The knee joint is a very vulnerable joint – relying on the stability of the foot and the hip.
The knee is a joint that is designed to bend and straighten, it is not designed to hyperextend nor to rotate. It’s stability depends on the foot functioning correctly, and the ankle having full mobility. This often relies on the hip functioning correctly, having full rotation and range of motion, and being stabilised by the gluteus muscles and the core muscles to hold the trunk steady. It relies on strength up and down the body and correct spine posture in order to provide good shock absorption.
Knee issues can present themselves in a variety of ways – discomfort around the knee cap, to one or other side, down the front by the patella tendon, inside the joint, behind the knees etc.
Most repetitive strain knee niggles are due to a lack of subconscious control, so a rolling inwards and outwards once the leg is weight bearing.
Most major sports knee injury accidents – ski/ run accidents are due to a lack of strength in the body, where it struggles to be responsible for itself and hold itself up and the knee being the path of least resistance end up being the joint to give way.
There are many exercises that can be done to strengthen the knee but the first thing to do is to work out where the lack of stability comes from. Is it from the hip? Is the body unable to support itself on one leg? Or is it coming for the foot and ankle. Either way a lack of control like this will cause serious pain and injury to the knee joint which may not show up at the time but for sure will be a problem in years to come.
Biomechanics Assessing will establish the root cause of the problem and lay a pathway for how to make improvements. Click here for more info on Assessments.
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