Here’s Why Your Knees Hurt After Squats — and How to Fix It
Men's Health
February 25, 2026
AI-Generated Deep Dive Summary
Squats are a fundamental exercise for building leg strength, but experiencing knee pain can be discouraging and hinder progress. This article identifies four common causes of knee discomfort during squats and provides effective solutions to address them, allowing you to continue your training without setbacks.
One primary cause of knee pain is improper hip loading. Failing to engage the hips correctly can shift excessive pressure onto the knees, leading to discomfort. To correct this, incorporating touch down squats into your routine can help retrain proper form. This exercise involves standing on a platform, slowly lowering one leg while maintaining perpendicular shins and controlled movement, ensuring hips are loaded appropriately. Performing 3-4 sets of 6-8 reps per side as a warm-up can enhance hip engagement and reduce knee strain.
Weak glutes often contribute to poor knee alignment during squats. Strengthening the glutes with exercises like clamshells and monster walks can improve external hip rotation, which is crucial for proper knee tracking. Clamshells involve lying on your side with a resistance band above the knees, lifting the top knee while keeping heels together. Doing 2-3 sets of 20 reps per side as a warm-up can build necessary glute strength.
Another issue may stem from not bending knees deeply enough, which limits tendon strength and quad activation in lengthened positions. Addressing this with ATG (ass-to-grass) split squats
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Originally published on Men's Health on 2/25/2026