Knees can get really cranky.

Like really really cranky, either just over time or because of a sport or training.
 

But why is that?
 

Before we get stuck into the 3 steps, let's quickly look at why knees are so frequently a problem:

 

The knee is actually 2 joints, connecting 3 bones (femur & tibia and femur & patella) as well as cartilage, meniscus, 2 cruciate ligaments, 2 collateral ligaments, many tendons including the crucial patellar tendon, bursa, plus the joint capsule itself. (There’s a great in-depth breakdown of these elements here if you’re interested!) 

 

The more moving parts, the more there is to go wrong.

2. They’re not built to rotate

Knees are hinge joints, almost exclusively move forwards & backwards (through flexion & extension). If your hips don’t rotate well, your knees have to instead to compensate. Some twisting of the knee is natural, especially when changing direction, but too much rotation can cause issues over time.

As the second lowest major joint in the body it bears a lot of weight, only missing out on the weight of your epic calves and your feet. That’s a lot of wear and tear for a fairly small joint! They also act as shock absorbers, picking up any slack from the feet & ankles.

 

 

4. It doesn’t have much support

Unlike the hip (who also must bear a lot of the body’s weight), there is far less support around the knee. Your thigh bone literally sits in a deep socket in your pelvis intended to hold it (the acetabulum), which allows the ball-like femoral head a large range of motion while being supported the whole time not only by ligaments, tendons, and muscles, but also by the very shape of it. The knee on the other had has to rely almost entirely on a few ligaments for stability.

So what does that tell us about knees?
 

Well, quite frankly they suck.
 

On a positive note, these flaws point to a pretty obvious solution: 
 

 

If your hip flexibility is terrible then every time you bend, twist, run, jump, skip or whatever, your knees will be forced to rotate and twist more than they should, while also making your knee move far less effectively.
 

If you have weak feet, lack lower leg stability, or have poor balance then your knees have zero foundation supporting them and must absorb far more wobbles, impact, and stress than it should.

 

So, it turns out knees don’t actually suck!

 

You suck! (Lolz)

 

 

The better your hips move, the better your knees will feel.
 

You want to make sure your hips can move all the ways they should without restriction, which are.. basically.. all the ways! Hips can:

-          Flex

-          Extend

-          Abduct

-          Adduct

-          And rotate 

 

All through a very wide range of motion. Ideally, you want to be hitting all these directions daily, which you get with the Simplistic Mobility Method, but a great place to start is the Clockwork Hips Drill:

youtubeid=EaxJ1NRNfnY

 

Remember: joints don’t just start hurting for no reason! And more often that not it’s because you’ve accidently been missing out on some movements for years.

 

 

As your first defence against the impact of walking, running, jumping, even standing, strong feet are essential to happy knees!

 

An easy starting point is to simply get barefoot more often! Shoes add artificial support and usually squash your feet until they get stupid and weak (sorry feet…). Take off your shoes where possible, start to work on spreading your toes, make fists with your feet and start to improve your control with your toes.

 

Here’s a great exercise to try which is a great challenge for your feet, and you can do almost anywhere!

 youtubeid=f7JNZsaePuQ

 

Balance is basically your body’s ability to react to something unknown occurring. One moment you’re stable, the next you’re starting to fall – what the heck do we do?!

 

It is a skill that you can develop, so even if you feel like you have terrible balance right now, it is easy to practice just by standing on one leg! Your body will learn not only how to use your foot, ankle, knees and hip together, but also get your core involved too making for a intelligent and confident body.
 

But to really make this an effective knee fixer, you want to also challenge your hip, knee and ankle range of motion. The more you have, the more wiggle room you have if you’re caught off guard with a twisting motion, a trip, sudden impact, etc.!

 

Luckily, we have a follow along for you which combines all the elements of strength, balance and full range, it’s a great routine to repeat and practice this until you find it super easy:

 

youtubeid=69ufKAs6B3s

 

I first started training when I was in my twenties… and almost immediately I had terrible knee pain.

 
Unbeknown to me, my right hip was more internally rotated than my left which caused my right knee to point slightly inwards all the time, plus I have Osgood-Schlatter Disease in my right knee (why it gets called a disease I don’t know… it’s a little bump of extra bone, but it does cause inflammation of the patellar tendon).

 

I eventually tore the meniscus in my right knee and ended up with constant inflammation, even more limited movement, and a limp for the best part of a year until it was removed. After the surgery the swelling went away but my knee still hurt, and I developed a very severe case of patellar tendonitis to the point I couldn’t even touch my knee without crying out. Kneeling was impossible for months and it became a recurring issue for me for a few more years.

 

My hip flexibility was terrible, I couldn’t sit on my heels, couldn’t squat and it led to another broad list of injuries, it was miserable and at the time I thought I just had sh*t knees.

 

But now?

 

I am totally pain free! That’s me in the follow along video back up there loving life!

 

I took the time to improve my hips, AND I even took “joint strength” to further extremes and learned just how much joints can ACTUALLY tolerate!

 

youtubeid=uqDLIyKukOA

 

It was purely through working on those principles discussed above that allowed me to not only become pain free, but to then go on and build more strength than I would ever need in my normal training. 

 

I hope you enjoyed this blog! And if you have cranky knees, you have lots of work to do! Just remember it’s all possible, it will just take practice & consistency, and you can make yourself feel brand new!!

 
If you know anyone that “kneeds” help with their knees, make sure to forward this on to them!

Have an outstanding day!