Knee Pain
Too often I hear from clients and people I assess that they have knee problems. I hear that they eliminate motions or exercises that causes them this “pain”. I say “pain” because more often than not there is not actually damage or issues with the knee itself but something called referred pain which this person is feeling. Referred pain is perceived pain at a different location in the body other than the site of where the actual pain is taking place. The most 2 common ones are knee and low back pain but almost every time this is due to something else such as tight glutes, tight hips, tight ankles, tight feet and the list could go on.
We’ve all probably heard someone say squatting is bad for your knees. Well maybe that’s true for you if you’re experiencing pain but that could be due to form or lack of mobility. Usually once you fix those issues squats are actually fine to do now that you have the right muscles firing.
We’ve become a lot more sedentary over the years so muscle tissues are becoming glued down, inhibiting us from being able to perform proper range of motion with in the joins and making are bodies in mobile. Due to lack of mobility, weak/ unresponsive muscle activation and desk bound are bodies have lost the functionality which is causing people discomfort, pain and injury from very basic day to day activities.
To address the knee pain we should look from the bottom up because it all starts at the feet. Have you ever taken a look at how you walk? Do your feet turn in or out at all as you’re walking. This will greatly impact how tight your hips get and getting the wrong muscles to fire causing them to become tight which will pull on the knee. This will also cause you to have tight ankles which can also put stress on the knee.
Let’s now take a look at the desk bound person. Someone who sits too much will have under active glutes, tight hip flexors, tight IT band, anterior tilt, under active abdominals, potential upper and lower cross syndrome. These things can cause your knee and back to hurt.
So now that we’ve talked a little bit about pain how do we fix the issues assuming the pain we are experiencing is referred pain. Doing soft tissue work and mobility will help resolve any pain.
Attached are some videos of soft tissue and mobility work I do with my clients that I have found to relieve their symptoms.