My left knee is clicking

[Coffee is sacred]

Hello everyone!

I'm doing Starting Strength, but ironically I haven't squatted at all this summer. The reason for this is because my left knee started making this clicking sound this summer, along with experiencing some discomfort, and it seemed that squatting (or my squatting technique) was the culprit. So to avoid knee injury, I decided to stay away from squatting for a while. I've done a good deal of stretching, because it seems to me that the problem isn't necessarily the knee itself, but the left thigh muscle being too tight. If I sit in seiza, that is, on my knees (martial arts people should know) I can definitely feel my left thigh being under substantially more stress than the right one. So I stretched, the clicking stopped and for weeks and months the knee felt normal. Great! So I squatted again this Monday, and now the clicking and discomfort is back. Either my squatting technique sucks, my left thigh simply tightened from the effort, or I have some kind of knee issue. Has anyone on this forum experienced anything similar, and has anyone found a good solution to this?

[Mark Rippetoe]

Some knees click. Doesn't necessarily mean anything is wrong. Post a squat video.

[Coffee is sacred]

Thank you sir. I likely need some input. For all I know, my technique is positively memeworthy.

Now, I realized after the fact that these videos could really be much better in terms of angle, quality, aesthetics of portrayed person and whatnot, but they are what they are. I'll make adjustments if I get the pointers.

The first two are with a barbell, the last two are with that safety squat bar I bought for some reason:

Video 1: squat1.mp4 - Google Drive

Video 2: squat2.mp4 - Google Drive

Video 3: squat3.mp4 - Google Drive

Video 4: squat4.mp4 - Google Drive

Again, thank you.

[Will Morris]

Thank you sir. I likely need some input. For all I know, my technique is positively memeworthy.

Now, I realized after the fact that these videos could really be much better in terms of angle, quality, aesthetics of portrayed person and whatnot, but they are what they are. I'll make adjustments if I get the pointers.

The first two are with a barbell, the last two are with that safety squat bar I bought for some reason:

Video 1: squat1.mp4 - Google Drive

Video 2: squat2.mp4 - Google Drive

Video 3: squat3.mp4 - Google Drive

Video 4: squat4.mp4 - Google Drive

Again, thank you.

Your squat technique could use some work. It looks like you are familiar with what it should be performed like, but it really lacks the complete understanding of what it should look like that a coach could get in relatively short order. This does not sound like an intra-articular clicking (meniscal)….this actually sounds a lot like Plica Syndrome. Of course, keep in mind that it is impossible to assess something like this via grainy videos on the internet, but, that sounds very much like plica snapping and it is relatively predictable which also seems plica related.