Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Knee pain solution


Patella tracking dysfunction, chrondomalacia, ow! the sound of those ailments makes me hurt. Those are a couple of the most common knee problems that athletes experience. The symptoms usually manifest themselves behind the knee cap. They are condsidered in many cases as overuse injuries. However, most knee pain is caused from one tight muscle. It is rectus femoris. This is the muscle that is right in the middle of the powerful quadricep group. The problem begins with rectus femoris originating at the anterior superior illiac spine and the others at the anterior inferior illiac spine. So what happens when we do the traditional quad stretch, rectus femoris, because it is longer doesn't get any stretch.
One of the telltale obvious signs of a tight rectus femoris is popping in the knee. This popping is usually painless but still an alarm for danger lurking. The solution for this problem is stretching. How do you stretch this muscle if the traditional way doesn't work? Go non traditional.
Here is how to do it.This stretch looks and feels kind of weird at first but it is very effective. It also gives psoas major and tensor fascialata, both hip flexors, a stretch too. Even if you have just one knee bothering you, stretch them both. Here's what you do. Lie on the floor on your side. It doesn't matter which side since you are going to stretch both. OK assume the fetal position. Take the down arm and hold the down (closest to the floor) knee, grab the ankle of the other leg with the up arm. If you are too tight to grab the ankle, use a belt or piece of rope for extension. Keeping the leg parallel to the floor, pull back til you feel a good stretch. Hold for 2 seconds and repeat 15 times. If the leg isn't parallel, you won't stretch rectus femoris. Repeat this exercise daily. Be careful when you first begin doing this stretch. Don't overstretch it. It will just delay getting to the solution.
Be well and stretch something.

3 comments:

Jojo1999 said...

hi there, i experience a sharp "nerve" type pain in my left knee - lateral side just above tibia (no patella involvement) when i do a deep flexion such as lunges or quads stretch (such as your depicted exercise). The pain began in the summer after a lot of breastroke swimming - when doing the "frog" kick. Could this be a lateral collateral ligament strain or perhaps referred from my hip? My knee is not tender or swollen, does not give way or lock and sometimes I get this "nerve" pain just when sitting sedentary at my desk. YOur comments would be very appreciated! JO

Unknown said...

Hi,

Thanks for sharing the solution for knee pain. Specialists recommend moderate exercise to help relieve joint pain.

KrishaLiva said...

Great post John! Glad I saw your post. My father always suffer from his knee pain. I think I need to follow your tips. Anyway, thanks for sharing this post. It will really help!

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