Pain at the bottom of my knee

[allyn703]

Yeah right there. What type of stretches were you doing? I never stretch fwiw.

Do these after your workout.

[Tom Campitelli]

1 and 2 - no, because when I have in this past it never did anything to aid the pain.

Understandable. Ice sometimes helps and sometimes doesn't.

4- Yes, I have been doing this recently I've been good morning' a lot of my heavy squats that I've done the past 4-5 workouts or so.

I found that breaking myself of this habit helped me a lot with knee pain.

Again, isn't Patellar tendonitis above the knee cap? Shouldn't the source of the pain be there? Maybe it is tendonosis, I'm seeing a PT soon I'll see what he/she says although I'm not too sure how much I should trust their word.

The patellar tendon's proximal insertion is above the knee and its distal insertion is on the tibia below the knee. The pain can occur anywhere along that. In my case, it was right near the base of the knee cap toward the tibia.

I am definitely inflexible. When I do air squats I can't keep my back in extension. When I deadlift, you know how a lot of people stretch their legs all the way back before bending their shins to the bar? Well I can barely do that halfway. Will PNF stretching and foam rolling help me fix these problems? Is this a hamstring flexibility issue?

I cannot guarantee that PNF stretching or foam rolling will fix these problems, but being diligent about regularly stretching will be of use to you. What is diligent? Stretching your hammies, calves and quads four or five times a day for about 90 seconds a piece. It sucks. It really does and it is difficult to find the time and remember to do it. However, flexibility does play a role in knee pain. Also consider getting a massage from someone who doesn't mind hurting you. If you have a friend or significant other than can help you to PNF hamstring stretches, this is very effective. I can't do PNF stuff more than once a day because it makes me sore.

Oh and WRT my knee pain, I was doing air squats like 20 minutes ago and the pain was sharper and worse than ever before. I'm talking a lot worse than when I was squatting 300 or so monday and sessions last week. It was the first time the pain was actually excruciating and it happened abt halfway down in the squatting motion.

This is probably because the air squat is a more quad dominant movement. If your knees are hot, this will irritate them further. A good low bar squat is more neutral for the knee than an unweighted air squat.

Once again, I am assuming that you are running into common tendonitis here and not something weirder. If it is tendonitis, a brief break might be in order supplemented with aggressively going after your mobility and form issues on the squat. Make sure to hit your IT band with that roller, too. I have worked with a guy at my gym who was suffering some serious knee pain, although not as localized as yours. He's seen significant improvement through squats, mobility work, and painful foam rolling. The potential is there for these activities to help so do give them a go.

[Tom Campitelli]

Two other things to consider.

Check out San Francisco CrossFit's blog. Kelly Starrett, the head coach, is also a gifted physical therapist. He's written some articles about loading and tensioning as well as PNF stretching. I think he calls it contract-relax stretching. Both topics will be of interest to you.

Play with a wider stance squat. This may relieve some tension on the knees, although it will require additional adductor flexibility.

[LimieJosh]

and painful foam rolling.

Does the pain ever subside? I've been going fairly consistently for about a month (min 15 mins a day 5 days a week) and have progressed far less painfully to balls of various sizes and hardness for the soles of the feet, calfs and hamstrings, but on my original foam roller I'm still going as gingerly on the IT band and lateral part of the quad with excrutiating pain today as I was on the first day.

[Tom Campitelli]

Does the pain ever subside? I've been going fairly consistently for about a month (min 15 mins a day 5 days a week) and have progressed far less painfully to balls of various sizes and hardness for the soles of the feet, calfs and hamstrings, but on my original foam roller I'm still going as gingerly on the IT band and lateral part of the quad with excrutiating pain today as I was on the first day.

I don't know that it ever feels good, but as you've seen, improvement does occur. It just hasn't been occurring for your quads. You might benefit from an IT release/massage that others have done. I've never had an IT release performed on me, but some of those that have claim marked improvement.