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The Importance of Mobility to Alleviate Knee Pain
By Dean Ahmad
In my 4 years as a trainer and trainee, I have encountered many with knee problems which include myself. It all started from improper squatting form and 2 years in the army. Repetitive steps during running certainly did not help with the problem. After years of trial and error plus a little good education, I have managed to recover from my knee pain with no re occurrence of problems.
First things first. I am not going to bore you with the anatomy of the lower limbs and the biomechanics of the human body. I think only my surgeons would understand the jargon. So I will try to put it in the simplest of English for the rest of you guys!
Basically, most of us do not realise that the knee does not function by itself. Many a times whenever we have knee pain, we would assume its the kneecap or patella that is causing the problem. In reality, unless you have directly injured your knee through direct impact or a tear in the ACL ( a ligament in the knee) etc.. The root cause of knee pains is actually the lack of mobility in the ankles and hip!
You see the body functions both as individual units and as an integrated unit. And the joints in the body all have different functions, namely being a stability or mobility joint. When addressing the knee, you would have to understand that it actually functions as stability joint. The 2 other joints surrounding the knee, namely ankle and hip are mobility joints. So this means if your hip and ankle lacks the mobility in the joint, the knee would suffer as it has to compensate as mobility joint as well. And apparently a joint that functions as something which it is not supposed to would definitely result in problems in the long run.
The ITB (illiotibial band) which is the muscle which runs along the side of your thigh could be another reason for knee pains. If the ITB is too tight and has trigger points (knotted muscle tissue), it would cause irritation and might pull the patella out of its optimal position.
Another thing, it is very important that a person has mobility and stability in the lower limbs because it would help with the hip mechanics. Lack of joint mobility in the hips would affect and hinder an exercise as simple as the squat or even a movement like walking. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, lack of mobility in the lower limbs can also translate into problems for the upper body namely the spine!! I could go on about this but I will just stick to my topic for today.
This is why I do not recommend long runs. I always believe that only fit people should run long distance, not for people trying to get fit. One of the reasons is because a beginner or a person who seldom exercises would rarely have optimal mobility in his/her joints and proper hip mechanics to absorb the impact of running. Not to mention if a person is overweight, imagine the amount of load and pressure on that knee!
Most of you know that I do not agree with long runs because of many reasons, one of which is that long paced cardio does not do any good in weight loss, but that would be covered in another topic. But as you can see, this article is clearly one good enough reason not to run!
So this is why my dear friends, I always get you guys to stretch before training and I focus on compound movements first, meaning movements that imitate the natural movement and biomechanics of the hip e.g.; squats, dead lifts etc..
About The Author
Dean Ahmad is a certified personal fitness trainer and strength conditioning specialist.
Please visit his site www.OptimumFitness.Info.
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