Is my body simply not suited for squatting?

[tertius]

Trust me, it's not just cartilage popping. They're not tracking straight and grind, and yes, there is some occasional pain. It's already been identified as my knees not tracking in a straight line by the doctor and I've been wearing orthotics to help with my "excessively flat feet"

My knees have been popping, making funny noises and grinding when rising from a squatting position since I was 15, or so.
They sometimes creak audibly while squatting (usually during warmup). I am now 30. You're going on about how your knees
and hips are just so awful, but you only have occasional pain. If there was something wrong, you'd be in more than occasional pain.

Generally, I think if something doesn't hurt, you're fine. "Occasional" pain isn't necessarily a sign that you've got some weird structural weakness, unless by occasional you mean "there's a moment in every squat where it hurts, but only for 2 or 3 degrees of movement". But that's not what you've said.

Also, if you've got over-flexible joints, the way to control that is to strengthen the muscles that stabilize your knee.
Which, I seem to recall, squatting (particularly LB) will do.

[Misery]

The sarcasm is thick in this thread, but there seems to be a misconception here. My school's sports medicine doctors and therapists aren't completely inept and one of the very first things I was told to do for rehab was to squat frequently. So on that front, I don't think they're doing me a disservice.

The problem is that my knees and hips don't just make a lot of noise. I'm fine with noise. I'm not fine with knees that need to be iced on and off each night due to inflammation that spreads around after a full day of walking up and down stairs to different classes. I shouldn't feel my knee apparently grinding and popping around in its socket any time I rotate my legs inward while lying down.

And like I mentioned in another thread, when I lie on my back, withdrawing my legs to the butterfly position shouldn't be met with resistance from mildly painful hip grinding.

Is this a huge problem? No, not really. My every day life progresses as normal. Is that incredibly fucking annoying when the squat is supposed to IMPROVE my joints, not destabilize them? Yes. Is this even more annoying when no major flaws in my squat form have been identified after posting ten videos over several months time span? Hell yeah.

I've been focused on strengthening the muscles around my knees since I first complained about this problem and here I am. Look, I've read almost everything out there. I have the book. I watch videos. I read articles. And yet here I am once again.

I'll retract my opening question, as if I really believed that, I wouldn't still be squatting after all this time, but what the fuck can I possibly do that I haven't already tried to fix these issues?

I do NOT want to feel like a 70 year old grandpa for the rest of my life.

[OCG]

3rd edition

DAMN YOUR HIDE RIP. I am a poor university student, how am I supposed to afford this?! Have you no compassion in that cold lump of iron you call a heart?

Also, if you've got over-flexible joints, the way to control that is to strengthen the muscles that stabilize your knee.

"Control" how exactly? I'm hypermobile and squatting certainly hasn't changed that. It has however, helped to strengthen my joints and prevent any problems, which is nice.

[James]

Also, if you've got over-flexible joints, the way to control that is to strengthen the muscles that stabilize your knee.
Which, I seem to recall, squatting (particularly LB) will do.

I could not agree more. My knees hyper-extend to a ridiculous degree. Squatting has stabilized them beautifully. Though admittedly my knees don't "track poorly" from side to side, whatever that means.

[hatmanii]

I know that in "The Strongest Shall Survive" Starr recommends leg extensions and curls in the higher rep range at a lightish weight to help with knee health, particularly strengthening the muscles and tendons in the knee joint. The book is a tad bit dated, but I think the advice is something that might help in this situation.

-Hat

[fictition]

Generally, I think if something doesn't hurt, you're fine. "Occasional" pain isn't necessarily a sign that you've got some weird structural weakness, unless by occasional you mean "there's a moment in every squat where it hurts, but only for 2 or 3 degrees of movement". But that's not what you've said.

I will second this, from my early teens I had knees that sounded like a popcorn machine and my joints have always been "loose". By my early twenties straitening my knees after they had been bent for a few minutes would result in a painful crack loud enough for others nearby to turn their heads. When I started squating heavy with regularity both the pain and noise went away.

[Dwayne_KONG_Wint]

@Misery

Just to reinforce what tertius said....noisy joints aren't a problem. In fact, noisy joints are proof that you haven't been sitting on your ass your entire life. Did you know that the cartilage behind the patella starts wearing down at about the age of 15 (don't have the reference right now)? If you've been a particularly active person, that cartilage at an adult age is not the same as it was when you were a kid. So sometimes it makes noise. This is not a death sentence and it definitely doesn't mean you cannot squat or be active. It does not mean you have old man knees. In fact, you should be happy you don't have old man knee's because I hear that they can be really painful if not used regularly.

Like tertius, I've been snap, cracklin, and popping since my teen years (now 29). I've competed in college athletics and now starting out in powerlifting. A little rice crispies is no big deal.

Now for pain issues, I had some wicked pain in my left knee this summer (like fall on the ground pain randomly each day) and made a huge stink with the doctors trying to figure out what it was. I even annoyed Rip with a couple posts on it. He told me to treat my knee like it was my own. At first I didn't know what he meant by that but I learned.

Doctors have limited knowledge on activity and what the body can handle. They only know how things attach and how they "should" work according to their books and stuff. After getting my MRI and xrays for my knee, and missing a ton of squat training, all the doctor could say was that there nothing was wrong with my knee except for some bruising/edema in the joint and it would take time for it to heal. They gave me the whole VMO bullshit too. I paid a lot of money to hear this. It was truly a waste of money and time...and you can never get back time.

After all this, I just decided to use some common sense (this is what Rip means by act as if the knee is my own). I backed off a little and then re-started up. I took care to warm up properly and take care of my recovery the way I should. Things are starting to comeback to the way they were.

So the take aways are:
1. You can squat just like everyone else. You don't have old man knees.
2. Be happy you have occasional pain because it could be worse. In training, a little occasional pain is part of the contract.
3. Noisy joints are okay; its not the end of the world.
4. If something hurts badly, you are allowed to back off a little so that it can heal (no one's going to shoot you for it)
5. Always take doctor's advice with a grain of salt. It is a business and they don't want to get sued so they usually will go extra conservative or give you a BS answer.

[freeheeljohnny]

Trust me, it's not just cartilage popping. They're not tracking straight and grind, and yes, there is some occasional pain. It's already been identified as my knees not tracking in a straight line by the doctor and I've been wearing orthotics to help with my "excessively flat feet"

This is not my area of expertise, however, I'm left wondering... do the orthotics improve/alter knee-tracking ? Is there a difference when you squat with/without the orthotics ? Would less/more support under your foot improve knee-tracking and comfort ?

[sergeant_81]

Fuck, if I had a nickel for every time my knee snapped, crackled, popped, grinded, cussed and cried while squatting, I wouldn't have to work anymore.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I'll retract my opening question, as if I really believed that, I wouldn't still be squatting after all this time, but what the fuck can I possibly do that I haven't already tried to fix these issues?

I do NOT want to feel like a 70 year old grandpa for the rest of my life.

Look, I cannot do medicine over the fucking internet, if I can actually do it at all. I can't see your knees, I can't see you squat, I don't know what your MRI says, and I don't know your program. As these other posters have pointed out, squats help everybody else's knees. Patellas don't just de-track for no good reason, although it is a popular diagnosis. It takes a retinavculum rupture, which you would remember. Sorry to be so short with you, but this shit gets old after many years.