My crunching knees are grossing me out!
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Sumiblue
Posts: 1,597 Member
My knees now make horrible crunching sounds when squatting or doing lunges. I did a cardio workout yesterday that had a squat walk and some lunging moves and my knees crunched all the way through. They don't hurt while squatting but my knees (ligaments?) are sore when I get into bed and they are bent (imagine a sitting tree pose-sole of foot planted on inner thigh of other leg). Wondering if I need to get knee sleeves/braces or just work on form? Anyone else?
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Replies
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I got knee sleeves for my crunchy knee. It's still crunchy sounding, but any soreness that would accompany it is gone after squatting since I've been wearing the sleeves. I was using knee wraps for a bit and they got rid of the crunchy sound while squatting, but didn't do anything for post-squat soreness. The compression was nice, but too much; I'd have to keep them pretty tight in order for them to stay on and then they'd start to cut off circulation.0
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Thanks, Katro. I wondered if sleeves would help. I have been deloading to work on my form with squats but I guess I still have work to do. Oh,that crunch!0
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glucosamine and chondroitin supplements. The crunching is your cartilage degenerating.0
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you could also be letting your quads do too much of the work in your squats? i'm thinking of my first couple of months last summer, where i almost literally kneecapped myself by not understanding squats aren't about quads. your quads cross your kneecaps, and it's perfectly possible to get them tight enough that they mash your kneecaps down much closer to your leg bones than they're meant to be.
in my case i had pain rather than noise, but fwiw. stretching and rolling the absolute snot out of them hurt almost enough to make my teeth sweat once i'd let them get into that state. but that was my own stoopid fault for not paying my quad-stretching dues day by day.0 -
Thing is, I have been working and working on form. I have deloaded significantly from where I was months ago when I realized I was not going low enough.Maybe that is when I did the damage. I was squatting 145 awhile back but now I have just worked back up to 110. I always do warmups with the empty bar. I push through my heels, drive with my hips, etc. I watched that informative video about physiology and squats that someone posted last week. I may try sleeves to stabilize my knees and I plan to have a physical soon and will mention the noisy knees to my Dr. It is true that I need to work on better stretching so will work on that. Today is lifting day!0
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You might want to get a referral to an orthopedic specialist because knee noises and pain can be caused by many things that seem not to be directly related to the knee. For example, my knees hurt when I run because I have tight IT bands and I wasn't stretching my hips enough. I wouldn't have realized these were the root of the issue unless I saw a doctor for it. Even better if you can find one that does the same activities as you. My knees click without pain if I don't stretch enough before doing anything including squatting so I do some deep lunges and leg cross overs to get loose.0
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A year ago I had ACL (anterior collateral ligament) and my left knee was crunching and clicking all over the place. A painful injury I picked up through martial arts. A couple of sessions with a physio and 6 weeks of rehab pretty much sorted it and I'm back doing martiak arts fully now. My knees (both now) click when I do squats so I just widen my stance and it doesn't sound like creaking floorboards so much. If your knees hurt when they crunch I say get it checked out.
All the best0 -
Thanks for all the input. I will def mention this to my doctor and get a referral if I need it.0
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Think about seeing a physical therapist. The under surface of your kneecap is covered with articular cartilage as is the groove that it glides in when you bend and extend your knee (or squat). Articular cartilage starts breaking down in your early 20s and it can be the cause of the noise/crunching coming from your knees.
However like several other people mentioned, there could be an underlying imbalance that is affecting proper movement patterns (i.e. tight IT bands, weak/tight quads or hamstrings, increased q-angle, weak hip abductors or external rotators, etc.) A physical therapist will be able to examine your knees, hips and ankles (all work in a chain, one thing is off it can cause problems other places), watch you squat and point out any imbalance present. At this point, they can show you exercises that you can do to supplement your Strong Lifts program that will help delay more articular cartilage breakdown as well as maintain a balanced/healthy lower chain.
Research has shown that physical therapy (conservative treatment) can be effective in treating knee issues rather then heading straight to a surgeon.
http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/76/11/1178.full.pdf+html?sid=c246048f-1ddb-4324-8448-3821c32b17a4
http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/76/11/1178.full.pdf+html?sid=c246048f-1ddb-4324-8448-3821c32b17a4
Hope this helps.0 -
Go see the doctor. I had this problem, and got a shot in my knee, the horrible crunch sounds are gone. Still some crackles. And my knee feels 100x better. I was dragging on going in...I have arthritis in my knee, that is the problem.0
