Having knee pain the day after squatting
 

I just started squats at the gym. 3sets of about 8 reps each.

The day after doing squats, I get pain in my left knee. It's not the piercing kind, but the one that sort of gives you a limp and makes you doubt the stability of the joint.
It's probably a matter of technique, but I'm doing them as properly as I can. I haven't been using heavy weight. I try to track my knees over my toes. I keep my posture erect and the weight centred over my midfoot. And I don't quake my knees when I go up.

If anyone can help me, sweet, because I find this especially annoying when I can't walk properly at work just because of this one knee.
Chris

try widening your feet and point them out more, a lot of people don't do that

just squat up and down right now without any weight, how do your feet point out? That's how they should be when you are doing them in the gym, it should be natural

make sure you warm up first with some cardio and maybe do a light set of leg extensions first

get soemone to watch you do your squats. maybe when your midway through, your posture changes and you get screwed over. or maybe its because you JUST started to do squats. your muscles and joints could just not be ready for it yet. keep going at it lightly and it should help.

Try doing some super light weights and go through the motion before doing some weight, I usually like to do 4 sets of 10 or 12. You might need to just build up some muscles that you might not have used often before. Start light, then move on, if the pain persists I would see a doctor.

Try doing a day of 15 reps for 4 sets and see if you still have the pain, try different stances as well. I personally never had the knee problem, I had the muscle right above the knee cap, it hurt like a bitch, it would cramp up in the middle of the night while sleeping and it would wake me up and I would be curled up like a shrimp sweating buckets cuz it hurt so much. But that goes away in time.

Do a youtube search for squatrx. What those.

thanks guys.. i posted about a week ago and my knee is still painful after i exercise. i've dropped even doing light squats, because it just doesn't feel right when i bend the knee. it also gets aggravated every time i run. i've stopped lifting for this week too, because i don't want to seriously injure myself.

should i see a physiotherapist? there is no knee joint swelling, and the pain subsides to virtually none at all when I'm not running.

Is there a trainer at your gym you can ask for advice? Get him/her to watch your technique and make sure you're not doing anything wrong.

to elaborate further, shove your knees out in the direction of where your toes are pointing when going down. This helps in driving your hips up from the bottom.

Also, squat below parallel. Very important. Doing quarter or half squats puts the weight on your knees and you don't get the full effect of the squat (not engaging your hamstrings and adductors). your upper body should be more at a 45 degrees. A more vertical stance would put your knees more in front of your toes than you would like which puts the weight at your toes. A more horizontal stance puts your shins closer to vertical and will alleviate pressure on your knees.

Keep doing squats though! It's quite possibly the best lifting exercise one can do. Getting the proper form is a bitch (I'm still struggling with it) but the benefits of having a proper squat is undeniable.

Last post was pretty much bang on. Another aspect, is the positioning of the barbell and hand placement. Watch where your elbows point.

Flexibility can also be another factor.

thanks for the replies guys. pain has subsided a lot, but I'm still extremely cautious about squatting with weight again. i'll try in another week.

to the guy above - where should i place my hands and where should my elbows point?