Sore Knees Related to Working Out?

Hi all,

I’ve been working out for about 4 years now. I’ve never had an injury. About a year ago I bought a weights rack for home use to save money spent at the gym. This was all going well and I was making gains, until recently.

Recently, I started an 8 week bulking phase. Basically, this meant eating 5 meals a day (as much as I could eat) and the following weekly program.

Monday: Bench press, chins, shoulder press, rows
Wednesday: Squats, deadlifts, calve raises, crunches
Friday: Close grip bench press, arm curls, wrist curls

I’ve been doing a variation of this program for the last year without problems. I’m not new to squats and deadlifts and I do try to keep good technique. I’ve worked my way with the weight to set of 10x100kg squats and 10x120kg deadlifts. Over the last 8 weeks, I probably gained 7 kilos (some of it’s fat but I am in a bulking phase). This took me to my heaviest weight ever of around 87 kg.

I should also mention I’ve been skimping on my warm up lately, which I know is not good.

Recently I noticed that my knees were getting sore. My knees do not hurt during or after my workouts. I first noticed it when sitting down. I work a desk job and after sitting in my chair for a while, I noticed my knees seemed to ache slightly. It’s not a sharp or severe pain. It’s more like a general, light ache that I can’t quite seem to pinpoint. Sometimes it’s in the tops off my knees, other times the sides. The pain seems to be getting progressively worse.

So now I’ve stopped all lower body workouts for the last 3 weeks to see if there’s been any change. I’ve noticed a slight, but not significant improvement. My knees still hurt when sitting for long periods. I’m pretty sure it’s squats that are causing the trouble from what I’ve read. I’m always worried that this program is

So now my questions are:

  • Has anyone else had similar a expereience and what did you do about it?
  • Could the rapid weight gain be causing the pain?
  • What was the likely cause of this injury?
  • Is their something in my technique I should be looking at?
  • What can I do to recover as quick as possible, exercizes, stretches, vitamins etc?
  • How can I prevent it returning when I get back into training legs?

I’ve made no other changes in my life that would account for the pain.

Thanks for any advice you guys can offer,

Paul

i was getting the same thing a while ago in my right knee, it hurt at the patella and the joint sounded like rice crispies, it seems to be getting better now though heres what i did:

whenever i was going to work legs i would warm up on a bike for 5 mins or so just to get hte joint warm, the knee would also pop once or twice during that, then i would do a few sets of bodyweight squats and hold deep positions, then warmup with the bar, then like 95, then 1 plate then like whatever

i upped my fish and flax oils, and on off days i would do bodyweight bulgarian squats through the range of motion with my one foot on a chair, i also started doing alot more lunges with a light barbell in the 12 - 15 rep per leg range. sometimes i would lunge around the house wherever i was going.

basically i think the key is to do more lunging, i hated lunging at first but its a different movement altogether than squats and the strength doesn’t really carry over, also its key to really warm up the knee by getting all the pops out and getting the blood into the knee with dynamic movements

up your good fats to help as well

one last thing that might have helped a bit too is i would kneel on my bed and fall backwards to stretch my quads and my knee

my right knee no longer sounds like rice crispies and the ache is much less

I’ll look into the oils and the stretching. I will have to invest in an exercize bike too.

How long did it take to get your knee back to normal?

First thing I noticed is that maybe doing deads and squats on the same day is just too much stress?

-S

Hmmm, it could be too much for one day. Other people seem to manage doing both though. It might be a good idea to separate them when I start back into it.

I’m 30 and my knees are also sounding like rice crispies. Sure would like to get rid of that poping and crackling in my knees.

it took around a week or two, not long