Looking back, when did your knees go over the line?

[Island Son]

I've been doing much deeper squats for the past few months, going to parallel and a little below. In the last couple weeks, my left knee has started to act up. Occasionally I'll just be standing in a lineup and it suddenly feels like it's twisted and it takes a couple minutes to walk it off. Weirdest thing.
For you bros and ladies with knee issues, when did it go from "it'll heal" to "uh-oh, it's a problem"??

 

[Mildot]

I'm afraid I'm already past the point of no return right now.
I gave up back squats all together, replacing them with front squats about a year ago, and my knees are still acting up. I think the best way to describe the "pain" is like a paper cut inside the knee. A really sharp pain that only lasts for a second or two, but when ever it happens I'm like "oh shit, that ain't good."
I am 100% sure it was from heavy ATF squats, and yes, my form was picture perfect.
Sucks.

 

[endpoint]

, and yes, my form was picture perfect.
Sucks.

says who?

I hear this all the time. "coach said i have good form", "the PT said i have good form", "i think i have good form"

but none of them do......
the worst are those who use mirrors and think they have perfect form

 

[jerkbox]

i have never done atf squats...never saw the point to go very far below parallel. and I have been doing squats for a long time.....

my knee injury came from a pick up basketball game, 9 months and one ACL reconstruction later, I was back to squatting....now I do box squats

 

[Lord_Suston]

I've been doing much deeper squats for the past few months, going to parallel and a little below. In the last couple weeks, my left knee has started to act up. Occasionally I'll just be standing in a lineup and it suddenly feels like it's twisted and it takes a couple minutes to walk it off. Weirdest thing.
For you bros and ladies with knee issues, when did it go from "it'll heal" to "uh-oh, it's a problem"??

I feel your pain... I hurt my knees squatin a while ago (years) and then I realized I had a structural problem, I was quad heavy. The ligament and tendons in the back of my leg were not as strong as the front so my knees were taking a beating. So I did a lot of hamstrintg work and cut downt the weight on squats.. I recommend taking a break from squating for a week or two and try to really hammer you hamms to help strengthen your knees out....

 

[b fold the truth]

3 things....

1) Utilize the leg ext and leg curl before you do any squatting. A set or three of very light leg curls and exts could help prevent this...and a set or two after squatting (light of course on both) could help to prevent further problems.

2) Sit BACK and not down. Sit WAY BACK!!!

3) Try box squats...they are knee savers.

B True

 

[coolcolj]

VMO and Bicep Femoris

really - just because your knees go forward doesn't mean it's bad, the knee can handle a lot more than you think.

A lot of knee problems are due to muscle imbalances, and
overtraining. Overuse etc - the tendons take much longer to recover and get stronger than muscles do, so factor this into account.

The knees just like the shoulders are prone to muscle imbalances.
All the msucles around the knee - act and pull on the kneecap, obviously if one msucle is weak, there is going be an uneven tug-o-war. This causes pain..

Usually a weak VMO is major culprit. Doing a lot of powerlifting style squats can cause this from what I have seen with a few people, but they fixed this by adding front squats and peterson stepups (hits the VMO)

read the Poliquin artcile on jumper's knees for some insight.

Off course your pain could be due to other issues such as tearing or straining some of the ligaments around the knee. It's all very easy to point the blame at one exercise - I mean lots of people injure their lower backs doing good mornings, and it's usually due to a laspe in concentration and not the exercise.

You'd be surprised how much overtraining contributes to joint/tendon pains.

Leg extensions put a lot more shearing force on the knees actually...

 

[T-Rage]

Back when I was still squating seriously I never had knee problems and I was handling 315 for sets of 12 and 350 for a PR of around 5 (I'm 5'-7" and was around 190 lbs. at the time). I think the thing that saved my knees was that I mountain biked 3 times a week and I always walked for like 15 minutes and then did 5 minutes on an exercise bike increasing the resistance every minute. I then would massage and slap my knees before finally squatting.

Also, sqautting and leg extensions are very one dimensional in terms of the knees. There is not a lot of lateral stuff going on. That's where some good ole hiking on uneven surfaces and biking can help alot.

 

[endpoint]

yeah to what coolcolJ said.......thats some good advice.

i remember reading a study where all these athletes were tested......and only 5 or 6 of them had good balance between all the muscles of the leg....and they were sprinters and weightlifters, both who have big strong hamstrings and VMO

 

[Island Son]

Re: Re: Looking back, when did your knees go over the line?

I used to do a lot of quad work because that was where I improved the fastest. I stopped over a year ago (because of the imbalance), but I didn't replace it with the same intensity of hamstring work.

All great advice. Thanks guys!!