Deck Squat Question

A question about the deck squat. I've been doing these for a while now and am up to step 7 with no major issues. Today, however, I found that the front of the knee near to the patellar tendon felt sort of stiff and achy after my last set. As a precursor, my knees are quite noisy during this exercise. It's usually nothing painful and hasn't caused any alarm, however, after the achiness in the front of the knee today it got me to wondering. How should I regress these to better handle the issue?

Further liner notes, my ankles are tight (so I cannot yet bring my butt to my Achilles or my calves). I cannot then keep my knees touching during the ascent from supine to standing because of this ankle tightness (I read elsewhere that for the deck squat to be passable/mastered, the knees only need to be shoulder width or narrower, which they are; but when having my feet/knees touching my knees splay outwards on the ascent because of ankle tightness). 

Currently, my knees don't hurt but I don't want this to turn into something that hinders my training (as Coach says it's always better to address signs of an impending injury first and miss a day or two than to train on it, injure yourself and miss six weeks).  I've ordered some gym mats (FINALLY), so I will intend to stack those and slowly decrease the height until I'm back on the floor. But should I focus on anything else in the meantime? Keeping feet/knees together? Only going as deep as to not experience any noise in the knee? 

I'm only asking all of this because prior to today it hadn't been of any concern to me and my major issue was the IM (skier squats), which I'm also curious about. Should I simply keep working these daily? Because thus far they haven't improved much, meanwhile I have practically achieved full ROM on swivel hips, it seems, by simply doing them during my daily limber and warm up.

Any and all insights into deck and skier squats is appreciated

@Alessandro Mainente @Everett Carroll @Tanya Hill @Wesley Tan

Hi Daniel, 

Good question. Firstly, using the mats will be a great aid in making sure your form is right. The depth of the squat will be reduced slightly but this is no big issue.

Are PE1 and iM1 the only drills you perform currently from F1?

It would be a bad idea to start on PE2 and iM2 alongside also. They do not have to be your main focus but they will help if promoting better knee control and mobility.

Crepitus of the knee joints on flexion and extension whem weightbearing is veey common. Usually from the patello-femoral joint. It is a sign at first of too much pressure in the knee, of the quads being overly tight and holding the knee cap against the femur excessively.

Afterwards, once some wear has occured, the noise tends to remain. However, I have succesfully managed to decrease the audible volume of knee crepitus in a few of my clients via a combination of exercise and manual therapy where I physically pick up the patella off the femur and pull it around in all directions vigorously. Exercise wise, partial squats both straight and with knee circles are great as a limber before your SLS work. Also quad and hip flexore stretches from the front split series can help alot too!

Thanks. @Wesley Tan. A lot to take note of there. I will give all of what you suggested some attention and see how it helps. Cheers.

I thought you had already mastered these Daniel? :)

1 hour ago, Paul Gray said:

I thought you had already mastered these Daniel?

I had. But earlier this year I took quite a bit of time off to complete my Master's thesis. That time off amounted to lots of time (hours upon days upon weeks) in front a computer and scouring books and primary research. A consequence of this was that I fell off on my training and when I came back I was not where I had been. So I started over with F1 and found that I had a lot of lagging mobility and in rehashing a lot of these elements I wanted to be sure that I did them right (prior to taking time off, I was a bit more ego-driven in my workouts than I am now--I'm seeing faster progress as a result).

Hi Wesley, in your reply above you mention 'Exercise wise, partial squats both straight and with knee circles'.  Can you explain partial squats with knee circles?

I am a few weeks into Foundation one and notice lots of noise in my knees during squats.  It sounds like the same thing.  Also, if my right knee has been flexed past 90 degrees for any amount of time, say sitting in a chair, legs bent while lying down, etc, there is an audible click where the top of my kneecap would be.  I can also feel it, as though it's momentarily caught and then frees itself.

Any help, stretches, thoughts you can share would be greatly appreciated to decrease the noise and help the tracking of the right knee.

Thanks !

Hi Wade

You can perform partial squat with your feet together and squat as deep as you're comfortable with (if you struggle with mobility probably not deep). You can do a few reps here. You can also do circles, so you make circles with your knees in each direction. Almost like Skiers, but just make circles instead. 

As Wesley mentioned the quad and hip flexor stretches from the Front Split course might relieve the discomfort you're feeling  

Great, thanks!