Knee instability in the squat

[KGray]

Hi Rip,

I'm a novice lifter with only a month or so of SS under my belt. In the past couple of weeks, during and after squatting, I experience a pain and tightness in my right quad and knee; the pain is on the inside of the knee as well as on the lower, inside portion of my right quad. When performing the squat stretch, I notice that my right knee feels considerably less stable than my left. On my left side, the force on my hamstring and glutes feels balanced with the force on my quad. However, on my right side, I feel much more force and tension on my quad and knee, and comparatively little on my hamstring and glutes. It feels as if the muscles on the backside of my knee aren't "kicking in" or "activating," which is creating discomfort on my knee in the squat position. I am confident that I am shoving my knees out to the side. I am also confident that my back angle is correct (I am not trying to maintain too upright of a torso).

I experience a similar pain and discomfort in the starting position in the deadlift. Just as I bend my knees, pull my chest up, and squeeze the bar off the floor, I feel a lot of pressure on my right quad.

I am curious if you've encountered anything like this in your novice trainees. My flexibility on my left side is not that much greater than that on my right, so I'm hesitant to question my flexibility. If I had to guess, I would imagine this might be either a muscular imbalance or a lack of proper activation. Any suggestions would be appreciated, Rip. Thanks in advance.

[Mark Rippetoe]

You failed to mention any injury history. Sounds like there might be something wr....