Popping knee and an ache in the back

Deena_Bean

Hello friends
I have been stop-and-go with lifting for a while, mostly due to random injuries and sometimes I'm just lazy about it. I've recently decided that twice a week will have to be ok for me, because I'm just not sleeping well enough to commit to more early mornings than that. I'm ok with this. My question is that for the last few lifting days my knee clicks during squats - most often the click happens on the way down, but it has also done it on the way up. It doesn't cause screaming pain, but it's not really comfortable either. I think it causes my knee to ache some afterward as well. Is this a form issue? I also notice that I get a pain in my mid-back (not along the spine - more like between my spine and my side) on the same side as the clicking knee. Thoughts? I've been lifting for a long time (with some pauses, like I said), and this is a new issue.

canadianlbs

i always go to anatomy charts when i feel a strange ache. i like to know exactly what muscle is doing it, because sometimes from there i can do a kind of mechanical tracing to make a guess at what's causing it. yours sounds like it might be your quadratus lumborum? that attaches to your lumbar spine and the rear crest of your pelvis, so maybe you're lurching a little and it's having to take up some torque. and/or maybe your glute medius is involved somehow, since that's the other hip stabilizer, just on the other side of that crest.

knee pops i don't know about. mine almost always crackle but it's been painless so doesn't sound like quite the same thing as yours.

you already know i'm not a medical pro in any sense, but i wonder if your pelvis might be a little rotated or 'slipped'. it sounds like one side of you is taking more strain than it used to, and if your form hasn't changed then it's possible that your skeletal arrangement has, a little.

Deena_Bean

I wouldn't be surprised about a slight skeletal change. I don't think I've changed form or anything, but every once in a while I can feel myself using one side of my body to compensate for an ache on the other side. Generally I can stop doing that quickly, but I suspect I may do it without noticing sometimes too (I mean it is 5 something in the morning

canadianlbs

lol. have you ever tried putting a lacrosse ball on your q.l.? you have to go gently and also wait a while for the pressure to reach it because it's deep, but it can be quite releasing. and last time i had a rotated pelvis, my gp taught me lunges. i didn't know what they were at the time but weirdly enough they did fix it.

Deena_Bean

Will have to try that out (the ball). Lunges are almost as fun as squats << sarcasm.