Late November, my knee starts to hurt. I've been doing squats and deadlifts and lunges because, well, because that's how I roll.

So I lay off. My knee gets worse and worse. On January 1, I walk up a hill to get to a party in the Hollywood Hills of a B-List celebrity. The next day, I'm practically disabled. I can't squat, I can't put weight on it, I can't go up stairs. I go to the doctor, x-rays check out fine. He injects me with cortisone and removes 60cc of yellow fluid from my swollen knee.

My knee, miraculously, recovers. I am now walking normally.

But, the question: Can I ever do squats again? Is there any way to reduce the risk? Are lunges worse than squats? Any suggestions?

Since you have no idea what is the problem, no one can tell you what is/is not safe, good idea, etc.

NO MORE CORTISONE SHOTS.

I don't know enough about your problem to know whether you need to see a physical therapist if your problem is a functional problem, or an orthopod to get an MRI to get an anatomic diagnosis. Start by calling the doc who injected the steroids (orthopod?) and ask them for a diagnosis i.e. what is the problem, and what part of the knee is injured. Ask them if they think you'd benefit from physical therapy. Between the orthopod diagnosis and the PT you should be able to get some idea (unless you need an MRI) of what the problem is. THEN you can begin to adress it.

cortisone is bad?