Painful knee pop squatting a single at 95%

[shriverm]

- Age, Gender, current training status

Turning 39 in a couple of weeks, been training regularly for about 5 years (about 4 of those using mostly SS methodology) with several breaks here and there that have slowed my progress, but I would call myself an early intermediate. I am 5'9" and 225 lbs. I am currently doing ascending 5x5s as per the "5" in 5-3-1 and my top set of 5 for bench last work out (pre-injury for squats) was at 245, press was 165, squat was 325, DL was 365 and I can do a double at 245 for PC.

- Chief Complaint

My left knee right under the patella has been bothering me for several months during and after squats.

- Narrative describing the mechanism of injury: In your own words, explain what happened, what you were doing, where it hurt, how long has it been since you first injured it

About two weeks ago I was squatting 345 for a single (my all time actual squat PR is 365). On the way back up (I think I was just above parallel) I felt 2 painful pops in my left knee and had to dump the bar. Immediately afterword my knee was very tender and I did not want to put any weight on it (I'd say about a 7 on the pain scale). After a few minutes I started trying to walk it off, which helped, and then the pain slowly subsided to a dull pain within a few hours. Prior to this, I was having some knee pain, but it did not keep me from squatting, it always subsided prior to my next squat session and I guess I was just stubbornly hoping it would go away.

Now sometimes my knee feels stiff and sore from sitting in the car or at my desk and when I squat (doing very light squats like a top set of 135, just to see how they feel) I feel pain as my knee angle approaches 90 degrees through both phases of the lift and feel much less steady on that knee than before. I don't feel any pain walking around unless I have to squat down and it is the same discomfort when I squat, but to a lesser degree without the load. When it happened, I did not squat or PC for a week. Today, I did hang cleans 5x2 at 185 to test and had no issues. When I deadlifted last Friday I backed the weight off to 335 for a top set of 5 and I only felt a little discomfort in the starting position, otherwise they were fine.

- Pain (on a scale of 1-10) - Now maybe a 4 when squatting (this is with < 50% of my usual load).
- Describe the pain - aching when not squatting, sharp when squatting.
- What makes it better? Nothing yet.
- What makes it worse? Loading the squatting movement.
- How do your symptoms behave throughout the day? See above.

- Signs and Symptoms - See above.

Also, I was in the Houston area for Thanksgiving and I met with Randy, a starting strength coach affiliated with Andy's gym for a 4 lift evaluation. He had me make some small adjustments to my wrists/bar placement and where I was looking during the squat, but I did not have any major form issues that he pointed out. So, I do not think it is a form issue that caused it.

My main concerns are to see if anyone knows what the issue might be, how to prevent this from happening again and getting back under the bar as quickly as possible (I was exciting to be approaching my previous squat PR again).

Right now, I am planning to give it another week of rest and do an ibuprofen protocol and see how it feels again next week. Thanks for reading and any other ideas anyone has are greatly appreciated.

[Mark Rippetoe]

This will surprise you, but I have no idea what happened. I do know that such this happen from time to time, that you have to train through them, and that if you do they will heal. Be sure to stay out of your knees when you squat.

[shriverm]

Thanks Rip. I appreciate the response. I know these things are hard to pin down. I feel like I have been training through it for a while though and it was finally brought to a head with this event. Might just be something I have to deal with. I think I'll try and avoid heavy singles moving forward and stick with 3s if I want to go heavier than 5s. Thanks again.

[Mark Rippetoe]

I think that if it doesn't resolve quickly, you need a diagnosis.

[Briks42]

Do you have any injury history with that knee? I dislocated my left knee a bunch of times when I was young. Sometimes it would only slide out of place a tiny bit and slide right back, but when that was happening evidently tiny slivers of bone would shave off where the kneecap rubbed. Then these calcified over the years and became loose bodies floating around in my kneecap area. I've twice had scopes to remove them, but at least one more has surfaced recently. Depending on where the loose body is (they move and get stuck in different spots), I feel a very similar painful popping feeling to what you described. Now this could obviously be way off the mark, but it's something to consider. One good thing is that if you do have one (or more) of these loose bodies, they show up with a simple X-ray.

