Squat help- knee pain

[Aimee]

Hi all,

I was wondering if I could get some help with my squat form. Things were going ok until last week were some knee pain cropped up. I followed standard protocol- NSAIDS, ice, got a massage, saw the physio and made sure there was no cartilage or ligament damage (there is not.) I am currently running HLM. I got through the rest of the week with deadlifts and such, missed the L and M days to try and rest it up, and it did feel better. I hit my H day squats yesterday and it feels like shit again today.

I am sure this is a result of poor form which I am going to try and rectify.



This is my 2nd set. I hit my planned sets of 5x5 @ 75 (165) but they felt ordinary.

For background info I am 27, female, no history of this injury before, sleeping and eating well, 5ft2 and about 150lbs.

The pain I am currently experiencing is in the back of my right knee, basically on my hamstring insertion. Last week it felt a bit more isolated to the biceps femoris insertion. It hurts mostly on extension. I am not currently taking ibuprofen as I did 3200mg for 5 days last week and stopped. I will ice etc tonight as usual, but I would like some advise on where to go from here with my technique and/or programming.

For info I compete in 10 weeks, this was my 3rd programmed week of squats, so it was early days still. Bit disheartening but I am hoping I can sort this out and move forward.

Thank you, I really appreciate any assistance.

[Jeff Brophy]

Is the pain during extension happening during the squat movement/during recovery or both?

[Aimee]

Is the pain during extension happening during the squat movement/during recovery or both?

No pain during squats, it appears the next day.

[Jeff Brophy]

No pain during squats, it appears the next day.

I went through a period of recovery knee pain during my training. Came out of nowhere. I was able to squat but some recovery days were brutal, though i stayed with my program once I realized it was just pain, not damage. I did alot of voodoo flossing of my knees which would help with the pain. Unfortunately It lasted about 4 months then went away about as quickly as it came on. There where pretty good gains during that time so I've wondered if it was just my body adapting to higher, more frequent loading.

Form looks pretty good. From my perspective (In addition to mglichrest's comments) it looks like your going a bit past parallel and having a bit of knee slide at the bottom of the hole. This could be looseness. I wonder if you stopped just below parallel without the last bit of knee slide if that would help?

[Aimee]

Unfortunately it does feel a bit damaged. My tendons feel inflamed and tight. The muscle bellies are also sore as fuck. My knee feels fluidy and really uncomfortable.

I will work on correcting the extra depth first. Maybe that will fix the issue on it's own. I will come back with a video later. Tonight I am probably going to skip light squats to give the tendons a chance to heal a bit. This is kind of negatively effecting my ability to do my job right now

[Aimee]

I see your butt moving backwards a bit out of the hole. The knees are tracking along as well. Basically, you do a really good job getting your knees in place on the way down, but on the concentric, they need to stay there a little longer to help support the hip drive. Knees out on the way back up might be helpful here.

When I drive my hips up ^ my knees shoot back <. I think that is what you are seeing. Do you have a cue in mind to help fix that issue?

[Aimee]

A few things may help:

-Is someone available to block your hips, as illustrated in the book? This is a useful drill.

-The master cue and mentally focusing on the hips going straight up.

-Yelling at yourself "knees out!!!" on the way back up. This will help keep them in place. (lots of experience here)

Ok, sounds good. Yes I have a friend I can ask to assist me with hip blocking drills. I will do these this week. The other two cues I will work on as well as depth correction.

[Adam Skillin]

When I drive my hips up ^ my knees shoot back <. I think that is what you are seeing. Do you have a cue in mind to help fix that issue?

See how your knees and hips come backwards, and your back angle becomes slightly more horizontal as you come out of the bottom?

If you stopped your knees from coming forward those last couple inches, and sat back/leaned over a tiny bit more, so that you established that same angle on the way down, I'm willing to bet you'd have a much happier pair of knees.

[Aimee]

See how your knees and hips come backwards, and your back angle becomes slightly more horizontal as you come out of the bottom?

If you stopped your knees from coming forward those last couple inches, and sat back/leaned over a tiny bit more, so that you established that same angle on the way down, I'm willing to bet you'd have a much happier pair of knees.

Just to clarify, you are saying my back angle should be more horizontal on the way down, matching what my angle currently is on the way up? Also, when you say "stopped your knees from coming forward those last couple inches" do you think that will be corrected with fixing my depth & back angle, or do you think further drills (TUBOW?) would be useful? I am running HLM so I can add form drills in easily to my L day stuff if you think they would be helpful.

[Adam Skillin]

Just to clarify, you are saying my back angle should be more horizontal on the way down, matching what my angle currently is on the way up? Also, when you say "stopped your knees from coming forward those last couple inches" do you think that will be corrected with fixing my depth & back angle, or do you think further drills (TUBOW?) would be useful? I am running HLM so I can add form drills in easily to my L day stuff if you think they would be helpful.

I think that you need to stop the knees forward travel where you initially stop it and stop letting them come forward a few extra inches at the very bottom. This will limit depth to just below parallel and necessitate (and result in) a more horizontal back angle in the descent.

Gilchrest was coming at this from the opposite direction, but effectively saying the same thing.

So in order to hit the proper depth, you'll stop your knees where they first stop during the descent, and finish hitting depth by sitting back and down (and hence leaning over) to the extent you can without letting your butt "wink" underneath. Absolutely yes to TUBOW if this doesn't intuit. That make sense?