Old Dog - First squatting in 4 years (knee pain) form check

[JDDausch]

Quick list about my situation:

-45 years old
-Training 15 years and competed
-Best lifts 445/345/565 @ 220
-Horrible knee pain started 4-5 years ago and stopped squatting. Worse on right side.
-Ice, rest, PT, nothing helped. Trained around the pain, but no squats.
-Finally decided...f*** it, I’m squatting again
-3rd session today, pain is horrible at beginning of workout but calms down towards the end of squatting, then slowly returns.
-Generally, my knee pain has been a little better, even with all the squatting the last week. I’m happy about that.
-I feel like my left leg is doing all the work. Feels like there’s an imbalance, like I’ve been favoring my left leg due to the right knee pain.
-I’m also wondering if I should go to a flatter shoe. I’m afraid the heeled shoe may throw my knees forward and exacerbate the irritation. Probably splitting hairs here though.

Anyway, here are my work sets with 195 today. Let me know what you see. I know what I see, but don’t want to cloud any judgement.

Thanks in advance.

Set 1
Set 2
Set 3

[JDDausch]

Videos didn’t upload correctly. Let me try again.

[JDDausch]

Trying again...

YouTube

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[Charlocity2]

Does more depth somehow exacerbate your knee pain? I ask because they appear at least an inch high. I only watched the third set. Strong finish at the top of each rep may be an indication there's a lot more in the tank.

I know you can't control lighting in a commercial gym, but it was a little dark, coupled with the dark clothing you were wearing.

[JDDausch]

I’m trying to find my ideal bottom position since deeper causes more irritation. In the past I squatted way too low in the gym and in competition. I had a judge tell me I was 3” too low on a third attempt. I agree they were a little high, definitely more in the tank but I’m easing back into it.

Thanks for the input.

[Satch12879]

Stance is wide which is limiting depth. Knees need to come forward past the toes. I'd bet money trying to hold them back and maintain vertical shins is why you're getting discomfort in your knees, likely some kind of tendonitis.

[JDDausch]

Stance is wide which is limiting depth. Knees need to come forward past the toes. I'd bet money trying to hold them back and maintain vertical shins is why you're getting discomfort in your knees, likely some kind of tendonitis.

I thought I wanted to stay in the hips and out of the knees? I thought knees forward was a bad thing, especially with knee pain. This is probably my 20 year old training thought process though.

[Charlocity2]

I’m trying to find my ideal bottom position since deeper causes more irritation. In the past I squatted way too low in the gym and in competition. I had a judge tell me I was 3” too low on a third attempt. I agree they were a little high, definitely more in the tank but I’m easing back into it.

Thanks for the input.

I see. Too much depth usually requires either lumbar flexion and/or knee slide. Given that you haven't mentioned lumbar injury or fatigue, maybe it was past knee slide that bothered your knee.

[carson]

Depth was a little shy. You seem not to be using your hips when rising. Try a knee wrap or wraps.

[Jstrause]

It looks like there is a bit of knee slide at the bottom and you are limiting it by stopping the descent high. If you continued to proper depth I would guess the knee slide would be more apparent.

I had a similiar problem because I was not breaking simultaneously at the hips and knees.
It was engrained in my head that any knee movement was bad and it took a while to break that habit. I used TUBOW to set the knees at about 1/3-1/2 way down and focused on staying tight.