If you went to see your orthopedist and told him, “My knees hurt when I squat,” what do you suppose he or she would say?

If your guess is, “Well, then don’t squat,” you win a prize.

Reply back with your guess and I’ll literally send you a prize. ;)

Squatting is one of my favorite exercises, and one of the most beneficial when it comes to maximizing your relative strength.

But, what if it hurts?

If something hurts, we need to examine why it hurts. 

Are you performing the movement incorrectly?

Is your stance too wide (or too narrow) for your anatomy?

Do you have short quads, inflexible ankles, or tight hips?

Do you have a strength imbalance, i.e. one leg is stronger than the other, dominating the movement, and causing compensation and pain?

All of this information can be acquired from a short, simple assessment … so I’d start there.

If it’s a question of skill, we need to put the barbell away for a while and work on rebuilding and relearning the squat pattern from the bottom up so we can execute it correctly and safely.

If it’s the stance, we can quickly determine what the ideal and most comfortable stance should be for each individual based on their anatomy and flexibility.

If it’s a lack of tissue flexibility or joint mobility, we’ll need to spend some time performing corrective exercises to improve that. Just doing more squats is not going to help.

If it’s a strength imbalance, we’d need to focus on any number of awesome and highly effective single-leg strength exercises (split squats, lunges, step-ups) until the weaker side catches up to the stronger side.

Do you see why simply eliminating an exercise because it hurts can cost you the strength gains you’d make if you had someone who could help you dig deeper?

Of course, if you have questions or need help, just reply back and we can do some troubleshooting about your particular situation.