Improve Knee Health
Knee pain is a common injury that sidelines runners and impacts overall health. To resolve knee pain, it is critical to understand that the knee is sort of a biological “fall guy” because it is located between two mobile joints: the ankles and the hips. If there is a lack of mobility within these joints, then greater demand is placed on the knee and problems can arise.
To keep knee pain from becoming a problem or to resolve ongoing knee complaints, here are 5 proven suggestions that will make a difference:
- Improve posterior chain strength
- Fire up the glutes
- Improve your running technique
- Increase mobility of the ankle and hip joint
- Release chronic myofascial tension
Suggestion 1: Improve Posterior Chain Strength!
Combo move targeting core, glutes (glute medius), and the hamstrings.
Force producers-the glutes, hamstrings, hip flexors, and quadriceps-stabilize the knee by working together. Over-dominance in the quads, tight hip flexors, or weakness in the posterior chain can result in knee instability.
Action step: incorporate exercises that improve posterior chain strength, for example bridges to improve hamstring strength.
Suggestion 2: Fire up the Glutes!
The gluteus maximus is a large muscle attached to the iliotibial band (ITB). The glute medius also directly attaches to the femur: these muscles are primarily for flexion, abduction, and external rotation. Interestingly, injuries to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament (one of the four major ligaments of the knee) occur when the leg is adducted and internally rotated. In addition, IT-band pain and patella-femoral pain can be reduced when the gluteus muscles are working properly to minimize hip adduction and internal rotation.
Getting the gluteus to fire
Bridges, dead lifts and single leg squats are excellent exercises to activate the glutes. The gluteus maximus is a big strong muscle that plays a key role maintaining proper knee health.
Knee pain is one of top complaints in the health care field. If you are looking for more information on conservative integrative strategies to reduce knee pain and improve overall function I recommend picking up a copy of “Bullet Proof Knees,” written by Mike Roberson.
- Bullet-Proof-Knees
Suggestion 3: Improve Your Running Technique!
An improved running technique will take you a long way toward maximum knee health. If you lean back when running, or even while approaching a hill, this will throw the leg out front, increasing impact forces to the knee, shins, hip and back. And if your running lean is too far forward, this will increase tension to the Achilles, calves, and hamstrings, and increase impact forces to the lower extremity…especially the knee.
For more on proper running technique click here…
Suggestion 4: Increase Mobility of the Ankle andHip Joint!
“Look above and below the problem to find the source of the problem.”
Improving mobility in the ankles and hips will enhance the overall health of the knees. To get mobility for the hips, side-to-side and front-to-back leg swings can get the hips moving more freely. Ankle mobility exercises can be as simple as ankle rolls. For more exercises, please refer to http://www.magnificentmobility.com/. The most relevant and useful time to practice mobility is right before the workout. These are called dynamic flexibility exercises, and they take the joints through a functional range of motion, and the muscles are primed for activity and lengthening.
Suggestion 5: Release Chronic Myofascial Tension!
When muscles are excessively worked the repetitive motion causes microtrauma, especially to areas with the greatest amount of friction and tension. The body responds by laying down thick fibrotic tissue to protect itself from further injury. Imagine pouring glue on soft tissue like muscles and ligaments. Something similar occurs when fibrotic adhesions accumulate from an acute injury or after years of repetitive strain. Like glue, the adhesions restrict normal movement and weakens the muscle’s natural ability to contract and lengthen-basically the muscle’s extensibility is lost.
- Active Release Techniques -
Effective soft tissue treatments, such as Active Release Treatments, and Graston technique are geared towards manually breaking up restrictive tissue, restoring a normal range of motion, and improving resiliency of the tissue. This is applicable to runners and other athletes because they often have tight calves and tight hip flexors that alter the running stride. Research has shown that tight calves and hip flexors are directly correlated to knee pain. Soft tissue treatments that are aimed at decreasing stiffness and removing scar tissue and adhesions in the lower leg will ultimately restore ankle mobility and improve knee health.
Integration of different techniques is paramount to the patient’s health. These top 5 strategies are derived from a broad background and are very basic and easy to implement. We all have different backgrounds and it’s often helpful to use a wide range of techniques to resolve injuries and reduce pain.
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[...] Improving running technique has been a valuable tool when treating running injuries. There are 3 areas that are imperative to address when dealing with overuse/repetitive strain injuries; the first is to restore normal joint and soft-tissue motion, the second is to correct muscular imbalances, and the third is to improve bio-mechanics. To read more about an integrative approach, check out my previous blog, Improve knee Healh. [...]