Iron Tiger,

Luckily it the knee pain is not “brutal” but just not good. I’m pretty sure I’m not in the “pain cave” Kstarr talks about so often, but I know it is not right.

My current tools are the foam roller and some exercise stretch bands that I’ve used for things like pulling on the ankle for tensile forces and banded distraction. Interestingly, the hamstring rolling gives me zero “pain cave” effects, or any effects I can notice.  Rolling the front of the quads used to have a pain-cave effect but now also feels like nothing, and the side/IT band type rolling is still effective.  I feel like my shoulders are getting overworked with all that time in a side bridge though and might need shoulder therapy too 🙂

Incidentally I was able to try out pressing into the adductors with a barbell.  Nothing particularly noticeable happened until I got to a barbell smash pressing right into the quad just above the area I get pain from squatting.  I was able to duplicate the pain from squatting MUCH more strongly just by pressing the barbell into the inner side of my leg and applying pressure to that part of my quads.  I can press VERY hard with my thumbs and still not get the same effect. Just mentioning this in case it helps the diagnosis.

I hope to get some video up soon and will post ASAP.  It is incredibly generous that you would review it for me!

GT