Is my body simply not suited for squatting?

[Peter_k]

Perhaps if no other squatting could be performed, box squats might be the ticket? There's certainly a way to do them where there's very little stress on the knees.

[48Dodge]

My knees use to grind and pop when I did squats. They're all better now that I wear headphones. The grinding came back a little one day, but I turned the volume up and that fixed them right up.

[Kincain]

my knees stop popping when pushing my knees out, so it's a handy reminder if I hear them pop

[Misery]

Okay, I can't get a video up today, but I will try my best to get a well-shot video posted by Friday. Hopefully the angle won't suck and you guys will be able to see everything that's going on with my squat. I'm on Starting Strength, if anyone was wondering.

I'm starting to think that maybe I don't bend over enough in my squat, because my knees wouldn't just go bad for no reason. It HAS to be SOME problem in my squat. I just can't figure out what. I'll try to correct the problems I identify today and I will have a video up for my Friday lifts.

[Titanium]

OP -- what if it's not the squats but some congenital cartilage/meniscus anomaly, or something correctable via diet/supplements? Is it *only* the knees or do you have other misarticulations, grinding joints, etc? Do you not produce adequate synovial fluid in the joints? I trust Rip's decades of experience that squats strengthen normal knees. Just wondering if there is some abnormality not yet considered. One of the easier ones to fix: if you wear boots and impact hard on the heel when walking distances on concrete, the instantaneous compression stress *can* cause knee joint pain; switching to running shoes resolves it. The squats might be a red herring. Look for all possible causes -- nutritional substrate, genetic abnormality, other injury/stressor... Good luck with this.

[tertius]

OP -- what if it's not the squats but some congenital cartilage/meniscus anomaly, or something correctable via diet/supplements? Is it *only* the knees or do you have other misarticulations, grinding joints, etc? Do you not produce adequate synovial fluid in the joints? I trust Rip's decades of experience that squats strengthen normal knees. Just wondering if there is some abnormality not yet considered. One of the easier ones to fix: if you wear boots and impact hard on the heel when walking distances on concrete, the instantaneous compression stress *can* cause knee joint pain; switching to running shoes resolves it. The squats might be a red herring. Look for all possible causes -- nutritional substrate, genetic abnormality, other injury/stressor... Good luck with this.

I'm going to say there's something to this, of course, I'm not a doctor, I'm just some guy on the internet who is full of shit, like everyone else.
Though it IS gratifying to have Kong agree with me, I'll admit.

If going up and down stairs is leaving your knees inflamed, that could be a problem.
You need to make yourself a checklist:
How do your knees respond to biking?
To walking?
To climbing stairs?

Has arthritis or another inflammatory condition been ruled out?
Have you tried supplementing with fish oil, joint health stuff (glucosamine/chondroitin)?
Do you drink enough water? (seriously)

If you've got 'flat feet' that suggests your foot muscles are weak as shit, and an orthodic will help some, but not as much as exercising your feet, and eventually wearing exceedingly light shoes/barefooting (slowly! a little bit at a time, I've got healthy arches, and walking three miles in vibrams will leave me quite footsore if I haven't been walking much) to strengthen your foot, which will change the impact dynamic of your whole leg. Check out this article:
http://articles.elitefts.com/article...foot-training/

Like Kong said, it's your body, man. The only person who can really fix this is you. Doctors can help you figure out what the problem is, but they can't implement the solution. If i were you, I'd start by isolating variables to figure out what the hell the problem is.

Start with easy shit, like hydrating the crap out of yourself, supplementing, checking for inflammatory diseases, then barefooting, and work up to removing all potentially problematic activities but one (within reason, cutting out walking is practically impossible, but if you own a bike, you'd be surprised how much walking you can remove) and seeing what happens.

Approaching the problem systematically and rigorously seems to me the only way you're going to figure this out.

[Carlos Daniel]

I don't think it's worth a whole new thread, but I have a question. Every time I asked a PT or orthopedist why they think one shouldn't flex one's knee more than 90 degrees, they always mentioned the increased compressive patello-femoral forces as the reason. Now, I don't know what magical event happens at 90 degrees that wasn't already happening to some extent at 80 degrees and here on the forum I've never heard anyone complaining about their patellar cartilage, so I think it's BS. Do your trainees by any chance have problems in this part of their knees?

[Mark Rippetoe]

No, because the hamstrings are active against the posterior tibia starting at the top of the descent.

[Carlos Daniel]

Excuse my ignorance, but how does that affect patello-femoral compressive forces?

[Mark Rippetoe]

The hamstring engagement keeps the knee angle from becoming too acute, thus moderating the patellar jamming.