Anterior Knee Pain Squat

[Flardfart]

I'm having anterior knee pain in my right knee at the bottom of the squat when engaging the concentric part of the movement. The pain is dull and only happens during the movement itself. The pain is located right underneath the patella in the soft portion of the knee (not the bony part). I have had it for a while (as in years rather than months). What could it be and what can I do about it?

[Nick D'Agostino]

Things that you have had for a long time usually take a long time to go away. The big lever to pull is your programming. Managing that appropriately/differently will likely help the most. The brief version of what to do is decrease the intensity of your volume. If you haven't already, I would get your technique checked in the technique forum. Exactly what it is is not that important in the absence of specific symptoms like locking, catching, giving out, getting stuck, etc. Since these were not mentioned I'm assuming they are absent in which case the most useful diagnosis is anterior knee pain. Hope this helps!

[Dust Devil]

I have that sometimes and, strangely, I find that it usually goes away if I massage the soft tissue around the patella. Also helpful is to treat the quads for trigger points. I use a 25 lb plate to dig into the muscle; if you've had trigger points for a while, it might take regular treatment to get rid of them. I do this daily.

[Flardfart]

My workout intensity is quite low as I recently started SS again. I was feeling the pain at loads of 60/70 kg. I do sometimes have locking of my knee joint when engaging in other activities (such as kickboxing) but not with strength training. I used to wear a knee sleeve (a McDavid 410) during kickboxing which solved the locking problem during that specific activity. I haven't had my form checked in a long time so I will do that when the gyms reopen.

[Flardfart]

Do you massage before or after the movement?

[Flardfart]

Things that you have had for a long time usually take a long time to go away. The big lever to pull is your programming. Managing that appropriately/differently will likely help the most. The brief version of what to do is decrease the intensity of your volume. If you haven't already, I would get your technique checked in the technique forum. Exactly what it is is not that important in the absence of specific symptoms like locking, catching, giving out, getting stuck, etc. Since these were not mentioned I'm assuming they are absent in which case the most useful diagnosis is anterior knee pain. Hope this helps!

My workout intensity is quite low as I recently started SS again. I was feeling the pain at loads of 60/70 kg. I do sometimes have locking of my knee joint when engaging in other activities (such as kickboxing) but not with strength training. I used to wear a knee sleeve (a McDavid 410) during kickboxing which solved the locking problem during that specific activity. I haven't had my form checked in a long time so I will do that when the gyms reopen.

[Nick D'Agostino]

People doing other sports usually have to manage those activities' intensity and strength training to make significant lasting progress. This is true even if you don't feel significant pain while doing that activity. You may also want to start your linear progression with pause squats when the weights are lighter and see if that makes a difference.

[Dust Devil]

Do you massage before or after the movement?

I've done both; I sometimes don't realize I have pain until after I start squatting. It doesn't hurt enough to stop, but it just causes a flinch as I get about halfway down (yes, more on the eccentric side for me). I'm sometimes found it helpful to massage as I do some air squats.

This pain shows up often in unloaded activities....stepping up onto a stool or walking down stairs. As long as I do the treatments I described, this doesn't happen, but I get complacent after a while of not hurting.

My doctor says knees hurting is an age-related thing, but knowing that I can make most of it go away suggests that he's too dismissive. The only thing I really can't do without pain is jumping.

I'm experimenting now with quad stretches. You should be able to pull your heels up to your butt, but I haven't been able to do that in a very long time. Now I'm just about there and it seems to reduce the general achiness of the knees. The theory, according to one website, is tight quads "cause pressure over your patella (kneecap) causing it to rub on the joint beneath it."