Recently, when I was doing squats, I always felt a pulling pain in the front of my right knee. This discomfort prompted me to think deeply about squat technique.
It's this part that hurts
I've scoured the web for articles and videos trying to unravel the mystery of knee pain caused by squats, but none of them seem to get to the heart of the matter. In the midst of my doubts, I still can't get rid of this pain.
Today, I arrived early at the BodyBump class. This is a very popular course that uses barbells and barbell plates for strength training, and continuously activates muscles with small weights and high frequencies, aiming to promote muscle growth while avoiding excessive muscle dimensioning, especially for people who want to shape their muscles without over-developing muscles, especially female students.
In the empty classroom, I tried different squat positions repeatedly in front of the mirror, hoping to find the cause of my knee pain. However, no matter how much I adjusted, the problem still didn't get solved. Luckily, the drill coach arrived early and I described my distress to her. After observing my squat movements, she pointed out a few key issues:
First of all, I squatted my legs too narrowly, which for my taller body limited the fluidity of my movements. She suggested that I adjust the distance between my legs to shoulder width apart to improve the comfort of the squat.
Secondly, I leaned forward too much during the squat. The coach reminded me to try to keep my body upright, with or without weights, lean forward only slightly when necessary, and keep my core muscles tight at all times.
Also, I sometimes do it when I squat
The center of gravity is too far back, resulting in unstable toes. In this regard, the coach advised me to pay attention to the control of the center of gravity to ensure stability.
Finally, regarding the direction of the toes and knees, the coach emphasized that during the squat, the toes should be moderately abducted, and the knees should also be pushed outward to ensure that the squat can be deeper and the movement is more standard.
Under the careful guidance of the instructor, I adjusted the posture and technique of the squat. Surprisingly, the knee pain disappeared immediately.
The charm of strength training lies in the attention to detail. Finding the right place to exert force and experiencing the sensation of each muscle contraction is a process that takes time and patience to slowly explore. Through today's experience, I have deeply realized that only by carefully experiencing and constantly pondering can we truly grasp the essence of strength training.
I wrote an article about hip and leg exercises with my coach, but I paid attention to another point, which is that whether it is a squat or a deadlift, you should not kneel forward first, which is a very bad move for the knees, but I didn't pay attention to more technical points. Therefore, I always feel that there are some problems with the recent leg exercises.
I deliberately found a few pictures on the Internet that can reflect the problems I talked about today, and interested friends can feel it.
From behind, you can see the state of the knee pushing outward, and only then can you squat deeper
Side diagram of a weighted squat, the muscles look a little unsightly, but the muscles of your body really look like this
Look at the schematic diagram of the weight-bearing squat obliquely, and pay attention to the knees pushing outward, this is very important, otherwise the squat will not be able to reach a lower height, and the training effect will not be good