HOW TO KEEP YOUR KNEES STRONG AND HEALTHY
Do you have knee pain that bothers you throughout the day? Are you limited in what you can do during your workouts due to knee pain? Or even worse, has the pain crept into your daily activities? If you experience knee pain either during your workouts or during your day to day activities – you’re not alone.
Knee pain is one of the most common complaints that people come to us with. This is because the knee joint is often the most overworked and overused joints that picks up the slack for other areas above and below the knee not working as they’re designed to.
In other words, your knee is almost never the problem. It is just the joint that is yelling the loudest for help. And until you get those other areas working as they are supposed to, your knee joint is going to continue ache and limit your potential.
To make true and long-term change, and build healthy knees in the process, it’s necessary to look at some common causes of knee pain.
Try these 3 movements out to reverse the ache and start building some healthy knees today (demo video below):
WHERE TO START
Here are a few of our favorites to get started at for any activity level:
1. ANKLE DORSIFLEXION DRILL
Limited ankle range of motion (ROM) is one of the biggest causes of knee pain. If the ankle can’t flex and move as it is designed to, your knee is going to compensate when you squat, climb stairs, or run among many other movements. The knee joint is supposed to be stable, and the ankle is supposed to be mobile. Until you address the ankle, the knee is not going to see the improvements you are hoping for.
2. BRIDGE HOLD
A decrease in core and hip strength can have huge impacts on the knee. If your core and hips are not working as they are supposed to, then your knee takes more forces throughout the day and throughout your workouts. When this happens, your quads can get super tight causing pain in the front of the knee. No matter how much you stretch and foam roll, these muscles will continue to be tight until you address the true underlying cause. While the bridge hold is a simple movement – it’s a foundation for keeping your hips and core strong.
3. SINGLE LEG DEADLIFT
If you have knee pain, check and see how your single leg balance is. Can you comfortably hold 30 seconds on each side without wobbling? If this is at all difficult for you, your body will not be able to absorb forces as well, and this will put more strain through the knee. By addressing this, your knee will be much happier and much healthier.
Try these movements out to get you going in the right direction. If you’ve had knee pain for longer than a month, and you’ve tried other physical therapy, or it’s just not going away – you need to find a movement specialist to get to the true underlying cause of where your knee pain is coming from.
Don’t just wait for the knee pain to go away, it won’t. And the longer you wait the longer it will take to get you back to full health and performance. The good news is there is always positive change to make.
If you continue to struggle with knee pain and aren’t getting the improvement you are looking for, fill out a form to talk with one of our Docs today. We work with people like you every day and help them back to high functioning activity without pain.