[quote]BigDawg6593 wrote:
There is no way i could squat high bar barefoot. One thing that might be helpful is when i squat high bar, i try and get deep, trying to stop at parallel feels very unnatural in this setup. I use a pair of the Rogue Do Wins for what its worth. Any shoe should work great [/quote]
I agree about stopping. I just go as deep as I can and use the stretch reflex. But I’m not super flexible so I don’t really go ATG. And I also use a lifting shoe and find it really helps out a lot.
don’t need to echo the excellent advice on here already, but although ido High-bar squats, I still use low-bar ques. Pack the kneck, super arch upper and lower back(qued in by kneck packing), and sitting back.
I don’t end up sitting back, but its the feeling that puts all the effort into the muscles instead of the joints. I know I’ve got it right after a set when my glutes etc are pumped up, but my lower back and knees don’t feel a thing.
This is an excellent thread and I’m glad I ran into it. Joint health is something that I’ve been looking into recently. I used to get knee pains when squatting parallel. Recently (about 2 months), I’ve switched to ATG. My stance is relatively narrow as is my grip. I’ve been squatting heavy 4-5x a week with maxes twice a week and I no longer experience the knee pain I had back then. One weird thing I’m getting recently is a weird twitch-y feeling coming from my lower quad region from time to time as I ascend in a squat. I stretch and do mobility on a daily basis as well as foam roll a couple times a week. Overall, knee joints definitely feel a lot better than before despite an increase in frequency and intensity. However, I still want to look for preventative measure to ward myself against knee problems (and elbow as well since I’m pretty much doing almost the same thing for bench) in case they happen. Ankle mobility is one thing I’m looking into after seeing it on mobility wod. Any other suggestions?
Ice on knee sounds interesting, what’s the mechanics behind it?
Ill throw in my two cents: no squatting variation has given me much problems as far as knees go, but I know for sure that when I leg press and my knees travel too far over my toes, it was absolutely destroying my knees. Two birds with one stone for me there, getting your feet higher and wider on the leg press hits the hams/glutes more as well as saved my knees, and my hams were a long time weakness.
That said, I usually wear knee sleeves, all though I recently lost mine and don’t particularly miss them. You can try doing more warmups with lower weight. I do this for shoulder pressing (like 40+ reps with just the bar), and it’s worked wonders for my f’d up shoulder.
Maybe I skimmed the thread too much, but have you seen a doctor about this?
I have had a knee issue in the past, but after a long layoff last year (4 months) it’s since gone away – my squat form doesn’t have as much forward knee travel now, though.
Hey man, your joints are most likely fine, I see more of a soft tissue thing.
You went from a wide stance, parallel squat utilizing mainly hams and glutes, to a narrow stance squat using mostly quads and glutes.
All that’s wrong is you have some bad bad patellar tendonitis, to the point where your knee has swollen as a rection from your body to get blood in there to assist in healing. This is happening because your quads have become tight as a mother effer, and that’s pulling on the knee. You can do wide stance, because that only work quads and hams and takes the knee out of it.
Does that make sense?
So right now, you really need some solid plc pipe rolling on your quads… I’m talking 30 mins 2-3 times a week where you want to die it hurts so much… do that, look for a gluteus imbalance just in case, and you should be laughing,
I think the squat gets over thought. Try this; no weight, hands down to your side. Now squat down and get into a comfortable position. Wiggle around until it feels like you could stay there for awhile. stand up and squat down. That should be your stance, anything else leaves you fighting your body. For the record, I’m a narrow squat guy at 5’-10". I never squat without wraps and never had a real knee problem.
