Knee injuries have been becoming more common in both athletes and non-athletes. Although the medical procedure of ACL reconstruction or knee replacement is improving, it is ideal to not have those issues. So let's talk about something that I have been wondering about in training and therapy world and actually help reduce some of the knee discomfort that you may be experiencing with 4 exercises.
Why Should Knees Never Pass Toes?
Have you ever perform squat or lunges and was told that knees should never pass toes? Ever wondered why they say that? To be honest, I don't know either. When squatting down lower than the knee level, knees will travel slightly pass the toes but beyond that they will not go further unless you force them to.
From decades of training clients, the difference that I see between people who can push their knees forward with or without knee pain is in their ankle mobility.
Reason why this is happening is because of lack of properly educated coaching skill of trainers, coaches, and therapists. They are educated but educated in an inappropriate way without understanding cause and affect.
Train Ankle Mobility To Give Freedom To The Knees
Too many times when issue arises, most professionals look only at the point of pain and not on mechanical issue as whole.
When observing squats or lunges of those who have knee issues, their ankles are extremely tight. As you incorporate following 4 mobility work along with your workout, not only the knee pain get minimized but also your knee function will improve.
Ankle Foam Roll
Start off with foam rolling your ankle. Think of this as giving yourself a deep tissue massage. Keep working on it until tension is minimized.
Remember, your legs are round so rotate your leg in and out to work on entire ankle and up to behind your knees.
Don't get hung up on how long you should be doing the foam roll. Keep going until you can feel the release of tension. Initially, you may get bruise but as your muscles start loosening up, duration and pain you get from foam rolling will be minimized.
Quadriceps Foam Rolling
Quadriceps or thigh muscles are connected with patella or knee cap. So when this muscle is tight it does limit your knee function.
Yes, this has no connection with ankle mobility, however, one of the exercise that I use when the knees feel tight.
Important thing when foam rolling the quadriceps is attacking not only the middle portion but also the inner and outer side of the quadriceps. You can do that by rotating your legs as you foam roll.
Ankle Mobility
Now that your muscles around your ankle is looser let's start mobilizing it. As shown on video, main objective is to moving your ankle while the entire foot is on the floor.
Which means, while the knee is traveling forward, your heel will not be lifted. When you knee is extended at the back, your toes should be on the floor. Same thing goes for rotation.
See how far you can push your knees forward without your heel lifted. Also, check the level of your knee pain while you are performing this. The movement should be nice and slow.
Calf Stretch on Stairs
Third exercise is calf stretch. I'm using the stairs on video but you can use pretty much anything but make sure they are steady.
Two Points. One is to straighten the knee. This will allows you to stretch top portion of calf which need to be loosen for better knee functioning. Second is not to hold the stretch for too long. Every 5-10 seconds of hold you should be releasing a tension and go down for more to improve the range.
Perform the above 4 exercises along with any exercise or physical activity you do and you should start seeing your knee function improve as well as your ankle mobility in 4-8 weeks.
For me personally, I perform this 2-3 times per week along with other mobility work.
Enjoy!
Kota Shimada
Comments