Knee pain whilst squatting.

[Will Snow]

Hi Coach,

My younger brother used to be very overweight and at his maximum he was around 26 stone(364lbs). After over 20 months of healthy eating and general exercise he lost close to 200lbs and is down to about 13 stone. In the process of losing weight he did a lot of his exercise riding an exercise bike and eventually stopped doing this as his knee?s started aching and became stiff.


Anyway, when he lost the weight he decided he wanted to put some muscle back on. So after asking around about what the best option for doing this was on interweb forums we decided to do starting strength. I bought the book, read it back to back a few times, and then went through your forum studying the form checks, which are very helpful. I feel that I understand the mechanics of these exercises to a reasonable level now and so we started the program with me coaching him.


We have a problem though. Whenever he is squatting, as soon as he gets to the bottom part of the position, he is getting a sharp pain in his knee?s and they're also cracking a bunch then they ache after the sessions. This is even happening when he has no weight on the bar. I don?t want him to wreck his knee?s so I?m now unsure about whether to have him carry on with this program seeing that the squats are an integral part of it.


In your opinion what should we do? Should he go get his knee?s checked out by a doc? Should he carry on with the program as long as he maintains good form doing it? I?m not sure what to do. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Sorry for the painfully long post. Thanks. Will.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think you'll find that you can eliminate his knee pain by keeping his shins more vertical, and by adjusting the hip and back angles to make this possible. This will get the stress off his knees and put it on his hips. he may have worn out a meniscus or two at his previous bodyweight, but he can -- and must -- squat, if you correct his knee position.

By the way, dropping that much bodyweight without a gastric bypass is a phenomenal accomplishment. Getting to be a fat slob is not a good thing, but going from fat slob to 182 lbs. is an accomplishment, both mentally and physically. If he keeps it off he has my respect.

[Will Snow]

Thanks a lot for the advice. He did his squats today with pretty much no knee pain. Me on the other hand had no such luck. Infact, i couldn't even get started.

I have been getting sharp pain in the lower left side on my back just above my ass. I used to have the same problem years ago when I played football(soccer) as a teenager but it went away over time after I stopped playing.
It came back last week after I started the program but I kept doing it anyway.

I'm pretty sure that I have been doing the exercises with correct form as I am quite familiar with the movement but I could be wrong. I can't send you a video though as today when I was warming up on the bike the pains got real sharp and are shooting up and down my left leg. It's even hurting to walk and stand. I'm quite gutted that I aint done my session today.

Any ideas what the problem is and what to do about it? Other than painkillers that is, which I am already jamming down.

Will.

[Mark Rippetoe]

Those symptoms usually indicate a disc or facet joint problem around L4-5 or L5-S1, probably an old injury. It needs to be looked at.

[lukeBW]

Thanks a lot for the advice. He did his squats today with pretty much no knee pain. Me on the other hand had no such luck. Infact, i couldn't even get started.

I have been getting sharp pain in the lower left side on my back just above my ass. I used to have the same problem years ago when I played football(soccer) as a teenager but it went away over time after I stopped playing.
It came back last week after I started the program but I kept doing it anyway.

I'm pretty sure that I have been doing the exercises with correct form as I am quite familiar with the movement but I could be wrong. I can't send you a video though as today when I was warming up on the bike the pains got real sharp and are shooting up and down my left leg. It's even hurting to walk and stand. I'm quite gutted that I aint done my session today.

Any ideas what the problem is and what to do about it? Other than painkillers that is, which I am already jamming down.

Will.

I have had the same pain for about 15-20 years from soccer and skiing.. it comes and goes some days it bothers me others don't.. Since I started squatting with the SS If I have the pain it goes away after my squats
it usually comes back after standing for a long time, squats are the best thing that happened to that old injury