Knee Pain with Lunging? Try this First

The other week, I started working with a high school athlete who was struggling with knee pain. He plays basketball and was having a tough time. Especially with running the court, jumping, and lunging.

Now, just because he’s a basketball player doesn’t mean he’s not a great fit to work with me. After all, he’s got knee pain with running, jumping, and lunging. That’s right in my wheelhouse.

Here’s one simple principle that helped him get back to playing, pain-free, in just a few weeks: We started with squats.

Not jumping. Not lunging. Not running drills. Just squatting — and doing it well.

Why squats?
Because they’re double leg, controllable, and scalable. You can slow them down, keep them in a pain-free range, and gradually add load. They’re the foundation of healthy legs.

If you CAN’T squat your own bodyweight without pain, then trying to jump or lunge is almost guaranteed to keep flaring things up.
Squats are the foundation of healthy legs
So we zoned in on squatting. First, bodyweight only. Once that was pain-free, we added weight — something like 10 to 20 pounds per week, depending on how his knee tolerated it. If there was pain, we pulled back or modified.

Once he could squat heavy without issue, then we moved on to single-leg work. A few weeks of that, and he was back on the court.

This progression of double leg → strong and pain-free → single leg is what most people skip. They try to “fix” lunging or running by just doing more of it, not realizing the movement itself might be too advanced for where their knee is right now.

Start with double leg. Make it rock solid. Then progress to single leg.

If you’re struggling with knee pain that won’t seem to go away on it’s own, click this link to schedule a free discovery call with me to see if we’re a good fit to work together.

Your best is yet to come!

Dr. Michael