Knee buckling on squat - favouring one side?

[Alex Kershaw]

Hi,

I recorded my squat from behind and it looks like my left knee is buckling a lot and I'm favouring my right side - see the last rep in particular. This set wasn't particular heavy - probably RPE @8. The reason it's not a heavy set is that I'm just coming back from a recurring lower back injury and I wonder if this could be the cause.



What is the fix here - just more effort into holding the knees out? I am actively trying to push them out throughout - you can see that my knees jerk back/forth a bit because of this. Is there anything here that could look like the reason for my recurring lower back injury? Does it look like there could be a leg length discrepancy?

Cheers,
Alex

[Tom Campitelli]

I recorded my squat from behind and it looks like my left knee is buckling a lot and I'm favouring my right side - see the last rep in particular. This set wasn't particular heavy

If that is the case, I am worried for your knees on heavy sets.

What is the fix here - just more effort into holding the knees out?

Yep, you need to get out of the habit of standing up by any means necessary and getting in control of your knees.

Is there anything here that could look like the reason for my recurring lower back injury?

Not that I could see from one video on the floor shot directly from behind.

Does it look like there could be a leg length discrepancy?

No, not really. You don't have the kind of pronounced hip shift, or other asymmetry that often make you think about a leg length issue.

[Sean Herbison]

Yep, you need to get out of the habit of standing up by any means necessary and getting in control of your knees.

This is an annoying problem/mindset that I've had to deal with. Sometimes you're strong enough to get below parallel and back up, but not necessarily strong enough in all areas to properly (i.e. with good form) squat the weight. You can do this a number of ways, but the most common is just to shift the load off your weaker muscle groups and let your stronger ones take up the slack. If you don't fix it, over time it just becomes more pronounced, and can require and/or cause a large set-back later on.

This is also why a lot of people (wrongly) criticize bi-lateral lifting as a fix for asymmetries. It only fixes you if you do it right. Continuing to (for example) shift the load to your strong leg will not even you out, even if you can do more weight that way right now.

[Alex Kershaw]

I lifted the same weight again today but it's physically impossible for me to do the whole set without the knees caving. Reps 1-2 had no cave and were the hardest reps. Rep 3 I failed to keep them out and reps 4-5 I gave in and they were pretty easy. I guess the only option is a pretty significant deload to get used to doing it properly because I think I've probably been doing this for a while now.

To check - here's a really light set done afterwards. Do these look okay enough (on the knees) to progress from here and try to get the form to stay the same? There still seems to be some wobble but I don't think they're caving at any point.



Cheers

[Tom Campitelli]

Your knees are even waving there. Stay with your hips, the whole way. The wobble seems to coincide with you lifting your chest. Let's see a working set from the rear oblique, not on the ground.

[Alex Kershaw]

Your knees are even waving there. Stay with your hips, the whole way. The wobble seems to coincide with you lifting your chest. Let's see a working set from the rear oblique, not on the ground.

Here's a rear oblique at 100kg * 5. For reference, 1RM is about 140kg, the original video was about 115kg * 5 and the light one that still had a bit of wobble was 80kg * 5. I can post a heavier video if it'll help but it sounds like the problem is occurring for me even at light weights.



In case it helps, here's a second set of 100kg * 5 shot from behind where the buckling is very obvious: Rear - YouTube. And here's a couple of reps at 80kg from the rear oblique (the same weight that still had the 'wobble' in the previous post): Rear diagonal light - YouTube.

Despite the light weight, the reps where I kept the knees out felt difficult. I was also unusually sore the next day. I guess there's 2 problems: 1) Knees cave and I need to go lighter and work back up without them caving. 2) The knees seemed to wobble in the video in the last post even at a very light weight. Can you see anything in these videos that could indicate why?

Cheers

[Tom Campitelli]

You have a long torso, my friend. A long torso and short legs. I think I know why you may be wobbling, however. You are overextending your spine. That needs to stop. You are also lifting your chest quite a bit after your initial bounce out of the bottom. Stop arching your back so hard. Just stand up normally and lock everything down with a big breath. Stay with your hips all the way through the middle and the top. Think of the squat as originating from the sacrum. Your short legs and long torso mean you won't lean over quite as much as some other folks. Arching your back LESS is going to make you even slightly more upright. That is okay. Get a neutral spine and drive up with your ass the whole way to the top.

[Alex Kershaw]

You have a long torso, my friend. A long torso and short legs. I think I know why you may be wobbling, however. You are overextending your spine. That needs to stop. You are also lifting your chest quite a bit after your initial bounce out of the bottom. Stop arching your back so hard. Just stand up normally and lock everything down with a big breath. Stay with your hips all the way through the middle and the top. Think of the squat as originating from the sacrum. Your short legs and long torso mean you won't lean over quite as much as some other folks. Arching your back LESS is going to make you even slightly more upright. That is okay. Get a neutral spine and drive up with your ass the whole way to the top.

So to clarify - when in the squat am I over-extending the spine? At the top, on the way down or on the way up? At the top it definitely doesn't feel like it - I can definitely extend it more if I try to overextend there. If it's on the way up then I might know why it's happening - I realised about a rep into the following set that my body might be interpreting my 'hips up' instruction as 'extend the spine'.



The reps after that were each a bit different as I was trying to get myself to disconnect the hip movement with the back over-extending movement... The weight was light enough that I could keep the knees out but I don't know if there was any of the 'wobble'.

Could I be thinking on the right lines with the hips up thing?

[Tom Campitelli]

I cannot really see what your back is doing there.

[Alex Kershaw]

I cannot really see what your back is doing there.

You should have a better view here. I think my knees are still wobbling a bit. I tried to stay a bit more upright for this set in the hope that it would cure the back overextension (I may be a motor moron). I should mention - I've never had any knee injury but I have had a recurring lower back injury.



How does the back look? Cheers.