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WE SH IP TO ALGERI A VIE W D E TAILS

Side Stepping Injury: 3 Ways to Train

Around Knee Pain

Knee discomfort can really put a strain on your gains. Learn

how to better avoid knee injuries and ways to continue to train
around knee pain.

There’s no doubt that the knees are some of the most ornery joints in the body for most
lifters.
For those of you who go to battle against the iron on leg day with reckless abandon, you
know what I’m talking about.

Don’t think that knee pain is something that only happens to beat up old lifters.

No matter if you are a newbie who is trying to improve your strength and muscle, or an
old veteran of the iron game who has been grinding out epic squat sessions for
decades, the knees can become vulnerable to chronic pain, discomfort, and even injury.

What is it about the knees that make them so susceptible to injury and dysfunction?

How can we protect against it to train pain-free while also continuing to make huge
strides forward in training? These are complex questions, but they come with simple
answers. 

Here are three marquee tips to avoid tweaking your knees even more than they already
are and ways to start implementing new tools to train intelligently for the long run.

1. Forget About The Forward Lunge

The forward lunge is one of the absolute staples of strength and hypertrophy training for
the lower body for one simple reason; they just work. But due to the direction, muscular
emphasis and hard deceleration requisites of this movement, they can be notoriously
hard on the knees.

First thing first, if you are having pain or aches during or after a leg day which
incorporates the forward lunge, let’s make sure that you are actually executing this
movement with proper technique and form.
The two requites I look for in a foundational forward lunge is the ability to control your
knee position while also maintaining a staple and solid core position throughout all
phases of the movement.

When you are lunging forward, the knee should not be moving in front of the toes too far,
as this will increase not only the angle of the shin, but the shear force under the knee
cap. As a general rule of thumb, do not translate the knee any further than a fist’s
distance in front of the toes.

Related: 7 Alternatives and Modifications for Health and Hypertrophy

The second key to knee position is the angle of the kneecap in relation to the foot and
toes. Many times, sloppy lunges will cause the knees to cave in, creating a valgus angle
with the knees falling in towards midline. To quickly correct this, drive the knees out
towards the little toe on the foot to create more usable stability through the hips and legs
in general.

If these technique fixes do not alleviate front-sided knee pain, the next step is to forget
about the forward lunge and replace it with the reverse lunge. The reverse lunge will
target the use of the glutes and hamstrings to a greater degree while also limiting the
forward translation of the knee.

This is one heck of a variation for lunging around knee pain, while also bringing up the
posterior chain that is lagging in most anterior chain dominant athletes and lifters.

Check out the video below to visualize the difference between the forward and reverse
lunge, and ways to quickly improve your form:
 Forward vs. Reverse Lunge Coaching Tutorial

2. Prioritize The Right Squat Variation

The squat can be a confusing movement for athletes dealing with chronic knee pain. If
you are force-feeding a particular type of squat that doesn’t fit your current body type or
skill level, the squat can become a debilitating and brutal movement for knee pain.

But if you do your homework and choose the right squat for your current goals, which
should be centered on pain-free training, the squat will quickly become a staple
movement that you can progress and prioritize in strength and hypertrophy based
training.

For most lifters, the barbell back squat is the go to variation to train this foundational
movement pattern. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the barbell back squat, it
does prove challenging for the lifter who presents with banged up knees from a few
different angles.

First, many lifters will unknowingly lose proper depth as the knees start to flare up. While
limiting depth may seem like a way to decrease stress on the anterior knee, it’s actually a
double-edged sword that can spark a vicious cycle of pain and dysfunction.

Limited depth in the squat that progressively loses range of motion over time can cause
a lifter to lose authentic hip dominant squatting strategies that utilize the big muscles of
the glutes and hamstrings to improve the tracking of the knees, but also the emphasis to
be taken off the quadriceps, which can be advantageous for de-stressing the knee joints.

Related: 20 Things To Know Before Barbell Squatting

We’ve all seen this type of apprehensive squat before from banged up lifters. The hard
arch and totally vertical torso angle and the half squat depth that leads to a huge anterior
translation of the knees forward are pretty unmistakable.

The anterior knee translation presents with the same problems as the lunge that was
covered above, and the torso angle can actually cause increased stress through the
spine and pelvis. But if you can’t squat deep without pain, what should you do?

Just as my preferred method to teach the proper squat pattern for youth athletes is to
squat to a box, it is also my go to variation for banged up lifters looking to take stress off
the knees while moving some notable iron.

Place a box that sits you around 10 degrees above parallel in the bottom position under
your squats. Using a slightly wider foot position, cue your hips to dominate this
movement.

The box squat as featured in the video below has the ability to move the knees through a
greater authentic squatting range of motion, while also minimizing the stress of anterior
translation.

Also, providing stability at the range of motion that provides the most challenges for
banged up lifters is highly advantageous. Give this a shot, and train it in your strength
and hypertrophy rep ranges.

Barbell Box Squat

3. Stop Crushing Your Joints Running

Now this seems like common sense, but we’ll review it anyways. If your knees are
banged up, one of the last activities that you want to be partaking in to work on your
cardio is running.
I am not against running, just against running with a poorly coordinated and painfully
apprehensive gait cycle that is the common place for banged up athletes who are too
stubborn to alter their training according to the presentation of their pain.

If every step that you take on a jog causes you pain, it’s safe to say that running is not the
correct medium of fitness for you at this point in your training career. With a myriad of
options on the cardio deck these days, choosing a lower impact activity like the bike,
elliptical or pretty much any other machine that isn’t a treadmill can be advantageous.

Related: Complete M&S Database of Cardio Based Workouts

For those of you old school athletes that refuse to give up your runs, do me a favor and
hear me out on this tip. The painful problem with running is not necessarily the amount
of total steps or distance which you are running, but the cumulative stress of the bout
which is usually moderate intensity and steady state.

If you have a choice, jump on a treadmill and increase the inclination a bit. This will
change the angle of your foot strike a bit and will provide a more novel stimulus to your
system. Secondly, try and incorporate some interval runs into your routine. Anything but
staying at the same speed for a long distance will do.

From timing your intervals and increasing your intensity to target variable heart rate
zones to instinctively running faster and slower in a Fartlek style run, your knees need
novelty on the road, and will respond best to new stimuli.

Check out the video below where I explain the different options for athletes with banged
up knees as it pertains to running and cardio:

Interval and Fartlek Runs

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About The Author

 John Rusin
John is an internationally recognized coach, speaker, and writer, whose
innovative vision and knowledge brings together high-performance strength
and hypertrophy programming with a cutting-edge, pain-free training
methodology.
View all by John Rusin »

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