medial knee pain walking up stairs and squatting

[mattlorig]

A few months ago, I started having pain on the inside of my right knee while squatting and going up stairs. I ignored it at first and just tried t train through it. But, the pain has gotten so bad now that I purposely avoid stairs and I cannot do a body-weight squat without pain. The pain doesn't feel like it is "inside" the knee. Rather, it feels like the tendons or ligaments on the inside of my knee are inflamed.

I saw a PT and he thinks I have "Pes Anserinus Bursitis," which I guess is just the technical term for tendonitis on the medial part of the knee. His suggestion was rest, ice and ibuprofen to get the inflammation down. And, long term, says that I need to engage my glutes more and my hamstrings. The diagnosis (bursitis) and initial treatment (rest, ice, ibuprofen) seem reasonable. But, the long-term solution (more glutes, less hamstring) seems a bit suspect to me.

I should say, my right glute doesn't fire quite like it used to since I had a hip resurfacing a year ago (the doctor used a posterior approach. so the right glute was definitely cut during the operation). So, maybe what he says has some merit. But, I don't understand how one would "engage the glutes more" while engaging the hamstrings less.

In any case, I think the long-term solution will depend on figuring out what I am doing wrong in the squat that is putting undue pressure on the medial part of my right knee.

A couple of things I have noticed:
1. Concentrating on bracing while squatting seems to reduce knee pain
2. Putting more weight on my heels while squatting seems to reduce knee pain.
3. Keeping my chest down a bit (kind of like a small crunch) seems to reduce knee pain while squatting.
I guess all of these things result in more hamstring engagement. So, is just concentrating on 1-3 the solution? Is there any point to doing the stuff the PT wants me to do (glute bridges, hamstring stretches, etc.)?

Thanks in advance to anybody that takes the time to reply.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Post a video.

[mattlorig]

Will do. Traveling without gym access for a week. So, I'll post when I get back home.

[tiny&mighty]

I recently had an occurrence of bilateral pes anserinus bursitis. I first came here looking for information about it but did not find much, so I assumed my training was an unlikely cause. I have been doing SS for about 4 years and this episode is the very first of my 42-year-long life.

Then I wondered whether this could be another weird manifestation of my no-tremendously-serious but still a-pain-in-the-ass rheumatoid arthritis. However, I could not find any evidence that those two phenomena could be somehow related.

At that point I asked myself what other variable had recently changed. The answer is that we got a fancy $14K adjustable bed a few weeks ago. It comes with a "zero gravity" setting which has the head and feet elevated. I love it: it feels like sleeping in the palm of Morpheus' hand. It also keeps me from turning around and sleep on my stomach which seems to irritate my lower back.

So I figured this was the culprit and decided to just suck it up for a bit until I adapt to the new bed. I also ran a somewhat aggressive course of ibuprofen for 600mg for 3 times a day (at a BW of 120lbs). The tenderness disappeared after about 3 days. I then went off the ibuprofen and the pain did not come back.

I can tell the bursae are still a bit when I feel them with my fingers them but they no longer hurt to the touch or when using stairs.