Squat Form check--desperately need help

[Misery]

So I've literally been trying to perfect my squat form for months, and just when I think I'm at a breakthrough, I encounter a setback.

No matter how I adjust my form, my knees are always mildly or extremely soar after squatting, depending on what type of adjustments I've made. I thought it might be flexibility, but at this point I can touch my palms to the ground without bending my knees and I'm a few centimeters off a full split.

Needless to say, my flexibility is superb right now. I...just don't get what I could possibly be doing so wrong to have my knees so...not strong at the best, so here's my most recent videos.

You can check my profile to see my other failures if you'd like, but I need to know why my knees are hurting. I track them with my toes, I push them outwards, I get depth...I just don't understand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HA1BevCx8g

PLEASE tell me where I'm screwing up.

[NKT]

I'm still very much a newb at this, but here's my take on it:

It looks like you lose lower back extension and your hips start curving under when you reach right around parallel, causing a loss of tension in your hamstrings. This makes the thighs do more than their fair share of the work out of the bottom, and produces unbalanced forces in the knee joint. Keep your lower back fully extended and use the tension on your hamstrings to "bounce" you out of the bottom rather than allowing it to drag your hips under you as you go lower.

[DV]

Your buttwink tendencies (and armposition) are things to note, to be sure. However I'm not sure they are causing the wonky knees. The buttwinking isnt even that bad, in my opinion. However it does look like your knees retract at the bottom, which is rather weird (if anything they usually slide forward).

Why dont you post it up in Rips Q&A? Preferably with a bit better lighting and angle. And get one from directly behind - perhaps your knees are caving in, even though it isnt obvious from this angle.

You have the book, right? I find that studying the squat chapter, and implementing it can clear up alot of things.

[JT in MD]

Check your wrists and elbows. Get your elbows up higher and flatten out your wrists. You will thank me when the weights get heavier and you're not nursing a sore elbow.

[PVC]

Post it on Rip's forum.

[Misery]

so I've gotten a lot of critique since then, and while RIppe said there was basically nothing wrong he could see with my form from my video, my knees feel like absolute crap. If this keeps up, there will be an injury and that would devastate me.

But if my form is solid enough not to have Rippe throw the book at me, I'm at loss. Well until someone who apparently had the same knee and back issues as me said my shins were too vertical andmy knees weren't going forward enough.

Could this be the reason behind my terrible knee health and tight back? Do my shins look much too vertical in my clip? I tried the wooden block test from SS and noticed with my usual form, my knees came up well short of touching it. With my new form, I either graze or rattle it--I'll find a sweet spot.

Could this be the reason behind 8 months of painful knees?

[PVC]

Make another video of you squatting. Film one set from behind, and one from the side. Post it here.

[Tom Campitelli]

It's very difficult to see what your knees are doing in the video, so it's tough to say if form is the issue. Nothing looks terribly off from what can be seen in the video.

How much bodyweight have you put on since starting your squats?
How much weight have you increased on the squat?

Sometimes the connective tissues get a little irritated under progressive loading. This isn't always the case, but if you have upped your squat weight significantly without putting on much bodyweight, that may be a part of the problem

Also, do you do any foam rolling?
If not, try it. Focus on the IT band and the insertions of the quads around the knee. Many times people can diminish their knee pain through foam roller work. Not always, but it is cheap and worth a try.

[Tom Campitelli]

One other thing. How are your hips? Do you have tight hip flexors? If you were to roll on a lacrosse ball near near the insertion of the rectus femoris by the hip, would it be really painful? Look upstream and downstream from your knee to see if you can find any areas of tightness.

[Misery]

Haha, trust me, I've done much preventage and restoritave work in the past few months. Rolling my IT bands only stings on the worst days, compared to when it was mind-numbingly painful before. I came one inch shy of a full side split last night, so I assume that answers the question about my hip flexors. My bodyweight has gone from around 168-170 to 193, so that definitely isn't the problem.

All my other lifts have increased. My squat has plateaued at 225. Mainly because my knees kill me after every lift. I'm tired of them popping. I'm tired of imflammation. I don't see why this happens when, from what's apparently a poor angle, my form isn't a disaster.

I'll push my knees forward (they will still go out; that I won't change) to fix this vertical shin problem and put up videos. If my knees still fill like a wreck after this, I suppose there's box squats, but I'll definitely be burned out on the lift as a whole, even though I desperately and have tried for the greater part of a year to succeed with it.