The Squatting Mistake That Hurts Your Knees

 

 

This article was written by Tony Gentilcore and provided by our partners at Men's Health.

Whenever someone mentions that squatting hurts their knees, I ask them to show me how they squat.

Ninety-nine percent of the time, a small piece of my soul dies as I watch them. I tell them: "Squatting doesn't hurt your knees; whatever you're doing right now hurts your knees."

It's a concept that other strength coaches and I try to get across to our clients. There is a proper way to squat that won't cause harm—and then there is every other way. Unfortunately, I rarely see them executed the proper way.

Let's get one thing straight about squat form, though: There is always going to be some forward movement of the knees when squatting. Telling someone that the knees should never go past the toes because it's dangerous is an archaic fitness myth. It needs to die.