Question on knees, to sqatters especially

[gymtime]

When I bend my right knee with my bodyweight on it, it makes a grinding sound. It's my right knee only, no pain at all, but it sounds a lot like bone-on-bone grinding. The only thing I can attribute it to so far is deep squatting. Although I never do more than 315.

Any experiences with this? Suggestions? I'm going to have it looked at regardless. I just have to get around to doing it. But any info would be appreciated.

 

[Adam MacKinnon]

Glucosamine and MSM may help. Also get someone to check how far forward your knees are going. Try to keep your knees behind your toes.

 

[Screwball]

I agree with Adam. You might also look into Chondroitin and Omega 3's-6's-9's (Flax Seed Oil and Fish Oils). Perhaps, you just need a litlle additional warmup. Form and technique need to be as close to perfect as possible. The knees need to track directly out over the feet but should never extend past your toes. You may try widening your stance and turning your feet out slightly which will place more of the load on your rear chain (hams, glutes, hips and lower back) and less on your lower quads and knees. When I squat off of a box a feel little to nothing on my knees and lower quads. Train hard!

 

[powerlifterjay]

YOu could wrap them loosely. Also there is no need to touch your ass to the back of your calves when you squat go well below parellel, and thats it. If not you still may be ok health wise but your short changing your numbers. If you need to go real deep do box squats on a low box. And by the way the last hevy squat session for me was 3 weeks ago and it was high 700's and my knee is making all kind of noise and patella tendon is somehow inflamed like never before. Its just part of the game bro. If it doesnt hurt you i wouldnt bother with it. Except maybe some Glucosoimine and chondroitin.

 

[gymtime]

Thanks for the info guys. I have heard good things about MSM, so I think I'll start with that.

PLJ - Deep squats for me means just below parallel, and I haven't gone real heavy in years. Like I said, 315 tops. Any more than that and my form suffers.

Finally, and don't kill me for this, what exactly is a box squat?

 

[1-dawg]

I wouldn't worry about it if it doesn't hurt. My left knee constantly makes a popping noise, yet I have never had aknee problem. I never have aching knees, no pain.

 

[flex-mb]

It is perfectly OK for your knees to travel a bit out over your toes. This is only common though in Olympic Style squatting (bar very high on the traps, shoulder width stance and squatting down well below parallel). The important thing is to stay as erect as possible (maintaining a tight arch in the lower back) and push up through the heels. This keeps the center of mass back over your hips and glutes and in the case of the Olympic style squat the center of mass is in the middle of the thigh. Olympic lifters have been doing squats like these for over 40 years without problems. If you have bad knees or especially long legs (or even long femurs relative to your tibia/fibula), then you may have problems doing the Olympic style squat. It is a 'myth' that squatting very deep or squatting where your knees travel out over your toes will give bad knees (the exception is in the next paragraph).

There are also some guys in the gym that lean way too far forward. These are the guys you see where they only do a 1/2 squat. Their heels come up off the ground and they are about to fall flat on their face. Guys that squat like that have extremely weak hips, glutes and lower back relative to their quads which is why they can only go halfway down to parallel. They they lean forward and use almost 100% quads in the movement. Powering out of a deep squat (narrow stance at least) is mainly hips and glutes.

You may have torn something in your knee. It may be torn and not affecting your strength. Who knows? The bottomline is that you need to see a doctor. This is a no-brainer especially if you have insurance. You may also need a referal to an Orthopedic Surgeon. Get it checked out and good luck!

 

[powerlifterjay]

Gymtime a box squat is a squat performed ...well on a box. Un rack the weight and sit back on to the box. Dont flop onto it sit back easily. Once down your body should remain extremly tight , except relax your hips. Just pause a second and explode to the top. If you want to try them i promise you they work. One way i wrked them in till i was convienced they work was squat one week and the next squat off th ebox. Box should be a little below parallel. We have an adjustable box that goes from 5 inches above parallel to 2 inches off the ground.