Top 3 Reasons Why Your Knee Hurts When You Squat and Their Fixes.
1: Weak Hips
This is the most common issue I come across. The hip, specifically the gluteal muscles, don’t support the knee sufficiently to allow for a proper squat. The knee is a ‘hinge joint’ and just wants to bend and straighten essentially. When the hips can’t keep the knee steady in place, the knees can cave-in. Doing this repeatedly will cause knee pain and, with enough load, may cause tissue damage.
2: Limited Ankle Mobility
You might not even realize this but the ankle is critical to a proper squat. Many people pay close attention to the hip as well as strengthening the muscles of the thigh to improve the squat. While these are all important, if the ankle does not have sufficient mobility, no amount of strength will allow proper form and range of motion to have a complete squat.
3: Poor Form
I would say if you have knee pain with squatting, your form is likely not optimal. Granted there can be exceptions to that but we can review a couple key points.
As we mentioned above, we never want your knees to collapse inward toward each other. You always want a stable base for your legs with your knee/thigh tracking in-line with your toes, or even slightly lateral/outside of your toes — never inward.
We also want you to squat as if sitting back in a chair.
If you are experiencing knee/ankle pain during or after squats,
Let our skilled a
Physiotherapists assess your form and muscle strength.
Give us a call.
