Another Reason Why the Knees Come in During Heavy Squats

By djpope

November 3, 2018

Back Squat, cleans, dynamic valgus, Front Squat, knee in, Olympic Lifting, snatches, squat, squats, valgus

In the last article we spoke about the first reason why I believe the knees come in during heavy squats.  I believe this is because the prime movers in the bottom of the squat (adductor magnus) is trying to find an optimal length tension relationship to push out of the bottom of the hole in a squat.  This coupled with the glutes being in a disadvantageous position (unable to force the knees out) can cause some knee in during heavy squat attempts.  However, this probably isn’t the only reason why the knees come in during the squat.

Another Reason Why the Knees Come in During Heavy Squats…

The second reason I believe the knees come in during squatting (and also responsible for lower back rounding during deadlifts and other common faults) is your body attempting to use passive tissue structures like ligaments to create stability.  Check out the video below to see what I mean:

So in the squat our body’s can take advantage of the passive strength and stability of the ligaments within the knee as well as the boney compression in the front of the hip to help get through the sticking point of the squat.  Whether or not this is healthy in the long term for the hips and knees is another question altogether.

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Long live ligaments,

Dan Pope DPT, OCS, CSCS, CF L1