I’ve taken a few years off lifting and finally got back to it. I’ve been squatting about 4 months and have hit a point now that squatting with light weight, or simply my own bodyweight causes pain at the top of my kneecap going up my thigh ~4"
The pain goes away when I’ve got > 100 lbs on my back, but anything up to there causes pain. Any ideas?
So no idea on what may be tendon issues or knee tracking issues, but I think the difference could be the additional weight shifting the center of gravity backwards, especially if you’re squatting low bar. This would involve more hips and hamstrings and use less knees, so if there’s some kind of issue, you’d be sort of getting around it.
It’d be interesting to take a video from the side to see if anything looks different. Probably best to get things sorted out so you can squat w/o any weights though. Also, phenomenal profile pic.
Keep things simple before trying any corrective exercises and what not. You may not be squatting low enough - have this seen happen to several guys and even myself. It may be caused from the quads adaptively shortening to the knee angle you’re squatting. Try just squatting bodyweight as low as you can go, 5-10 reps, handful times during the day. The knees will be sore doing this, but should start to lessen after several days (if it progressively worsens though obviously stop - you may have another issue). Squatting for your workouts you’ll need to go lower and cut back on weight if needed.
And if you say that you already are squatting low, check your form again.
I know I’m getting low enough. Actually, at the bottom is where the pain is least. I squat in a rack and set the safety bars to know I’m getting low enough. Plus, since reading an article on here about the 3rd world squat a few years back, I drop down and hang in that position for several minutes multiple times in the day.
I am curious about form though. FF, I am squatting low bar. I’ve done high bar my whole life up until these last few months, and I just fucked my back up on PR squat. I think low bar squatting has me lifting my hips too fast causing me to do a good morning after lifting my hips. Maybe I’ll go back to high bar.
And thanks. The profile pic is from a video some guy did about GW on YouTube. You should look it up.
S/F
Oh yeah, very familiar with it. Look up “professor brothers” same creator, along the same lines, not quite as amazing though.