medial meniscus of my right knee. It wasn't painful, so I decided to keep it. Now 6 years are passed and nothing has changed. I still don't want to go into surgery because in the last ten years I went into surgery for 4 times (only one caused by training injuries, my left knee), the last one this March. The consequence of this is that the only (and probably the most important) movement I can't do is squat (over 90 degrees). I've understanded that the purpose of the Foundation series is to master 7 elements, and one of them is single leg squat, that I can't do. For my legs now I'm doing especially cardio work and everywhere I go I always do stairs (it can seem a stupid thing but I can assure you that it isn't). However  I already know that this isn't strength work, but it's better to do that than doing nothing. I don't want to buy Foundation 1 and Handstand 1 and then create an asymmetry between my upper and lower body. So do you think I can buy Foundation 1 and Handstand 1 despite of that and then do something else to work my legs? In particular, what can I do to train them?

[Curt Ferson]

It's safe to say that anyone starting these progressions will find varying deficiencies.  All I can tell you is that I wish I had access to this program when I was 24. In that respect- you're lucky. This is a long term endeavor. Train smart and maybe talk to a medical professional about the leg progression first.

 

Enjoy.

[Stefano Di Virgilio]

Thank you curtisfer.