Do squats hurt your knees? Is it your fault or the squat's fault?

< strong>Do squats hurt your knees? Is it your fault or the squat's fault?

Squats are one of the most important exercises for muscle strength training. No matter which variation is used (front squats, back squats, box squats, etc.), squats are often the most important part of training. The soul figure in the curriculum, this is because the squat movement is one of the few natural movements of the human body that can cover large muscle groups, multiple joints, core breathing methods, the extension of the three joints of the lower limbs, and the load-bearing of the spine

More important What's more, because it covers a wide range of body systems, it has the potential for improvement over ten years and the potential to make other movements stronger together, making it very suitable for lifelong training. However, squats can also be regarded as one of the most controversial movements. Many people question the safety of squats, and one of the most common doubts is that squats hurt the knees.

In a deep squat with the thigh below the horizontal line, the knee joint will flex significantly, far exceeding most movements in daily life. This knee bending action is considered by many to be dangerous to the knee joint. Yes, some people in the medical field even claim that squats can endanger the ligaments or cartilage in joints and should be avoided in daily life. Training squats with hundreds of kilograms (or even hundreds of kilograms) on your back is even more dangerous. degree.

In the end, how should we view this matter?

In fact, if you have the guidance of a coach, squatting correctly will not cause danger to the knees, and may be the best movement to protect and strengthen the knee joints

“If squatting hurts your knees, it’s not the squat’s fault, it’s your fault. ”

Let’s look at this from a cartilage and ligament perspective

Many athletes who have injured their knee ligaments have heard from a doctor or a physical therapist. Doctors have said that knee ligament injuries are related to insufficient thigh muscle strength. In other words, the stronger the muscles around the knee joint, the better they can protect the knee joint. However, almost the same group of medical professionals are strictly against squats. It is believed that squatting, which is the best way to strengthen the leg muscles, will injure the knees. Never squat. The reason for this contradiction is that these people probably lack the technique of squatting, or even lack the lowest level of personal experience.

The femur and tibia of the human thigh are connected by cruciate ligaments. In daily life or sports, if the angle between the femur and tibia is unbalanced, the cruciate ligament will be pulled inappropriately, which can cause serious problems such as walking up and down stairs in daily life. , even violent impacts on the sports field, may produce forces that endanger the knee joint

But, the cruciate ligament is not so isolated and helpless. On the thigh, there is a hamstring in front of it. The quadriceps are followed by the hamstrings. These two very powerful forces are actually the iron guards capable of protecting the knee joint when the posture is imbalanced or external forces attack. When the quadriceps and hamstrings When everyone is strong, the cruciate ligaments of the knee joint are as safe as sitting in a bulletproof car.

Many people know this concept. It is not surprising that many people who use equipment machines in the gym to kick or hook their legs while lying down think that they The knees are being strengthened. However, if we delve a little deeper into the discussion, I will find that things are not that simple. It is not that strengthening these two muscle groups can protect the knees. The reason why the knees are protected is “The knees are protected only when the muscles on the front and back of the thigh exert force at the same time. "Exercise the muscles at the front and back of the knee joint separately, and then hope that they can cooperate perfectly during exercise, just like letting the army and air force train separately, and then hope that they can automatically cooperate closely during combat.

Here comes the keyIt is necessary to recruit the muscles on the front and back of the thigh at the same time and let them practice working together. How to do this is to "push the butt back" when squatting? , only by pushing the buttocks back can both the front and back sides of the thighs exert force in the same movement. Moreover, this posture allows the knee joint to bend the knee to the end, because the front and back sides of the thighs both exert force at the same time, so the cruciate ligament It is very safe. We can boldly say that the process of squatting with a skilled athlete carrying two to three hundred kilograms is much safer than the process of standing up from the toilet by ordinary people with abnormal posture.

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Some people will say, what about cartilage? If the pressure is so heavy on the body, won’t the cartilage be damaged?

This question requires a little patience to understand. I will try to explain it briefly. First of all, First, the so-called heavy weight is relative and gradual. Every strong person who can squat heavy weights has slowly gained weight from light weights. Maybe some people have a higher starting point than the average person, but if you want to To develop your own potential, you still need to go through slow and safe long-term training. People who are injured by challenging heavy weights at the beginning are not doing it right, not the fault of squatting.

In addition< /strong>, what many people don’t know is that human cartilage lacks its own blood supply (so cartilage injuries are difficult to recover from)(original), must rely on the oxygen and nutrients of synovial fluid to be nourished by diffusion, and the way to promote diffusion is to allow joints to move, so immobility for fear of cartilage damage may actually be the reason for faster cartilage degeneration.

Therefore, unless the cartilage has been damaged to the point of being unable to perform any movement, using a gentle gradual pattern within a pain-free range to allow the cartilage to slowly adapt to the gradually increasing weight is the best way to allow the cartilage to adapt to the increasing weight. An effective way to strengthen cartilage.

The problem that currently causes headaches for professionals is that there is a lot of squatting information of varying quality on the Internet. Good information and bad information are mixed together. There are many websites where you can see people with good figures. The coach was doing wrong squat movements that made people feel numb, and at the same time, he was full of product placement marketing behaviors. This caused many people who wanted to start learning strength training in a low-cost way to take the wrong step in the first step and practice for a while. After a while, it was not only ineffective but also injured. In the end, we could only conclude that squats are harmful.

Professional technology requires professional coaches. I hope we can continue to solve doubts and make continuous progress.