3 Ways to Fix Knee Pain When Squatting

“Just don’t squat”
That’s the response you’ll get from plenty of doctors or exercise professionals if you tell them you have knee pain while squatting.

And let’s just be specific here; “squatting” can mean far more than the exercise. It also means getting up and down from the floor, sitting down/standing up from a chair or picking things up off the ground.
“Just don’t squat,” I get it, better to advise that someone avoids discomfort than be blamed for it later, right?

Here’s the problem: your kids won’t lift themselves and you don’t take a shit while standing up.

At some point (hopefully about once per day with a healthy digestive tract!) you’ll need to squat again.

Knee pain, when not caused by sudden trauma of some sort, is often the symptom of an underlying problem that doesn’t always seem apparent to the person experiencing it.

Here are a few possibilities that individually, or in some combination with each other, could be causing that pain when you squat:

1. The arches of your feet are weak allowing momentum and stress to pull your knees inward when you walk, run, or go to squat.

2. Your inner thighs (adductors) are significantly tighter than your outer thighs (abductors) causing your knees to cave inward when walking/under load.

3. Your hamstrings aren’t proficient in slowing your body down as you descend into a squat/sitting position and your quads are forced to do all the work creating too much tension in your knee.

4. Your glutes (all of them, not just the little baby parts that you work with a booty band) are weak, leaving your body unable to stabilize the knees under load.

5. Your core (which includes your glutes) isn’t properly stabilizing your upper body and leading to your weight shifting towards your knees, causing pain from overuse.

6. Arthritis.

With the exception of number 6, there are very simple (see; not necessarily easy, but not complex) methods that can help your body better control itself and become strong enough to move without pain.

The low hanging fruit here would be to foam roll or open up your overactive/tight muscles and relieve some pain BUT that’s just resolving the symptom and we’re here to fix a problem.

Here are the three focus points I use with any of my clients who are experiencing this:

1. Use methods of assistance like holding onto a TRX or a railing in order to lessen the amount of weight you’re working with when doing lower body movements. Do this until you’ve re-patterned your movements to utilize any muscles that weren’t otherwise helping you move well.

2. Strengthen your hamstrings and glutes via hip hinging patterns that don’t shift your weight forward (I.e; glute bridges, hip thrusts, deadlifts, etc.) so your body can begin holding your weight up with muscles that won’t directly cause knee pain.

3. Single leg balance and stability - take off your shoes and learn to load your posterior chain (hamstrings and glutes - see the previous point) while on one leg.

The fitness industry likes to talk about goals and how to achieve them - I do too - and do you know what a really good goal is for everyone?

Being able to go to sit on the toilet or pick up your children without experiencing pain.

If knee pain is something you’re dealing with, you should absolutely get checked out by a medical professional and if there isn’t something in need of surgical intervention, it’s time to take control of that pain and make it disappear.

Focus on the three tips above and I’m sure you’ll be better off than you were.

If you need help, I include exercise-form coaching for all my online clients.

Move well, be strong, feel better.