Tip Do This Before Squatting Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness Training Tip Do This Before Squatting Do your knees hurt when you squat even if your form is perfect Do this exercise first and find relief by Linden Ellefson February 7, 2019August 4, 2022 Tags It Hurts Fix It, Legs, Tips, Training Squats hurt my knees Hmm, probably not. Most of the time, your knees start to hurt because you squat like a dummy. But what happens if you have impeccable technique, yet things still hurt? Most often, a squat can hurt your knees in two ways: Lateral knee pain, either on the inside or outside of your knee. This is commonly affected by hip stability and your glute strength, which keeps your knee from caving in. Pain in the front of the knee. If you have this kind of pain, you'll get a little relief with hip mobility and glute activation drills, but it'll come back with a vengeance later. If your glutes can't fix the problem, what will? It's not a matter of more mobility. Instead, you have to get stronger in the right places. And the right place is the hamstrings. Even if you have strong hamstrings from deadlifting, this might not make your knees feel better. Since the hamstring crosses two joints, the hip and knee, you can train the hip extension portion of your hamstrings (through deadlifts) without strengthening the knee flexors. This means your quads (knee extensors) will get much stronger than your hamstrings (knee flexors). This muscle imbalance can lead to pain around your knee cap. How do we fix this? With this exercise: Seated Hamstring Curls with Band Seated hamstring curls eliminate the use of the hip extensors in the hamstrings and isolate the knee flexion. Perform 3-4 sets of 20-25 reps immediately before squatting. Pull your heel to your butt and squeeze the hamstring. You'll develop strong knee flexors that can balance out your strong quads, eliminating the knee pain you feel during squats. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training The One Arm Push-Up The easy-peasy push-up gets a heck of a lot more challenging once you remove a hand from the equation. Here are some tips on mastering this old-school feat of strength. Bodybuilding, Push-Up, Training Al Kavadlo January 4 Training Stealing From the Pros Back Training Sure all the pros are roided out to their mutant gills. That doesn't mean we can't still learn some incredibly valuable back-training tips by observing how the big bastards train. Training Jimmy Smith March 17 Training Tip The Scientific Cure for a Flat Upper Chest Sure, the incline bench press helps, but you need to add something else to your inclines to really build the clavicular head. Info here. Bodybuilding, Chest, Tips, Training Calvin Huynh November 13 Training Starting Strength Get back to the basics and build your foundational strength. Here’s how. Powerlifting & Strength, Training Chris Colucci August 13