Your knees require your attention, so please listen up
Having knee pain sucks yet it is one of the most common injuries/complaints I hear
In this post I am going to share with you 9 tips on making your knees indestructible
1 – Don’t skimp on the warm up
This is so simple but often ignored. ‘’I’m in a hurry’’ or ‘’I don’t need to warm up because I feel alright’’
A proper warm up should be both general and specific making sure that lubrication within the joints is maximised
Motion is lotion
2 – Work on your ankle mobility
More often than not knee pain is a result of ankle restriction. Lack of mobility in the ankles will cause compensation resulting in undue excessive pressure on the knee.
Fix the ankles and the knee will feel better
3 – Get those butt muscles firing
Your glute muscles should be open and activated. Weak or inhibited glutes (thats 90% of the population) means your hips will fall into hip adduction and hip internal rotation essentially valgusing the knee (your knees fall in)
This will have a direct effect on your gait cycle putting undue stress on the knees.
4 – Learn to absorb force
If you’re landing with a thud then odds are your knees won’t be happy for long. Learning to absorb force is the art of learning to share the load throughout your whole body.
5 – Your body is like a car
Ever seen a car out of alignment? You will soon see the tyres wear down and fuel consumption go up.
Proper alignment of both body and car makes for a more fluid, efficient movement and less wear and tear
6 – Stop the pain provoking activities
Just like your mum said “if it hurts then don’t do it’
I know you love walking up Te Mata Peak but if it hurts you’re only going to make it worse. Here’s a better idea…
Protect – avoid stuff that hurts
Correct – find someone that can screen, assess and test what’s going on. Then work on corrective strategies
Develop – It doesn’t hurt anymore – go walk on the Peak but let’s develop you so it doesn’t hurt ever again
7 – Stop using the dam leg press
The leg press is only good for one thing.. Inflating your ego
It’s a non functional movement. It’s hard to think of a real life situation where your back is anchored and you would push out with your feet to move a heavy object
8 – Eat an anti inflammatory diet
A healthy diet plays a big role in maintaining healthy joints. Cutting back on pro inflammatory foods and focusing on anti inflammatory will help prevent the occurrence and progression of systemic inflammation. Oily fish and turmeric are both great anti inflammatory foods
9 – Do some soft tissue work
Go and dig out the foam roller and spend 10 minutes everyday ironing out any tight tissue
Here is a link to my free – Feel Better for 10 bucks Foam Rolling Manual download for free ‘ no email required ‘
Conclusion
You have all the tips you need here to keep your knees feeling great. Now all you have to do to reap the benefits is to USE the information.
Come and book in for a Functional Movement Screen to see if you have any underlying knee limitations.
Paul “heads, shoulders, knees” and Krystie “toes” Miller
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