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  1. #1
    Registered User Garbiel's Avatar
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    Knee pain and squats

    When I squat I get pain at the very top of my knee. It' like the top of the knee cap actually hurts.

    I do full squats (go past parallel) and the pain STARTED when I commenced the full squats. Before that I was doing half squats and there was no knee pain. So i'm quite confused because i've heard from a variety of sources that full (ass to ground) squats are better for the knees.

    Also, last night I went to a power lifting training session at my university to get some help on my form and now my knees are killing me. So, there I was getting coaching from qualified lifting coaches and my knees are the worst they've ever been. I'm very confused, because my technical form was the best it has been.
    They were telling me to bounce off my knees though, which didn't intuitively seem right to me. They said to go down fast and bounce out of the bottom explosively. I think that's what screwed up my knees the most. Either way though, they've been crackling a popping when i do my full ass to ground squats (even before I did the power lifting style). And to clarify, the pain is at the TOP of my knee cap.

    Any advice? I was thinking of seeing a physiotherapist to determine if there's anything wrong with my knees. I have extremely flat feet (but I wear orthotics) and I thought that might have something to do with it. Because my feet collapse in, it may put additional pressure on my knee joint....

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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  2. #2
    Flustered Fluster's Avatar
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    I would ask to see their qualifications for starters.
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    Registered User NWB's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by Garbiel View Post
    So i'm quite confused because i've heard from a variety of sources that full (ass to ground) squats are better for the knees.
    Your variety of sources are wrong. Just because you are a strength coach at a D1 university does not mean you know how to get strong.

    I would personally do box squats for bit. Parallel box or even inch high. This keeps the knee angle down and pressure off the ligaments/tendons. Keep shins perpendicular to floor. Pain persists, go see a doc.
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    What kind of pain is it? Is it just behind the kneecap, or the kneecap itself?

    It could be that your knee joints simply need to get more flexible. I had that problem for a bit as well.

    Edit: Also, it could be a form issue (like breaking at the knees too early)
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    Lifetime Member crupiea's Avatar
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    Good job for squatting.

    I bet its your weight getting on your toes out of the hole. Thats what happened to me, so bad I wanted to quit squatting but I was determined to figure it out and sure enough, when I was coming up, the weight was on my toes just a but and sure enough, my knees hurt.

    When you are goung down, it shouldnt be a free fall. Keep tight all the way and push your butt back and keep pushing it back. This will help transfer the weight to your heels better.

    Also fiddle with bar position and stance. If the bar a a couple inches lower then it will change the whole movement.

    I do wider than shoulder stance with a lower bar. Thats the easiest way for me to keep pushing mty butt back.

    Dont be too overly concerned with going atg. At least get below parallell and you will be fine with that.

    Another thing that hurt my knees was not warming them up enough. Also stretching your hams, glutes and calves will help you get lower with less pulling on the knee.

    Try doing this for the next few days. Just try to get in a deep squat position without too much forward lean. No bar or anything, just get into the down position. Make sure you are spreading your knees and opening up your hips. pu your elbows between your knees to help spread them apart.

    If this is hard for you to do and to be comfortable with then of course it will be easy to get off track with the bar.

    Practice this everyday for about a week and you should be good to go after that.

    Check out this video too.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...1301858251744#
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  6. #6
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    Originally Posted by crupiea View Post
    Good job for squatting.

    I bet its your weight getting on your toes out of the hole. Thats what happened to me, so bad I wanted to quit squatting but I was determined to figure it out and sure enough, when I was coming up, the weight was on my toes just a but and sure enough, my knees hurt.

    When you are goung down, it shouldnt be a free fall. Keep tight all the way and push your butt back and keep pushing it back. This will help transfer the weight to your heels better.

    Also fiddle with bar position and stance. If the bar a a couple inches lower then it will change the whole movement.

    I do wider than shoulder stance with a lower bar. Thats the easiest way for me to keep pushing mty butt back.

    Dont be too overly concerned with going atg. At least get below parallell and you will be fine with that.

    Another thing that hurt my knees was not warming them up enough. Also stretching your hams, glutes and calves will help you get lower with less pulling on the knee.

    Try doing this for the next few days. Just try to get in a deep squat position without too much forward lean. No bar or anything, just get into the down position. Make sure you are spreading your knees and opening up your hips. pu your elbows between your knees to help spread them apart.

    If this is hard for you to do and to be comfortable with then of course it will be easy to get off track with the bar.

    Practice this everyday for about a week and you should be good to go after that.

    Check out this video too.

    http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...1301858251744#
    I was thinking the same thing. Drive off of your heels throughout the whole lift. I used to have pretty bad knee pain too, on the top of my kneecap then my coach told me this and now it's pretty much gone.
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  7. #7
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    Originally Posted by Garbiel View Post
    When I squat I get pain at the very top of my knee. It' like the top of the knee cap actually hurts.

    I do full squats (go past parallel) and the pain STARTED when I commenced the full squats.
    I had the same thing when I was squatting to parallel so I switched to atg and my knees feel much better. I assume it was tendonitis for me and it did take a while to go away.
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  8. #8
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    Stop and get it checked out. I've had the same knee pain that has done nothing but hold back my squat and degenerated my tendons over the past 2 years. Don't let tendonitis get too far.

    Learn to sit back and do every rep slow. SLOW. Do this for a few years. Don't bounce, especially off of your knees. If any bounce happens it should be rebounding from your hip extensors. It's so easy to lose hamstring/glute tension in the descent of a squat if it's too fast and you're not paying attention, which puts it all on your knees as you fall forward onto the quads.
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  9. #9
    Registered User vwcanter's Avatar
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    Placing a board under the heels helped me a lot. It puts more weight on the heels and takes it off the toes. If you feel a whole whole lot of weight pressing the bone of the heel, it is right. Also make the backside go back in a slightly exaggerated motion. Not an expert opinion, but it worked for me.
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