Topic: Knee Pain

[Patrick Bateman]

tried some rehband knee sleeves?

Most of my knee issues stopped once i got these.

also, my knee cracking stopped once i started to low bar back squat. It never hurt when it cracked, but it stopped. My guess was somethign due to a quad/hamstring strength imbalance, but that is just the guess.

[James A. Naples Jr.]

Hey Brother just watched the video.  The feet look very close together.  Could be the video, but i think a wider stance will def help out.  ALso have you ever tried doing a pause squat?  Going down slow.  Coming to a dead stop them up?  It looks like you are sort of slamming down and up!  Not very smooth and you are not letting your legs do the work. I would lower the weight a bit and really focus on tech and positions.  I know it sucks to go backwards, but sometimes we have to take a step back to go two forward.   Nothing that cannot be fixed or worked on.  This is why we call it training!  lol.    Best of luck. 

[Andy Dick]

I haven't tried knee sleeves, at this point things are really tight though so I wont be able to buy them yet.  Ill look into it though. 

My squat stance is shoulder width, you suggest going slightly outside shoulder width?

I have done stop squats, my weight may be terrible right now because it is been a while.  I will concentrate on controlling my descent more.  At this point dropping my weights some is no big deal they are already low because of having to take the time off so a few more points might not hurt.

The good news though is after squatting yesterday my knees still feel alright which is a good sign thus far.  I am planning on snatching and clean and jerks saturday so hopefully that will go well.  This will be the first day of doing cleans and clean and jerk since my time off.

[Tom Sherwood]

andy how long was your break from lifting before starting back up?
squats look fine to me.

[Andy Dick]

2 weeks absolutely no leg work at all.  Lifted squats and rdls for hypertrophy work for 4 weeks afterwards consisting of 3x10 with 1 minute rest.  Took 1 week off for my honeymoon.  Then started back up with sets of 3 last week and slowly working olympic lifts back in. 

Today I did snatch and clean and jerks.  3 sets of singles for snatch, in kgs, hit 70x1 for 2 sets and missed 75 (current best pre-time off was 87.5).  Clean and jerks (80x2 85x2 90x2 85x1 90x1 95x1 100x1).  I hit 100 with a very slight press but I think that was all I would be able to get because it felt heavy (current best pre-time off was 115).

Only very slight discomfort in the knee after the 100 set, less than a 1 on a pain scale.  Knee felt ok at the start and during the workout but was making may popping and crackling sounds.

Squats took a huge hits from the time off.  Was doing, in kg, 150x5 and 152.5 x4 before the time off.  Squats are now down 136ishx3 (300lbs) as a struggle as you can see from the video. Front squats I maxed 315lbs but now 275 is about all I can front squat.

Would you agree that I need to widen my stance a bit as well as control my descent more in the squat?

[Tom Sherwood]

i dont think you should go any wider than shoulder width. imo you should have your squat stance the same as your snatch and clean recovery stance. you may just need to take more total time off of legs again perhaps 3-4 weeks.

[Andy Dick]

You don't think it would be beneficial to just keep taking it slow and seeing what happens?  Like I said after today it felt ok.

I am leery about taking more time off because of the huge strength decrease I took with the last 2 weeks of time off.  I can maybe deal and would be open with decreasing volume and intensity to at least maintain strength if you think that would help.  But if its a matter of take time off or reinjure it or make it worse then I guess I will do what I must to recover it.

Please let me know what you think.

[Matt Erdman]

I don't see a reason to widen your stance if you are comfortable the way it is. I don't know if you mentioned it, but the angle your feet are pointing could make a difference. I have found that angling my feet out more than what feels natural has really helped me.

You should definitely slow your squat decent, and in the future look to getting a little more depth. Bouncing out of the squat just inflates the numbers and increases the stress on your spine and joints. With a 150x5 squat you should be lifting much more in your competition lifts, but again the number has been inflated by loose squatting technique. By being more strict you will get a true idea of your leg strength, and it will correlate better with your competition lifts.