Leg Workouts and Sore Knees

[james5272]

Hey,

When I do free-weight leg workouts (mainly squats/lunges), afterwards I feel a soreness in my knees. I do five minutes of cardio before each workout, and when I do leg workouts on the machines, I do not experience this knee soreness. I've also had people check my form, and I have been told it is perfect. My question then is, why do I experience this soreness? Are there any sort of warmups I can do to prevent this? Should I do lunges before squats for whatever reason?

Please help. I extremely enjoy working out, but do not like having sore knees for 3-4 days after a workout.

[sanpedro]

don't do the cardio and see how it helps

[xshinx]

Do not worry about the soreness. The legs usually takes several days to recover and by the following week, you are going to be fine. My legs are sore from doing heavy leg workouts but I just keep moving forward and forget about it. If it was pain then that would be a different story. Have you try stretching after your workouts? Your muscles will be flexible enough to stretch easily and comfortably. Some of the stretching relieves some of the soreness or you could just take an advil .

[james5272]

The reason it bothers me is because it isn't like the soreness in the thigh or the calf, it's more the muscles around my kneecaps. I have performed these same exercises for about two months and the soreness is still there.

Oh well. I suppose I will just give it more time, and if it doesn't go away, I will have cause to be concerned again. Thanks!

[dunk]

How wide are you going? You make be going too narrow and might have to widen it a little bit. Make sure you are really good and warmed up when you squat too.

[wimp2pimp]

Hey can you tell me a little bit about what kind of movements in your legs will cause it to hurt? I might have the same thing.

[bluedot]

The reason it bothers me is because it isn't like the soreness in the thigh or the calf, it's more the muscles around my kneecaps. I have performed these same exercises for about two months and the soreness is still there.

Oh well. I suppose I will just give it more time, and if it doesn't go away, I will have cause to be concerned again. Thanks!

There's a chance that it's not a muscle that's bothering you at all. When I ran regularly my left knee became irritated and it took a very long time to go away once I first noticed it -- no running or lifting of any kind. It happened about a year later when I began squatting with great regularity, and never returned when I reverted to seated machine press. My family has a history of knee problems so I went in to the doctor for a scan of my knee and it turns out that I have the same condition that my brother and father have. I'm sorry I can't recall the exact name, but it's something along the lines of some extra bone material/calcification under my knee cap. The doc told me to use some common sense: if the discomfort increased either gradually over time, or acutely in association with a particular movement, I should stop doing whatever it is I was doing to piss of my knee.

For a variety of reasons right now I'm not getting a good deal of muscular soreness even though I'm lifting more than I ever have, but I am still aware of my left knee after squatting.

In terms of form, make sure not to pause at the bottom of the squat. That's just good advice in general but it's also possible to pause in such a way to really increase the strain on your knee joint as far as I know.

[SB100%Natural]

Hey,

When I do free-weight leg workouts (mainly squats/lunges), afterwards I feel a soreness in my knees. I do five minutes of cardio before each workout, and when I do leg workouts on the machines, I do not experience this knee soreness. I've also had people check my form, and I have been told it is perfect. My question then is, why do I experience this soreness? Are there any sort of warmups I can do to prevent this? Should I do lunges before squats for whatever reason?

Please help. I extremely enjoy working out, but do not like having sore knees for 3-4 days after a workout.

How are you doing your squats? I find it quite painful if i only squat to halfway. Full squats on the othehand don't cause any pain, well not in the knees anyway.