Tendonitis in knee from squats...

[Aslin]

Basically I went up too heavy too quick when I was squatting last week and did a few sets with my knees coming in on the way up, it caused me to have pain in the outside of both knees, but primarily from my left knee...

I dropped the weight 10% and have been making my way back up this week...

I know rippetoe says to work through the pain by squatting deep, but am I doing the right thing by working through this tendonitis? I've just been taking Ibuprofen for it and making sure I keep my knees out.....

[nisora33]

Basically I went up too heavy too quick when I was squatting last week and did a few sets with my knees coming in on the way up, it caused me to have pain in the outside of both knees, but primarily from my left knee...

I dropped the weight 10% and have been making my way back up this week...

I know rippetoe says to work through the pain by squatting deep, but am I doing the right thing by working through this tendonitis? I've just been taking Ibuprofen for it and making sure I keep my knees out.....

It should be fine, if your form is kept really strict, but it may take some time to heal now that it's inflamed. Don't expect it to happen overnight, and be patient. If lowering the weight 10% and working back up with "perfect" form doesn't help after some time, you may have to introduce other therapeutic modalities.

-Stacey

[gzt]

Oh! I've done this before. I'm no expert, but, just so you know, there aren't any tendons on the outsides of your knees. There are ligaments. The lateral or fibular collateral ligaments. I don't know if that's what's hurting, though. The pain went away after I stopped being stupid and lowered weights enough to maintain good form, but I also started wearing knee sleeves when squatting. If I let my knees wobble in a little, the knees might complain the next day.

[Malcontent]

Same thing happened to me when I first got into squatting. My knees weren't used to the strain, and I allowed my form to deteriorate on heavy sets (knees buckling in). I never missed a squat workout because of it, but I could barely bend my knees or get out of a chair the following day. Took me about 4 months to get rid of through consistent stretching, massaging the tendon, and various other exercises I found online like eccentric loading, foam rolling, etc. Not sure how long healing would have taken had I stopped squatting, but I believe the squatting (ironically) actually helped the healing process. Hope your case won't last 4 months (I've read of cases that lasted even longer, and eventually deteroriated into tendonosis).

[Dastardly]

Indeed, you may have sprained your lateral ligaments.

[Tom Campitelli]

If he sprained anything, he would definitely know about it. Sprains are pretty serious injuries and generally require very quick and/or violent twisting of joints. They are often accompanied by quite a bit of swelling. It would be unusual to sprain anything while squatting. Irritation and inflammation from bad form, however, is common.