Hey everybody, I have noticed that whenever I attempt a squat which is anywhere around 90% of my max my left knee caves inward during the concentric portion of the rep. I was wondering if there are any drills or something else that I should be doing to try and fix this, and is it an issue of balance, flexibility, or just a bad habit?
Fix it before you injure your knees.
I believe the recommendation is to push outwards with your feet to counter this issue… maybe somebody will link to one of the squatting articles.
Your adductors are probably weak. Frog squats are pretty good at hitting the area.
Double up a mini-band around your knees, spread your feet and push your knees out and then squat. This will teach you to spread the floor and to push you knees out.
from a Mike Robertson article:
Flaw #3 - Knees cave in
Solution ? Get some glutes
Having the knees cave in is possibly one of the most common errors I see when people squat. It?s sometimes present on the descent, but I see it most frequently when people are coming out of the hole.
I?ve heard of all kinds of crazy reasons as to why this happens, but most of them are wrong: The knees cave in when there?s insufficient strength in the gluteal muscles. The gluteals are the primary abductors of the hips, so when they aren?t up to the job, the quads and adductors (which are typically stronger and more dominant), will try to take on the additional workload.
So what do we do about this? First and foremost, exercises that strengthen and develop the gluteals are in order. These include mini-band walks, glute bridges, or even very light squats with a mini-band placed around the thighs, just above the knees. The last option is my personal favorite, as it teaches you to recruit the gluteals while squatting. Start off with your bodyweight only and focus on forcing the knees out throughout the movement. Just don?t let me catch you working in with the housewife on the seated hip machine!
[quote]WTF? wrote:
from a Mike Robertson article:
Flaw #3 - Knees cave in
Solution ? Get some glutes
Having the knees cave in is possibly one of the most common errors I see when people squat. It?s sometimes present on the descent, but I see it most frequently when people are coming out of the hole.
I?ve heard of all kinds of crazy reasons as to why this happens, but most of them are wrong: The knees cave in when there?s insufficient strength in the gluteal muscles. The gluteals are the primary abductors of the hips, so when they aren?t up to the job, the quads and adductors (which are typically stronger and more dominant), will try to take on the additional workload.
So what do we do about this? First and foremost, exercises that strengthen and develop the gluteals are in order. These include mini-band walks, glute bridges, or even very light squats with a mini-band placed around the thighs, just above the knees. The last option is my personal favorite, as it teaches you to recruit the gluteals while squatting. Start off with your bodyweight only and focus on forcing the knees out throughout the movement. Just don?t let me catch you working in with the housewife on the seated hip machine!
[/quote]
thanks, this is just what I was looking for
[quote]snowman19 wrote:
Hey everybody, I have noticed that whenever I attempt a squat which is anywhere around 90% of my max my left knee caves inward during the concentric portion of the rep. I was wondering if there are any drills or something else that I should be doing to try and fix this, and is it an issue of balance, flexibility, or just a bad habit?[/quote]
uh, sounds like you might be at your max, not 90%
This is a common error, so keep in mind that you are far from alone.
As was said by vroom, it’s simply important for you to concentrate on pushing your knees OUTWARD when squatting. Try to do this by driving your feet into the ground and away from each other. They won’t slide apart, but trying to slide them apart will be a tool you can use to concentrate on not allowing your knees to cave in when squatting.
As far as I’m concerned, if you simply exercise discipline with your training and FORCE yourself to only perform quality repetitions with good technique/style, and never (or rarely) perform squats with bad technique, you will simply catch up in time.
Although Mike Roberston information was linked above, and it’s accurate, I feel it’s not important for most trainees. Of course it will be of value to perform other glute-strengthening exercises, but most importantly you just need to exercise proper technique when squatting with all your loads (light and heavy).
You already know you’re doing something incorrectly. So just concentrate on NOT doing it anymore and you’ll be fine. Your 1RM with good technique will quickly catch up to your current 1RM with bad technique.
Hope that makes sense.
[quote]jedidiah wrote:
snowman19 wrote:
Hey everybody, I have noticed that whenever I attempt a squat which is anywhere around 90% of my max my left knee caves inward during the concentric portion of the rep. I was wondering if there are any drills or something else that I should be doing to try and fix this, and is it an issue of balance, flexibility, or just a bad habit?
uh, sounds like you might be at your max, not 90%[/quote]
IMO, I’d say it’s BEYOND his max if he has to begin to use shitty technique to force it up.