When I bend my knees I feel pain under the kneecap (where it is soft). This prevents me from doing squats properly...

When I bend my knees I feel pain under the kneecap (where it is soft). This prevents me from doing squats properly. What can I do to fix this? I work a pretty sedentary job if that matters.

General injuries also I guess

You need to strengthen your quads, ironically. Bands and bodyweight exercises would help.

Same problem here. My doctor suspected that it could have something to do with hamstring pushing on a nerve. Said a surgery could help but I don't have the money. Ive found out that stretching quats and doing quad exercises in the machine helps short term.

I'll look into quad strengthening exercises thx

Like leg extensions?

Your knees are fucked, best option is to reroll for a new body.

Fucking shit game

You might have osgood schlatters or patellar tendinitis. I have both of those and it's prevented any squat progress. Currently doing physical therapy but progress is slow yet steady. Go to your doctor and figure it out with a professional. Best of luck to you.

Exactly. I also did squats with just a wooden stick at the beginning, something like 3x20. One thing that also helped me was to put small planck under my heels to lift the legs up a bit.

It's strange because I had the similar thing happen last year but I thought it was due to me starting to run 4-5 times a week from running 0 times a week for years. Went away after a few weeks and I was back squatting..
Hmm just feels so strange it appearing from nowhere, did 8x5x on like 240lbs a few days before without any pain

I had this pain a lot in my forst year of lifting. For me, it was from leaning forward into my squat.

1. Strengthen quads
2. Loosen hamstrings
3. check form; make sure knees aligned with toes during entirety of lift. You may need to do glute and mobility drills to correct this.
4. Sit back into squat more for some relief
5. Reduce any repetitive movement you may be already doing i.e. running

What kind of strengthening, in the term as strong quads? Because my quads are probably stronger than glutes in terms of strength.
Might be the hamstring part, otherwise my squat form is pretty good...

it's called osgood-schlatter disease

Also, there is more pain in my left knee. Like alot more.

>surgery
Why are NA doctors such hacks?
Your pain is probably caused by maltracking of the patella, especially true if you have poor quad strength, poor flexibility or poor biomechanics during a squat. The fact that quad strengthening helps is a major sign that this can be fixed through physio.

There is no nerve that lie underneath the patella, jesus just google this stuff rather than taking your quack doctor's word for it.

t. doctor

The guy you replied to gave you stellar advice, it's tempting to focus on the strengthening part but really you need to focus on mobility too. If you don't have good ankle/calf/hamstring/hip mobility then you will be prone to joint problems no matter how good you think your form is.
A good example is how a slightly collapsed arch of foot and tight calves can bring your knee in inwards during a squat and cause major wear and tear over time. You may have a similar compensatory mechanism that is throwing your form off during the squat.

So first thing you should do is work on mobility and start taking fishoil to reduce inflammation. You can take stronger stuff such as non steroidal anti inflammatory medication but fishoils do a good job in medium to high doses.

Strengthen your hamstrings and your glutes. Weak glutes can also throw your form off and muscle imbalance might explain why your left knee hurts more than your right. So work on that too.

But yeah, you should be stretching and using a foam roller every day. If these things don't solve the issue it may be worth considering that the diagnosis isn't patello-femoral pain syndrome, or patellar tendonitis, but is Osgood Schlatters disease instead. But thats more a process of exclusion if the above things don't work after doing them for a few months (results are slow for this kind of problem but it IS fixable).

Will definitely work on mobility and start taking some omega-3.
Thx for solid help.

Roll out your IT band

Good, keep at it bro and you'll be lifting pain free in a few months.
It took me about 4 months to get rid of my knee pain in my right knee. Kelly Starrett's videos on mobility and form were great for this (and many other injuries i've had) so I would definitely recommend checking them out on YT.
Good luck

>knees aligned with toes
Gym teacher meme.

I guess it's idiot proof for kids who can't push their knees out any further than that.

I used to have this problem. My physio told me it is called "jumpers knee". He told me to massage the area just below the kneecap where it is painful. Just massage back and forth or in circles until the pain eventually lessens a bit.

I did this every day for a minute or two before any squats or oly lifts. It eventually got better.

Apparently it had something to do with a ligament or tendon being inflamed from not being properly warmed up or supported during lifts.