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Barbell Knee pain and other Squat question

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These look pretty good to me. I don't see any obvious cause of trouble to the knees, but you said this stance and depth is a little different than you had been doing, so it could be that you've fixed the cause of the issue. Your stance looks right and your depth looks ideal (to my eyes) for low bar squat. You do a great job of keeping the knees out... possibly even too good of a job? They are pretty far out and you have them there throughout the reps, at least on the view from the front... most people have the opposite problem, so I hesitate to steer you back the other way, but just make sure your knees track your toes and you're not tracking way outside or at a different angle than your feet. I would recommend lifting shoes for this particular type of squat but you seem to be OK without them (you'll do better knee-wise and strength-wise if you wear lifting shoes, IMO).

Two other things that caught my eye, not likely related to your knees but other opportunities for improvement: 1) Get under the bar to rack and unrack. It's out in front of you currently, so you have to lever it out with your back. Get wedged under it and squat under it, stand up, then step back with a minimum of foot movement. This all gets more important as it gets heavier. 2) Use your breath more to stabilize your spine. There are times you look a little wobbly between reps, and you could take a bigger breath and get tighter for each rep. I see you brace the torso muscles, but put more focus on the breath and diaphragm to make your torso tight and strong along with the abs and back muscles.
 
I thought they looked pretty solid. Right at and some a little above parallel. Are you doing 5 or 6 reps?

Stance could probably be just a touch wider - you might play w. that and see. Sometimes a narrower stance combined w. actively shoving the knees out (as some coaches like to cue) can be really aggravating to the knees and lower back if your hips are in a weird position.

The set-up - you're GMing the weight out of the rack (doing a good morning to unrack the bar). Stop doing that. You won't be able to do that when it gets "heavy". Step under the bar and squat it from the pins, take two steps back to set up for your rep(s).
 
One thing about unracking the bar—move your feet to be directly under the bar so you can stand up with the bar—you are leaned forward and doing a "back extension" to unrack the bar. This will catch up with you as you go heavier. {Funny—I was writing this as Boris and Anna were posting and we all keyed in on the unracking.}

I suspect that if you have made a couple of adjustments (not going as deep and narrower stance) then you are on the right path. The third set that felt "off" did look like you were going deeper than the other sets.

Practice your set-up and establishing your stance so you are in the same position for every set.
 
@marcelotine - a couple thoughts, some related to knees and some not:

1. You good morning the bar out of the rack. As weight gets heavier, this can get dicey on your back. Put your knees and shoulders under the bar, stacked, and push your hips forward to raise the bar. Edit to add - others already beat me to mentioning this.

2. The last bit of ROM in your squat shows you pushing your knees forward. This can contribute to knee pain for some people.

3. You're still going a bit lower than parallel (looks like 1-2"). Try bringing it up a little more. This might also stop the knee translation forward.

So really, I would recommend two actions right now, one directly related to the knee. The next step is to play with foot placement and degree of turnout and to play with that in conjunction with bar position. But before we just change everything, try what I mentioned in point 1 and 3, practice that, take a couple videos, and see if you still have that knee push at the bottom of the squat.

Now, to be 100% clear - there are a LOT of high level weightlifters that actively use that knee push into/out of the bottom; however, I have found both personally and with training others that some folks do NOT tolerate it at all. Also to be clear, I'm not talking about not letting the knees travel forward at all, that is fine and usually natural, but if you look carefully at the videos from the side, when you go into the very bottom of your squat you see your knees push forward.

Again, that may or may not be causing or contributing to this, but it might be something worth playing with. I think the easiest way to deal with that from what I'm seeing is to have you squat just a little higher.
 
Are you doing 5 or 6 reps?

Lol... I see my math skills are also under scrutiny here..:) 5 reps.. I just don't count well. Also occasionally if I'm comfortable with the weight I squeeze in one or two extra reps here and there...I know, I know... I should just stick to the program.
 
@marcelotine - sorry for posting again, but I had a thought. If you're struggling to not go too deep, set your pins at or just below parallel. If you go too deep, you end up tapping the bar against the pins, and you quickly learn two things:

1. How deep to go
2. To descend evenly

I did this a few years ago when I was working on some squat stuff, including one side being lower than the other. It really forces you to control you descent into the hole and to be in charge of where your bottom position is.

This also helps should you decide to start playing with stance to ensure consistency.
 
Personally I would say your depth is spot on, and overall form is very good... I did notice on a few reps you snap your knees on the top of the rep. A possible suggestion would be slow down that last push on your working sets, I know you Might be working on that explosive push but doing that a lot could damage your knees. Just my opinion mate. But like I said good depth and form!
 
Squats look pretty good. Great work!

Push back more with your hips (butt). Try to make your shins as vertical as possible (perpendicular with the floor). You are mostly doing this, but maybe only 80 or 90%, not fully. Cue on the hips, not the knees. Initiate the downward and upward movement with the hips. Focus on pushing your butt backwards more so than downwards. This will take the stress off the knees.

Also, you might need to make your torso a hair less vertical (lean forward). Just a little bit. Experiment. When racking the weight, focus on putting your lat muscles in your back pocket (back and down).

You are pushing your knees out, which is great! It is hard to be certain from the video, but I dont think your feet are rotated outward enough (knees and feet should track together). Also, I recommend shoes. Especially if your knees hurt. Also, depth is great. Maybe even cut it short 1" higher.

Big breaths in between reps. Valsava maneuver. Breath into your stomach (or groin). Big breath. Push back with hips. Explode up.

Experiment with making your stance a lil wider.

I agree with others comments about your walk out... Take it more seriously.

Honestly, it sounds like I'm being picky, but your squat looks pretty good in my opinion. Great job.

Regards,

Eric
 
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I watched that last video again. I'm pretty certain your left foot really needs to be rotated more. Imagine toes pointing at a 45 angle. You feet placement is probably fine for a typical person, but you do such a great job of pushing your knees out you may need more foot rotation. Experiment. Try it.
 
Thank you all for the thoughtful comments and feedback - I greatly appreciate it!

I will begin working on incorporating your suggestions.
 
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