LCL pain??

[Chris H Laing]

Hey Mr. Rippetoe,

Do you have any ideas how I might be putting too much strain on my left LCL from doing squats?

If it's already in SS I'm sorry for asking it and please don't rip on me too bad, although it is to be expected.

[Mark Rippetoe]

A correct squat is a ligament-neutral movement. So, either what you have is not a ligament injury, or you are not squatting correctly.

(BTW, this is paraphrased from a response given to me by the COO of Eleiko when I wrote him about a bent bar. He said that since Eleiko bars do not bend, what I had could not possibly be a bent Eleiko bar.)

[Chris H Laing]

So what kind of squat faults would put strain on a ligament? Knees pushing in? Toes pointed too far out?

Could it be my IT?

[Mark Rippetoe]

There are several threads here that reference IT band issues. It could be, yes. Ligaments get strained when squatting if the form used does not produce balance across the joint, like knees-in, toes-forward, etc.