Hi. I m a 48-year old male and in pretty good shape. I bike and go to the gym regularly, and I weigh about 188. I used to lift heavy in my twenties, but those days are long past. I joined the gym again recently after years off and wanted to get in better shape. Recently I ve tried to do squats and leg presses in the gym, but my knees, particularly my right one, start giving me trouble. The irritation/pain is around the front of my knees - around my kneecap area - no one spot I can put my finger on, it seems. After realizing that I couldn t do any decent amount of weight, I tried to do some simple deep knee bends - no weight at all - and my right knee still complained. I rested my knees until they seemed back to normal, then I tred to do something super-light and they acted up again. It s like my knees are telling me if you dare go any heavier, I ll really make trouble for you, so I m afraid to go further and really produce an injury instead of just a warning. I know the difference between muscle pain and joint pain, and this is definitely not muscle pain. It s centered in the front area of the knee, under and around my kneecap area - sometimes on the inside, sometimes underneath, etc. I thought about doing some quarter-squats with, say, just the bar on my back, or quarter-presses in the leg press, but when I did that a few days ago, I woke up the next day with my knees hurting (on a scale of 1 to 10, it was about a 2 with 10 being the worst). Strangely enough, when my knees aren t bothering me, I can slowly work my way up in weight with the leg extension machine, and my knees seem to tolerate that well enough (though I haven t had a chance to go heavy in them yet). I m so aggravated that I can t seem to exercise my legs at all, and even the light rehab exercises I try to do set me back. I sure hope you have something useful to suggest. Thanks.