Squats: wobbly knees

Padzster

So I'm now getting wobbly knees with my squats, particularly for the last couple of sets. One of the trainers at the gym gave me some advice, to focus on feeling the weight in the middle of my feet. This helped a bit but the wobbles came back again when I upped the weight yesterday. He also said that it might be caused by tight hamstrings - and actually my hamstrings are not particularly flexible. Does anyone have any advice with this issue?

krokador

Can you squat with your toes up? try bodyweight or just the bar. Your weight should actually be in your heels and the outside of the foot a bit to prevent your knees from caving in.

Secondly make sure to control your descent. I've been known to "drop" down and that's really tough on the knees so if it's something you're doing stop right now!

You could also play around with your stance width. If you're too close or too far there might be some imbalance that could throw you off a bit. The higher youll go in weight, the more it'll show.

As for hamstring flexibility, you could try foam rolling them before. There are so many different ways to stretch 'em that I'm not going to list them all up. Most of them are a variation of bending over without bending the knees. Keeping the back straight adds a bit into it too. Also Good mornings (done with proper form) could help you out a bit there too.

girlie100

Yep check what Krok said, also make sure that your torso isn't collapsing. If the torso collapses a bit and shifts the bar forward of the foot this can cause the knees to cave. You want to keep the bar over the midfoot as your trainer suggested but when the weight gets challenging and that bar path is moving around it can throw everything off. Focus on pushing your knees ouut and have a play around with your stance and foot position.

Padzster

Thank you for your replies.
Everything is fine until 60kg. From that weight and up I get the knee wobbles but on the way back up only. Both descent and ascent are relatively smooth and controlled - I don't do fast!
Yes i can get my toes up.
I have tried going wider which is fine on lighter weights but I feel like I'm going to tumble over on heavier weights.
I will try pushing the knees out because they're definitely trying to come in.

hnsaunde

Do you feel like you're going to tumble forwards or backwards? If it's forwards, where are you positioning the bar on your shoulders? If the bar is too high on your shoulders it might not be lined up properly, and that could be why you're tipping forward (if that's what's happening).

Padzster

There isn't a general front or back direction. I think I feel most like I'm going to crumple down!