I play hockey twice a week which puts a decent amount of impact into the knees.

When I try to load up the bar at the gym(185lbs+), I can really start feeling a lot of pressure on top of my knees just bove the knee cap.

Anyone use knee sleeves or anything to deal with a similar pain? I believe generally get weak circulation because they are usually cold to touch even after a warmup.

Advice?

edit: I also took a year off from the gym from a nagging back injury

This post was edited by d3yek on Jan 14 2017 06:18pm

these stretches will help

i actually do both of these alread except the plank i do normally on the ground with the leg kicks. these were physio drills for sciatic pains i use to have

Is it Patella Femoral Syndrome?

i dont know?

Pain in the front of the knee, feels like it's under your kneecap.

Caused by over-exercise mostly; especially if you play hockey and lift weights. I had it during my varsity soccer days. Stepping down would cause the pain on your knee sometimes

What fixed it for me was taking 2 weeks off and easing up on the training a bit.

Got that shit like 2 years ago from doing an excessive amount of weightlifting, jumping & sprinting. Been kinda doing rehab for the last 2 years aswell.

Tips to make that shiet function again (especially if your medialis is fucked aswell);
Split squats - attach rubber band that pulls the knee in, hence forcing you to stabilize it by forcing it to stay over your foot.
Lunges - just do them, provides stability which is a common issue when it comes to that kind of pain.
Lying leg curls without weight. Just lay flat down and perform slow curls with the leg.
Leg extensions without weight. Just sit on a chair and perform slow extensions.
Lying single leg raises - flat on your back, lift your leg up as high as you can whilst keeping it straight.

Overall mobility and stability in hamstring, quad & knee will be super benificial.

I do a lot of this stuff consistently as well.

I don't have knee sleeves but I think I'm going to cut some socks and wear them as sleeves today to see if I can feel some improvement. I'll be trying to just keep everything warm in the area.

Fix your mechanical issues

knee pain is generally caused by either dysfunctional hips/feet or both

Make sure you have good ankle dorsiflexion, make sure your femurs aren't internally rotated (knees caving inwards), check your arches, make sure theyre good. Make sure your pelvis is neutral.

Generally speaking though, most people have weak and inhibited glutes from sitting all the time. If you sit a lot and don't do any corrective exercises to combat all the sitting you should definitely strengthen glute max with bridges and glute med with side lying leg lifts, also stretch rectus femoris, tfl, and psoas. Tightness in hip flexors and inhibition in extensors will screw up the alignment of patella causing knee pain.
Imbalances in quads/hamstrings will do it too. Assess your strength here, the hamstrings aren't as big of a muscle group as the quads so you want them to be about 70-80% as strong as quads.



Just some ideas to throw at you.

tldr:
Hip flexor stretching
Glute max and med strengthening (Probably the most important factor to combatting knee pain)
Mobilize ankles with calf stretching and do dorsiflexion drills
Evaluate hamstring/quad strength

Post video of you squatting and deadlifting and I'll tell you what's wrong with your biomechanics

This post was edited by HearthstoneJSP on Jan 18 2017 01:39am