Knock, knock …It’s your knees!

Do you have knock knees? Take this 5 second test! 

  • Wear something that allows you to view your bare knees

  • Stand with your second toes parallel with one another and your feet about 2 fists apart

  • Bend your knees

Are one or both of your knees pointing over:

A.  your second toe

B.  your big toe

C. in towards the midline of your body

If you answered B or C, …you have knock knees!   (FYI, sometimes only one knee is affected)

Knock knees (also known as genu valgum) are when the knee(s) cave towards one another when standing or bending. There are many genetic reasons for knock knees.  These types will be distinctly noticeable.  For these people, if you were to draw a line from hips to opposite feet, it might even resemble an X shape.  Such extreme cases will be recognized during childhood and hopefully, tended to then. As far as the rest of the population is concerned, knock knees can be less observable. Most will go around without realizing they have this condition unless they know what to look for or someone points it out.  Without intervention, it can catch up with you and eventually cause pain.  It’s difficult to say how many people are afflicted with knock knees, but judging by how often I encounter them in my clients and students, it seems fairly prevalent.  Bending your knees from a standing position will shine the light on this condition.  If you haven’t taken the 5 second test yet, try it now!

 If you think you have knock knees, don’t worry.  You’re (probably ;) still a good person and it’s correctable with exercise! Before I go on about how exercise can help correct it, it’s important to discuss how exercise can also make it worse. Whenever you bend your knees from a weight-bearing activity (ie: squats, lunges, running, etc.) you are putting extra weight and energy force onto the inner sides of these hinges.  After time, this results in excess wearing on the insides of the knee that can lead to deterioration of the joint and/or osteoarthritis.  Depending on your age and level of activity, you may not have any knee pain at all at the moment.  Don’t let this fool you into thinking, “that’s how it’ll always be".  There will be many stairs and hills in your lifetime and you want to easily and forever be able to walk up them all. 

***Sorry Runners***

If you want to save your future knees, you’ll want to correct this imbalance before hitting the pavement again.  

For yogis and weight lifters (and any other type of exercise that involves bending the knees from a weight-bearing position), you can use those aforementioned moves to actively re-center and strengthen your knees into better alignment. This may mean going a little slower than you’re used to, but over time, you will have balanced the muscles on either side of the joint and retaught your knees where they’re supposed to be and how they’re supposed to hinge. 

When a knee pulls inward, it essentially turns your femur inward.  This rotation will take the hip along for the ride, creating weak, overstretched external hip rotators (the muscles that turn your hip/leg out).  Strengthening these muscles will help take some of the pull off the knee while doing functional exercises like lunges and squats will simultaneously strengthen and balance that knee joint while re-educating them on how to perform the movement they were born to do.  

Yoga classes are my favorite way to help correct knees because of all the various lunges they do.  Don’t let the class flow dictate your speed.  There are no gold medals for whoever finishes first.  Only sad knees for those with untreated muscle imbalances.  If you don’t do yoga, no problem!  Here is a posture you can do on your own.

Warrior 2 

This is my favorite corrective exercise for knock knees because you can work on correcting the knee alignment on both legs in slightly different ways at the same time. 

 
 

  • From a lunge position, spin your back foot about 45 degrees with toes pointed out

  • Stretch arms in opposite directions with head pointed towards front arm

  • Tuck your tailbone under and keep your torso upright

  • **Make sure your front knee is pointed over your second toe. This will require a modicum of effort if your knee wants to bend inwards

  • **Spin your back thigh towards the back. This will help strengthen the external hip rotator and direct the knee away from the floor.

Clam Shells (external hip strengthener) 

  • Lie on your side with your knees bent, one on top of the other

  • Place a resistance band or loop around your thighs, just above your knees

  • Keep your feet together while lifting your top knee up

Do 10-15/3x

***If you don’t have a band, try for an extra rep***

 

Muscle Re-Education Exercise for the Knees

This is not intended to be an exercise to strengthen the quads (front of thighs). This is to reteach proper knee alignment so eventually your brain will know what to do without you having to think about it.  

**Complete with my cute dog to distract from my sock indentations** 

  • Stand with feet/second toes parallel and hips width apart. **This is a smaller distance than you think. It’s about 2 fists width.

  • Keep torso upright and bend your knees slightly, NOT AS LOW AS A SQUAT.

  • Watch your alignment and make sure your knees are coming over the second toe.

Do 30x twice a day

Danielle2 Comments