Knee S.O.S.! 3 Common Mistakes That Can Cause Knee Pain And What To Do About It

image:  cacahuete

Knee S.O.S.! How often have I heard the cry of complaint when it comes to knee pain?

For those of us with a few years of mileage on our knees, the or plea for knee pain relief can be all too familiar.

From myself included.  Years ago, I was a regular runner – up to 7 miles a day, with a half marathon and a medal in a triathlon event my crowning glory!

Yet after a few years, the running took its toll, and with a repeated "tweak" on the knee, my running morphed to walking.

I still walk every day.  But there's more to the story.  Now, after years of paying more close attention to alignment of my knee joints during exercise as well as daily activity, I can now run and jog – should I so choose – without the tweak effect.  More on this later.

Here's the thing. The knees are a very vulnerable joint, and we place all kinds of challenges upon them.  Is it any wonder that they start to demand a little extra attention after while?  Click here for

(Brief) Knee Injury Overview

Officially, a knee injury can affect any of the ligaments, tendons or fluid-filled sacs (bursae) that surround your knee joints.  A knee injury can also affect the bones, cartilage and ligaments that form the knee joint itself. And because knee joints are so complex, combined with the amount of use knees get over a lifetime, along with the range of injuries and diseases that can cause knee pain, is it any wonder that the signs and symptoms of knee problems are so persistent?

There are common mistakes that we make in our daily movement that can cause knee damage, discomfort, pain – and even worse, injury.

The GOOD news is there are easy corrections that we can make to reduce negative impact on the knee joints, create a situation where we are diminishing the chance of inflicting further damage, and rebuilding them at the same time.   Read on.

Why Is The Knee Joint So Vulnerable?

The human body may be a fantastic design, yet we ask so darn much of the knee that does one really wonder how it holds up to the challenges?  We twist, turn, move laterally (think dashes side to side on a basketball court), leverage…just for starters.  And don't get me started on what sports ask of our knees.  (Actually, I already DID get started on that one.  And don't knee injuries top the list of current and veteran athletes?)

This all adds up to a heap of trouble when it comes to needs, leading to potential injury of ligaments, tendons, meniscus (cartilage that curves within your knee joint), dislocation, bursitis…and this is not even an exhaustive list.  Should you have recurring knee pain or malfunction, you should see an orthopedic surgeon to get an appropriate diagnosis and treatment.  For our purposes today, I'll stay focused on the preventative.

Briefly, it is a long, long  from ankle to hip and we ask our knees to process the whole challenge.  There are 3 big mistakes in carriage and alignment that are huge contributors to knee pain.  Let's look at them first, and then I'll provide some simple solutions that you can start to implement immediately.

3 Movement Mistakes That Lead To Knee Pain

1) Allowing the knee to pronate, or roll to the inside of the ankle, when bending.

This happens so often, we don't even think about it.  But thinking about it is just what I am going to ask you to do.  Here's how you can run a simple test to see if you are guilt of this one.

From a standing position, bend the knees as if to sit in a chair, or to pick something up off the floor.  Once your knee bend progresses beyond 45 degrees, observe which direction the knee starts to point as seen from your angle of vision above.  If you are like most women, the knee will start to roll to the inside of the ankle.  As a matter of fact, if you are already having some knee "challenges", it may be at this point that you already start to feel some knee discomfort or pressure, and may even have been avoiding placing this kind of stress on the knee in the past.

2)  Placing joint-centered stress on the knees.

This phenomenon occurs without our thinking about it, just as in demonstration #1.  Here's how to observe your own movements with regard to joint stress, or pressure.  From a seated position on a chair, or even lower (such as getting up off of the floor), move yourself up to standing position.  Chances are you engaged the muscles around the knees and initiated the move from there.  This places huge leverage pressure on the knees, and if we are already creating a compromised position (#1) with alignment of the knee joint when in bend, we have now multiplied our sins, when it comes to knee joint integrity!

3)  Turning the feet out when we walk.

This one is easiest to observe on others, but you can also do a self-check.  Here's how.

Stand, close your eyes, and without thinking about foot placement (promise) walk in place for about 15 seconds.  Stop, with both feet on the floor.  Open your eyes and look down.  If you were on skiis, would your feet ski straight ahead or to the corners of the room?  The stepping in place can be a fairly accurate reading of foot placement when you are actually walking, at least if you aren't thinking about foot placement during the self-check.

Foot out turn during walking is simply a re-creation of the same situation as knee pronation in #1.  If your toes are turned out, even slightly, then the knee is being invited to pronate – or roll inward – with each step. And as walking is the most common activity we do in terms of stress on the knees, with pronation upon each step, we are creating the opportunity for injury – and pain – with each step.  Think about it!

What You Can Do About It – Knee Rehab In A Nutshell

These solutions are so simple, you will be surprised that you didn't think of them yourself.  Or maybe you already have!

They are central to knee rehabilitation, core basics that came in my Kinesiology courses as a graduate student.

Quite simply, you counter the mistakes consciously – and then quite soon, this becomes a habit!  This is how I rebuilt my knee joints, and barring deeper injury, you can too.

Here's how:

1) Avoid allowing the knee to pronate when you bend the knee joint.

Go back to the self-check activity as described in #1 above.  But this time, as you start to deepen the flexion of the knee joint, consciously counter the tendency for the knee to roll inward by tracking the knees toward the outer toes.  This should be accompanied concurrently by strategy #2:

2) Avoid joint-centered knee stress by actively contracting other neighboring muscle groups.

This sounds a lot fancier than it really is.  I simply mean, activate the muscles through the thighs and hips to help spread out the work load, so that the knee does not bear all the pressure.  Play around with it a little bit and you'll see what I mean.

3)  Walk with your toes directly forward – whenever you walk!

This will probably take the most getting used to, because we are so habituated to just let the feet fall where they may.  And it is this very habit that has built a dangerous biomechanical situation when it comes to the knees.

This is all it took to rebuild my knees from "knee tweak" to "can run again!"

AND you can extrapolate the simple lessons above.  Simply include the basic principles in any of your activities, workouts, or athletic adventures.

More Resources: A Workout With Your Knees In Mind

These important knee principles are part of the powerful techniques as orchestrated in the T-Tapp Wellness Workout.  It includes a tremendous focus on rebuilding knee joints.  This is done by incorporating the principles of rehabilitative knee alignment throughout the sequence of the entire workout.  Thus, instruction places emphasis on correct placement and tracking of the knees along with compound muscle activation surrounding the knees during plies and lunges.

In my work as a fitness trainer and T-Tapp trainer I have had the opportunity to see these principles bring tremendous relief to many women.  You can find out more about the T-Tapp Wellness workout from me or at T-Tapp.  This workout is a great way to develop the habit of good knee practices while getting in an excellent workout at the same time.

For now, try the experiments above and see what you can apply – today!

© Lani Muelrath, M.A.