[shriverm]

Do you have any injury history with that knee?

I have always had chronic knee pain (I'd say overall it is fairly mild as it has not prevented me from doing any activities) since I played catcher in baseball for a few years and when I was in the Marine Corp they had me running a lot and it bothered them a bit as well, but no injuries.

Thanks again Rip. If it doesn't clear up shortly I'll have someone look at it.

[Will Morris]

- Age, Gender, current training status

Turning 39 in a couple of weeks, been training regularly for about 5 years (about 4 of those using mostly SS methodology) with several breaks here and there that have slowed my progress, but I would call myself an early intermediate. I am 5'9" and 225 lbs. I am currently doing ascending 5x5s as per the "5" in 5-3-1 and my top set of 5 for bench last work out (pre-injury for squats) was at 245, press was 165, squat was 325, DL was 365 and I can do a double at 245 for PC.

- Chief Complaint

My left knee right under the patella has been bothering me for several months during and after squats.

- Narrative describing the mechanism of injury: In your own words, explain what happened, what you were doing, where it hurt, how long has it been since you first injured it

About two weeks ago I was squatting 345 for a single (my all time actual squat PR is 365). On the way back up (I think I was just above parallel) I felt 2 painful pops in my left knee and had to dump the bar. Immediately afterword my knee was very tender and I did not want to put any weight on it (I'd say about a 7 on the pain scale). After a few minutes I started trying to walk it off, which helped, and then the pain slowly subsided to a dull pain within a few hours. Prior to this, I was having some knee pain, but it did not keep me from squatting, it always subsided prior to my next squat session and I guess I was just stubbornly hoping it would go away.

Now sometimes my knee feels stiff and sore from sitting in the car or at my desk and when I squat (doing very light squats like a top set of 135, just to see how they feel) I feel pain as my knee angle approaches 90 degrees through both phases of the lift and feel much less steady on that knee than before. I don't feel any pain walking around unless I have to squat down and it is the same discomfort when I squat, but to a lesser degree without the load. When it happened, I did not squat or PC for a week. Today, I did hang cleans 5x2 at 185 to test and had no issues. When I deadlifted last Friday I backed the weight off to 335 for a top set of 5 and I only felt a little discomfort in the starting position, otherwise they were fine.

- Pain (on a scale of 1-10) - Now maybe a 4 when squatting (this is with < 50% of my usual load).
- Describe the pain - aching when not squatting, sharp when squatting.
- What makes it better? Nothing yet.
- What makes it worse? Loading the squatting movement.
- How do your symptoms behave throughout the day? See above.

- Signs and Symptoms - See above.

Also, I was in the Houston area for Thanksgiving and I met with Randy, a starting strength coach affiliated with Andy's gym for a 4 lift evaluation. He had me make some small adjustments to my wrists/bar placement and where I was looking during the squat, but I did not have any major form issues that he pointed out. So, I do not think it is a form issue that caused it.

My main concerns are to see if anyone knows what the issue might be, how to prevent this from happening again and getting back under the bar as quickly as possible (I was exciting to be approaching my previous squat PR again).

Right now, I am planning to give it another week of rest and do an ibuprofen protocol and see how it feels again next week. Thanks for reading and any other ideas anyone has are greatly appreciated.

If your knee didn't swell after the painful pops you felt, this is likely a case of Retropatellar Pain Syndrome / PFPS. Meniscus tears, ACL tears, etc tend to make the knee swell, as well as producing subsequent arthrogenic muscle inhibition of the quads. No swelling, no atrophy of the quads, no internal derangement. You may also have some osteochondral defect on the backside of the patella from your days as a catcher.

[cjsimpson82]

Sounds very similar to the symptoms I have. After six months of therapy, doctors visits, and trying to work through it, I finally got approved for an MRI. Diagnosed with patellar tendonitis and a partially torn patellar tendon. I've been told it could take up to nine months to heal.

[Mark Rippetoe]

How did you manage to tear your patellar tendon?