Pain on inside of left knee at bottom of squat

[verminaard]

Hello all,

I am having problems with the inside of my left knee when I squat. Basically whenever I am at the bottom of a squat, be it barbell loaded squat, an air squat, or even squat stretch I have a pain on the inside of my left knee. This seems to be independent of my foot position, so I do not think it is a tracking issue, but it could be.

It is almost as if whatever muscle inserts into the inside of the knee (right below the kneecap) is pulling hard on my knee. Anyone have any ideas what might cause this, maybe some kind of muscle imbalance or flexibility issue?

For what it is worth, my right knee is completely fine at comparable angles.

[Dastardly]

You might have Patellar tendinitis:



Do you mean the area below the kneecap?

If you mean literally inside/within the kneecap, it will probably be labelled as "Chrondomalacia Patella" which is a somewhat non-descript term, suggesting a painful problem at the kneecap.

I had it to an extreme amount, it seemed to be due to unbalanced stress from various muscles. It was fixed by getting squat shoes. Some people (like Gary Gibson) felt the opposite, that shoes gives their knees more trouble than flat feet.

[blowdpanis]

Try this stretch, and see if it makes you feel like crying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBg6-5Tsli4

I have noticed a relationship between that stretch feeling like my quads are going to rip in half and knee pain, and the relationship is sort of obvious. Chronically tight quads = pulls on patella via the quadriceps tendon = pain somewhere around the patella.

A vicious, vicious massage to the area (quads and IT band) can also be quite helpful, so consider that. The poor man's version being the purchasing of a foam roller, though the effect isn't quite as good imho.

[verminaard]

Try this stretch, and see if it makes you feel like crying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBg6-5Tsli4

I have noticed a relationship between that stretch feeling like my quads are going to rip in half and knee pain, and the relationship is sort of obvious. Chronically tight quads = pulls on patella via the quadriceps tendon = pain somewhere around the patella.

A vicious, vicious massage to the area (quads and IT band) can also be quite helpful, so consider that. The poor man's version being the purchasing of a foam roller, though the effect isn't quite as good imho.

Thanks for the replies. Tried the stretch. Couldn't even get close to getting in the position the women is in. It appears both my quads are tight (compared to hers at least, I do not know if "average" people can get in this position).

Will definitely try stretching out the quads.

[verminaard]

You might have Patellar tendinitis:



Do you mean the area below the kneecap?

If you mean literally inside/within the kneecap, it will probably be labelled as "Chrondomalacia Patella" which is a somewhat non-descript term, suggesting a painful problem at the kneecap.

I had it to an extreme amount, it seemed to be due to unbalanced stress from various muscles. It was fixed by getting squat shoes. Some people (like Gary Gibson) felt the opposite, that shoes gives their knees more trouble than flat feet.

The pain is very hard to localize. Sometimes seems to be coming from inside, sometimes outside, sometimes top. Probably indicates it is Patellar tendinitis?

[Braindrop]

Sounds like exactly what I have, which is tendinitis (got an MRI a few weeks ago, see my log). I completely quit running, did a 10% reset on squats, switched to going up by 2.5# per session instead of 5#, warmed up better, added some TK knee bands, and topped with mucho ice and ibruprofen (800 mg 2x day).

Today I squatted above the weight that hurt like hell last time with no problems.

Good luck, it sucks!