Fixing the Knee Pop While Squatting

“Hey EarthFIT fam, this is Coach Sam. Today I’m going to discuss what to do if you’re experiencing some popping or cracking in your knees while performing squats. Before I get into the routine I’m going to show you, it’s important to know that if you are experiencing some popping and cracking in your knees without any swelling or pain, it is perfectly normal. That is a result of those muscles being inactive the majority of the day. So they’ll stiffen up and then when you squat and go to use them, they’re tights when they slide the muscle tissue slide over one another, they’re sticky which results in popping and cracking. So I’m going to go over routine today to show you how to loosen those muscles up before you squat or workout which will alleviate that popping and cracking. As always, before you begin this routine, I’m going to show you it’s important to get a proper warm up, so proper warm up would consists of 5 to 10 minutes of jogging or running outside. Or you could use a piece of cardio equipment for 5 to 10 minutes in here. We have the bike, the elliptical and rower. After you do that, you can get into this routine that I’m going to show you.

So the first thing that you would do in this routine is grab a foam roller and you’re going to roll on the lateral part of the quadricep and the front part of the quadricep here to alleviate some of that tension that you may be experiencing. So just put the foam roller on the floor here. You can get down and it’s important while you’re doing this not to foam roll directly on the knee, you wanna foam roll the quadricep area around the knee, about an inch or two above the knees… So then you get down, you’re resting your elbow, there’s working that quadricep muscle nicely controlled. You’re only moving them on an inch or two at a time. You can go forward or backward. And then you want to do this for about one to two minutes on each leg to work out those stiff spots.

Next thing you’re going to do is stretch out the muscle. If you’re new to stretching, new to exercising, I’d recommend you performing standing quadricep stretch, grab a rack or wall for balance. You’re just gonna lean forward slightly feeling a nice deep stretch from that quadriceps area. If you’re more advanced and haven’t stretching, I would recommend doing the couch stretch. So you’re going to just put your back foot up on the bench drop down. You can also put it up on the bench from when you’re on the ground. 

You can also use any wall and proper foot up on there if you don’t have a bench or if you’re at home, you can use a couch and just lean in the couch stretch. So you’re gonna push your hips forward, lean back slightly, and you feel a nice deep stretch in front… Front part of the quadricep there. If you’re not feeling when you lean back, really push those hips forward. You can lean forward slightly and you may feel up there. So pick one, one of those stretches. Do that three times on each leg for about 30 seconds. No more than 30 seconds each leg.

Next thing I have you do is get in against the wall for a wall sit, you want to get your top of your thighs close to parallel to the floor, maybe a little difficult, especially at first, but you need a parallel. I’m going to sit there for about 40 seconds. This is going to really warm up to a quadriceps area to get some blood flowing in there.

And the last thing I’ll have you do is mobilization exercise. So grabbing a weight so you can get a nice deep range of motion or you can grab a plate or a kettlebell and then you’d squat down with it and you’re just going to feel that new deeper range of motion. The weight is going to allow you to go a little deeper than you typically would… hang out here you can go side to side kind of feeling any tight areas. Do that for about 30 seconds and then take your deep rest and you do that about three times. So combining those four exercises and stretches, should alleviate any knee popping or cracking you may be experiencing, especially while squatting. It’s important to know if you are experiencing knee pain and or knee cracking or popping and it’s accompanied with pain or a lot of swelling, your knee gets really swollen, that can be a sign of something more serious, such as a tear. So if this is happening frequently, I would suggest you seek medical consult on that. That’s all for today. This is Coach Sam. Again we went over what to do if you’re experiencing popping or cracking.”