Knees Hurt When You Squat?

One very common cause of knee pain is weakness in the glute muscles, specifically gluteus medius. When the glutes don’t do their job, it’s very easy to get your knees out of position during a squat. Over time, that can lead to pain and injury. Unfortunately, a lot of people will feel pain with an exercise and avoid it, writing it off as something they just can’t do anymore. As a firm believer that everyone should squat, that’s just not acceptable. Today, I’m covering 2 exercises that can fix knee pain: 1. Clam Shells - This is step one - build strength. The focus is make your glutes do the work, so that means, keep your hips and shoulders perpendicular to the floor. Don’t be surprised if you can’t get very far initially. It will get better! 2. Lateral Step Downs - Once those glutes are stronger, we need to retrain the movement pattern. This one is a little more advanced, so stick with clam shells or use a lower box until you can perform all reps without your knee caving to the inside. For each exercise, start with 3 sets of 10, everyday. If you have questions, let me know! Move Well. Perform Better.