Need some advice...

[Monger]

Hi guys, I've been training my girlfriend and she's having problems with any type of squatting movement. Her left knee always buckles inward while raising the weights. We've tried lighter weights but unless the weights are ridiculously easy for her it still seems to happen. Any advice? I don't know what to have her try next. She really likes the training and doesn't want to stop. In my opinion her form looks perfect (other than the knee issue, of course).

 

[Urban]

Start with light weights and higher reps then. you could take the ridiculously easy weight (heaviest you can get without her knee buckling) and make her do tabatas with it. Or just have her do sets of 10-20 with it or something. Remeber, squats are about hip extension. I find a lot of problems in squat form solve themselves once the trainee figures that out.

 

[Barut]

I agree with Urban. Go super light for the first 8-10 weeks and have her do high rep squats. 20 reps worked well for me.

 

[Monger]

Thanks, I appreciate the advice. I'll have her do 20 reps for a while and see if that helps. I'll try tabatas as well in the future.

 

[HULKAMANIA]

Man, making your girlfriend do Tabatas? Holy shit you guys are sadistic.

 

[Urban]

My ex loved tabatas. She still does them.

 

[Monger]

Ya, my girlfriend is *almost* as crazy as me. It's good because she can drag my ass to the gym on days I feel to lazy to go

 

[Sean S]

I may be waaaaay wrong with this, but I think I remember this being a problem with weak hips and strong quads to the point where your body will bring the knee inwards to active more of the quads.

 

[Monger]

Sean,

I'd love to read on that if you have any links. Her quads are very muscular in comparison to the rest of her body. You could be on to something. How would one go about strengthing the hips to balance the quads?

 

[Sean S]

Sean,

I'd love to read on that if you have any links. Her quads are very muscular in comparison to the rest of her body. You could be on to something. How would one go about strengthing the hips to balance the quads?

I'll try to find where I read that, but I can't make any promises. I was hoping that someone much more knowledgable would take that and go with it.

 

[Monger]

Since I read your post I've been doing some net surfing. I found several articles about squats that referenced the fact that weak hips can cause the knees to drift inward on squats. Although I haven't been able to find an article that actually gives advice on how to fix the problem.

Any ideas on how to strengthen the hips without hitting the quads? What about doing really wide squats to try to take emphasis off of the quads?

 

[HULKAMANIA]

You might also try box squats and make sure she sits back really far. If her knees aren't drifting forward, the lion's share of the weight will be on the hams and the butt.

 

[Barut]

You might also try box squats and make sure she sits back really far. If her knees aren't drifting forward, the lion's share of the weight will be on the hams and the butt.

Box squats and dimmel deads will both help.

Woman-specific training:
http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles/femaletraining.pdf

Great squat article:
http://www.dieselcrew.com/articles/cleaningupthesquat.pdf

 

[Mark Limbaga]

why not have her checked by the doctor first?

 

[SmashiusClay]

I may be waaaaay wrong with this, but I think I remember this being a problem with weak hips and strong quads to the point where your body will bring the knee inwards to active more of the quads.

This makes a lot of sense to me. I cycle everywhere and as a result have pretty good squat strength and when I started squatting I had the problme with my knees drifting inwards. I backed off the load on my squats and the problem resolved itself, probably helped by deadlifting making my hips stronger.

 

[Monger]

why not have her checked by the doctor first?

I've tried to get her to do that. She insists there's nothing medically wrong. What can I do? I can't force her. She isn't in any pain though so I doubt it's a medical issue.

 

[Dash_Riprock]

Any ideas on how to strengthen the hips without hitting the quads? What about doing really wide squats to try to take emphasis off of the quads?

Yes, you're in the right direction on that idea.

 

[gruesome]

Its most likely not a medical issue, many people do this.

Simplest solution, thats already been mentioned. As its a form issue, make sure she's aware of what her body is doing while squatting, and what it should be doing.

 

[Monger]

Here's an update in case it could help someone else...

I had her do squats with a wide stance, light weights, and around 20 reps per set. Although this did noticably help, the problem remained. She could not keep her left knee from moving inward and shaking dispite the fact that the weights were very light for her. After more complaining on my part, I finally got her to see a doctor. Every time I saw her knee move like that I'd get very nervous about her getting injured. I finally took my bitching to a new level.

As it turns out, she has one leg that is longer than the other.. I think it was a centimeter or half centimeter (I can't remember). So she's going to go to an orthapedic guy to make her a shoe insert. Anyone else ever delt with this?