Quick Tips to Alleviate Knee Pain

Have you ever had knee pain that kept you from getting in a good workout? Here are a few common things I’ve seen in my experience training.

Flexibility

Lack of flexibilty in the quads or hamstrings can translate to overexertion on the knees when there are imbalances in strength levels between the hamstrings to quads. If you have a desk job often times the hamstrings get stuck in the flexed position and often times they get really tight over time. That can often times cause strain on the knee. For you runners out there who pronate, foam roll your IT bands!

Another issue associated with excessive  sitting is an anterior pelvic tilt. It’s when your hips tend to tilt forward caused by overactive hip flexors. When this happens, it causes instability within the hips and causes added pressure to the knees. I’ve also seen, as a result, the individuals will bend more over top of the knee in place of being able to create a ninety degree angle.

Instability 

For all you basketball players out there, I have two pieces of advice. For those of you who have sprained their ankle so many times that you’ve lost count, ankle  stability plays a huge role throughout the kinetic chain. Do more progressive exercises to stabilize the ankles. If that is something that you are not familiar with, talk to a personal trainer. They are there to help you succeed.  The other is in regards to jumpers knee. Jumpers knee is the inflamation of tendons in the knee. Those tendons are strained often times as a result from overuse of muscles in the quads. Bio mechanically you are depending way too much on the quads and aren’t activating your glutes enough when jumping. Glutes are the most important muscle to develop when it comes to increasing athletic ability. Almost all athletic movements stem from the glutes. By strengthening your glutes it will take pressure off the knees and increase athletic performance.

For further advice, come talk to a Vasa Fitness Professional, and they will help you get started on a plan tailored to you that will help you overcome your weaknesses and make them your strengths.