The knee joint is one of the most vulnerable parts of the leg. It connects two long bones, which bear the load of the whole body. During sudden movements or excessive exertion during squats, a person may experience pain in the knees. There may be several reasons for this, and they are not always associated with sports.
Causes of knee pain during squats
The most common cause of knee pain when squatting is improper exercise. Improperly positioned feet, too sharp movements, or too deep squats can cause unpleasant and even painful sensations during training.
Another cause of pain can be an incorrectly selected load. Moreover, this can happen not only during squats with weights, but also simply from excessive efforts and workouts for wear. That is why it is important to be able to measure your level of physical fitness and load, and even better - to start playing sports after consulting an experienced trainer who will select an individual training program for you.
Pain in the knee joint often also occurs due to the lack of stretching and warm-up, during which the muscles are just being prepared for subsequent loads. If you don't warm them up before intense squats, you can easily get stretches and even tears of muscle tissue.
Knee pain during squatting may also be unrelated to exercise. Perhaps, it makes itself felt once received and already forgotten trauma, deterioration of the condition of cartilaginous layers or an inflammatory process inside the knee joint.
Constant pain, aggravated by squatting, may also indicate the development of Osgust-Schlatter disease - osteochondropathy of the tibia. This disease is especially susceptible to adolescents and professional athletes who have to squat frequently.
In addition, knee pain during squats can signal a lack of certain vitamins and nutrients in the body or salt deposition in the knee joint. In girls, such sensations can manifest the habit of constantly walking in high heels.
What to do for knee pain while squatting
Unpleasant sensations in the knees during squats, and even more painful ones, should be a signal that it is time to stop training. Sharp and severe pain may indicate a rupture or sprain of the ligaments, so in this case, you need to immediately apply cold to the injured knee and visit a doctor. It is worth contacting a specialist even if the pain is not one-time, but constant. An x-ray is helpful in this case.
It's also important to rethink your training system and possibly reduce the stress on your knee joints. It is also necessary to monitor the correct position of the legs - the knees and toes during squats should be directed strictly forward, and the angle between the knees and the back of the legs should not be sharp.
