Pain in knees from squatting...

[startingnoob]

About two weeks ago I started squatting ass-to-grass on high-bar squat. It took me a while to be able to get so low and it was the first time. I made a mistake and went too far forward and felt the weight on the front of my feet rather than the heals. It put all the pressure on the knees and I certainly felt it. It didn't really hurt, but I knew it was probably incorrect and it didn't feel too great.

Anyway, I finished the set and went on. When I woke up the next day I felt pain in my knees. Thankfully it's not a terrible or shooting pain, just an ache, but it's persistently there and naturally it's not comfortable and I'd prefer not to have it.

I took some ibuprofen and it helped. The pain became milder day by day. A week later I went to the gym and did some low-bar squats, and again I felt the pain. In fact, I felt the pain just from running during my warm-up. I ignored it for a few days and kept going to the gym because I don't want to stop... don't want to lose the momentum and I'm really loving the gym these days.

It's now been three days since I went to the gym last and I'm still feeling pain in my knees. I bought some knee supports yesterday and I've kept them on. They definitely help.

So... what should I do to recover? Should I stop going to the gym for a while? How long? Any other tips? Thanks... I've never had a knee injury before and I really hope this shit isn't permanent.

[startingnoob]

P-please respond.

[mwhities]

You should video your squats. Have you read the book?

Read how to video your squat here.

[startingnoob]

You should video your squats. Have you read the book?

Read how to video your squat here.

I know I messed up on that squat form... I was trying to take my squats as low as possible and due to flexibility issues I messed up and went too far forward. I felt the exact one I messed up on, felt all the weight go right on the knees.

This thread is more about recovery... like how long will it take me to finally get better and be able to squat again...

[veryhrm]

And now you know why you shouldn't do ATG squats.

Anyway, what actually hurts ? Where do you feel the pain ? Is there swelling ?
My guess is that you crushed your meniscus some. The first thing to do is to knock off any and all running for a while since that's going to piss it off most. I'd also forgo heavy squatting for a while. If walking and light squats don't hurt keep doing some of those.

[startingnoob]

And now you know why you shouldn't do ATG squats.

Anyway, what actually hurts ? Where do you feel the pain ? Is there swelling ?
My guess is that you crushed your meniscus some. The first thing to do is to knock off any and all running for a while since that's going to piss it off most. I'd also forgo heavy squatting for a while. If walking and light squats don't hurt keep doing some of those.

The pain is in my general kneecap area, mainly towards the bottom of it (as in, towards the foot, not 'deeper' within the kneecap). Both knees. The pain is mild but persistent. If I avoid squatting and going to the gym, it gets better daily and even goes away. However if I go back to the gym and squat, even with light weights - in fact, even if I just do weightless squats in my room - the pain comes back and it will increase in intensity the more I do it. The thing is the pain isn't so bad that it can stop me from squatting. It's not a shooting or severe pain. I can still squat it and push through it, but pain is obviously a signal from the body and I wouldn't want to make it any worse. There doesn't appear to be any swelling. Also if I take a 400mg Ibuprofen tablet the pain completely disappears and my legs feel brand new.

I know I need rest but dammit I was really starting to build some serious momentum. It's like a train was just starting to chug along and then gets into a crash... you don't want to lose the momentum. The fact that the pain isn't so bad just makes it difficult for me to stop myself from going to the gym. After the first week break the pain had all but gone, and when I went back to the gym it came back. I probably need two or even three weeks off, but that seriously pisses me off.

A question: Can I squat to parallel (and true parallel at that) on high bar squat or is that not low enough? Low bar squat just doesn't feel nearly as natural to me and I feel more comfortable doing high bar - until this happened of course. Not that this will help with the pain, it's just a general question about form.

Thanks for your reply.

[Immortal_k]

I don't know much about recovery past the ground basics, but I'd like to say this: I once foolishly convinced myself that high bar was better, that it had better carry over and other such nonsense. I suffered for it by experiencing a good amount of knee pain and knee maltracking, which was agonizing. I wisened up and did LB squats like a good little novice and haven't felt that kind of anguish since.

Do yourself a favor and just squat LB.

[veryhrm]

Well, what you describe doesn't sound like meniscus damage but something with the patellar tendon and its attachment to the patella. That's good because patellar tendons heal pretty well. Doctors even cut out pieces of them to use as spare parts for ACL replacement. What's not so good is that you must have pissed them off more than a little bit if you can't even air-squat w/o causing pain a few weeks later.

Anyway... here's what the web has to say about your condition
http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical...pers_knee.html
:-)

Rip's advice generally on this kind of thing has been that bad squats mess up your knees and good squats fix them up, but you should search more specifically what he has to say about patellar tendon problems.

Personally while doing SS with LB squats and keeping my knees from drifting too far forward my knees barely ever complained. So i'd go with strict form LB squats and lay off running and jumping. There's also an ibuprofen protocol floating around here but you'll have to search for that yourself and draw your own conclusions whether you want to go that route. One thing you don't want to do is just ignore it because if you piss them off for long enough they'll eventually snap and that's going to be a bad time.

Oh, you can also try that inner tube "tendonitis 'cure'".

It may also be worthwhile to actually go to a doctor for a real diagnosis if this doesn't start getting better soonish.

(note: i'm not a doctor or coach or anything... so go see a doctor instead of listening to random internet people)

[Gunnhild Bruno]

I suggest you post video. We cannot advise on form that we cannot see, and self-reporting of form is notoriously unreliable.

[Tom Campitelli]

So... what should I do to recover? Should I stop going to the gym for a while? How long? Any other tips? Thanks... I've never had a knee injury before and I really hope this shit isn't permanent.

You should learn how to squat and continue to train.