Evox Fitness Concept

Squats cause you pain?

Take these tips into consideration.

Squatting is a fundamental movement that develops strength, stability and mobility, improving performance on day-to-day tasks such as climbing stairs or running.

(1)

But knee pain is a common complaint associated with motion.

Here, there are three reasons that can lead to this feeling of pain and tips to make the move without feeling any discomfort.

Poor physical condition, lack of mobility, strength and alignment

When you squat incorrectly, for example by lifting the heels off the floor, we transfer the load to the knees. A lot of the people who feel pain in this exercise is due to the lack of mobility, the lack of regular use of the valences of our body leads to a greater articular stiffness, being this the most frequent factor of the sensation of pain.

Mobilize the calfs, and pay attention to the support of the heels during the exercise. You can use slightly heavier support at the heel so you can do the exercise in the first phase. Giving more emphasis to mobility gains.

Very deep squatting

We must take into account the stress placed on the patellofemoral joint, when we descend too much we increase the load in the area.

Try not to sink so much and increase the amplitude according to your mobility and strength.

You feel crackle in the knees

When you hear cracks in the knees it is usually regular. That sometimes may be just tendons or ligaments on more prominent areas; in these cases the pain should not be impeditive. However if there is regular pain with crackling we should be alert to the risk of osteoarthritis.

Begin by static squatting to create greater stabilization and alignment to then progress to trim a squat with emphasis on the eccentric part and finely in traditional exercise.

Know more.

BY CLÁUDIO MOCHO / SÉNIOR PERSONAL TRAINER

1.        Kozinc Ž, Šarabon N. Effectiveness of movement therapy interventions and training modifications for preventing running injuries: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Sport Sci Med. 2017;16(3):421–8.