Stiffness in quads from squats

[DannyP]

So recently (as in last few weeks) I've noticed my quads feeling stiffer the day after squatting, particularly the lower part just above the knee. Is this just do to increased loads? I've never really had stiff quads since switching to low bar, which is why I ask. I sometimes allow my weight to shift forward during the ascent (which puts more load on the quads), but don't feel like it's pronounced enough to have that effect.

Normal side effect of more overall tonnage each week, or likely sign of form breakdown? I've posted some clips recently, and none of the issues pointed out would have really had much impact here that I can tell.

[JTC_MN]

What do you do throughout your typical day?

I ask because I'm usually standing or walking on a concrete surface with steel toe boots. I have achey calves and ankles that I attributed to squats and DLs. But I haven't lifted in close to 2 weeks (getting over flu/sinus infection) and still have achey calves and ankles. This left me to reason that its work induced.

[DannyP]

Interesting. Now that you mention it, this all started around the time my wife and I moved from an apartment with an elevator to a house with stairs inside...

[DannyP]

So I was paying more attention to this today and I realized that during the squat I tend to feel it about half way down on the descent. Any particular reason this would be happening? I've always suffered from late knee slide (though I think it's getting a bit better), but I'm not sure how that would play in. It's almost as though when I should be feeling the hams start to stretch I feel my lower quads tighten. Nothing too painful or debilitating, but don't want it to lead to problems later.

[Caleb Krieg]

Quad "stiffness" the day after squatting is pretty normal. The quads are the only knee extensors and thus are solely responsible for making knee extension happen. This tends to make you "feel" them more the next day than you do the glutes which shares the role of hip extension with two other muscle groups.

As to why you feel something weird halfway into your descent, are you leaning over soon enough? Could you be over exaggerating getting your knees forward at the beginning by staying too upright for too long? Post a video of a set where you feel what you are talking about...

[DannyP]

Thanks. That's gotta be it; lifting heavier taxes everything more and I'm starting to feel more of it. Not so much that I feel something "weird", just that as I descend I begin to feel the stiffness in my quads from the previous session, almost as though they just need to be looser.

If anything my lean happens sooner than it should because I have a bad habit of knees moving late, and initiating the descent with excessive hips. I've been working on correcting this, so perhaps I'm feeling that too.