Pain below knee / upper shin area while squatting?

[ocellaris]

I recently started squatting 3x a week (up from 1x). After and during my last workout I got this pain below me knees, sort of towards the very top of my shins. It hurt most at the bottom of the squat, and today things like walking up stairs or sitting up hurt quite a bit. The area is pretty tender to the touch as well. You think this is normal from upping the volume intensity, or indicative of some form problem. Thanks.

 

[Cynical Simian]

Probably form. Without a video or a more detailed description of how you squat, I'm not sure how useful/accurate form tips will be, but here's one. Assuming you're warming up properly and have read the squatting sticky in the PL forum, one small detail is to make sure you stay tight at the bottom..."bouncing" out of the hole could be a cause of knee pain.

 

[Protobuilder]

Agreed. ^^ Form. Do you feel like the weight is being carried more on the balls of your feet? It should be evenly displaced across the foot, or maybe a little more on the heel. When you shift the weight forward, you recruit more quad--trying to ocmpensate for a weak back or glutes?--and the knees take a lot of the load and unnecessary stress.

 

[ocellaris]

Agreed. ^^ Form. Do you feel like the weight is being carried more on the balls of your feet? It should be evenly displaced across the foot, or maybe a little more on the heel. When you shift the weight forward, you recruit more quad--trying to ocmpensate for a weak back or glutes?--and the knees take a lot of the load and unnecessary stress.

I think I'm avoiding shifting the weight onto my toes. I've been attempting to focus on my form lately and have read Starting Strength pretty thoroughly. I'll try to get a video on tuesday and see if you guys can see anything I'm missing. I do bounce out of the holl slightly, maybe thats it. Thanks.

 

[coolcolj]

might have tight calves/ankles

which is causing you to flex your tibs

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

I would ask about form, but I am more inclined to ask you why you are squatting 3 times/week?

If you are trying to strengthen your squat - I think you could focus on the entire posterior chain and supporting muscles through various other exercises. In my opinion - I would imagine doing this anyway, as opposed to performing a squat (if heavy and as max effort movement) 3x/wk. A dynamic or speed squat day and then one Max effort day, I could see - but three times a week (if heavy) is really too much.

Opinions - others?

 

[Cynical Simian]

He's almost certainly doing something like the 5x5 in terms of distribution of squat volume.

 

[ocellaris]

He's almost certainly doing something like the 5x5 in terms of distribution of squat volume.

yep

 

[Quadsweeps Sister]

I think I'm avoiding shifting the weight onto my toes. I've been attempting to focus on my form lately and have read Starting Strength pretty thoroughly. I'll try to get a video on tuesday and see if you guys can see anything I'm missing. I do bounce out of the holl slightly, maybe thats it. Thanks.

Yes - if you can grab a vid, that's great. Will look forward to it.

 

[Assertive Guy]

I recently started squatting 3x a week (up from 1x). After and during my last workout I got this pain below me knees, sort of towards the very top of my shins. It hurt most at the bottom of the squat, and today things like walking up stairs or sitting up hurt quite a bit. The area is pretty tender to the touch as well. You think this is normal from upping the volume intensity, or indicative of some form problem. Thanks.

The area you are talking about is exactly where the quads attach to the bone via the connective tissues. If I'm right (because I have had this problem myself), what is happening is this area is being pulled at when you squat in a way its clearly not accustomed to. This may be because your quads are not being stretched enough, or they just are not long enough for you to squat as low as you do.

In any case, you must be kind and patient to this area because if it continues it will litterally splinter your bone at the part it joins too, meaning each time you use your quads, this part of the bone will lift and give you problems that can only be addressed with surgery. This info is probabily your worst case scenario type, but it did happen to me. Here's some straight info:

http://www.emedicine.com/EMERG/topic347.htm