recently my dad exercised on the elipitical for 40 minutes and following this particular exercise session felt extreme knee pain when kneeling/squatting. On a scale of 0-10 (0=no pain/10=excruiating pain) he said the pain was about an 8 or a 9. the pain is sharp and increases so that its almost unbearable to be in that particular position. He showed me where he felt the pain, pointing to the lateral part of his knee, specifically where the fibula bony prominence is.

I am thinking either IT band, meniscus... possibly LCL but since there is no swelling or redness perhaps its just a partial tear? I let my athletic training book at school so I'm having trouble remembering all of the special tests to do to try to narrow it down to a specific diagnosis.

about his knee:
no swelling
no redness
no numbness/tingling
no popping/clicking
maintains full ability to flex and extend
only feels pain when in kneeling position - not when walking, running, sitting etc

any thoughts?

Some kind of doctor should look at his leg and see what's really wrong and if there is something they can do. I have the much the same thing bilaterally. My physical therapist tends to believe my IT band is very tight and that's the cause of it. I'm not sure what it is in those two positions and neither was he. He tended to believe using a roller would lesson the pain on the side or applying some serious pressure to the entire IT band with a thick roll of padding would help in a up and down movement of the side of the body. I definitely think it works when I do it, but the pain has not completely subsided, so I just don't kneel or do things in a tight squat position anymore.

Any update? I had a similar experience to your dad. Same pain and pain point description. Happened to me in a spin class. Since then I have no pain normally, walking running etc, but if I ride my bike after an hour the pain comes back, seems to be the deeper flexion of the knee. MRI/Xray-> no tears or problems of any kind in that area.

Just started some physio... would be interested to know if anyone got a definitive answer/treatment.

Thanks,
Al