How To Provide Knee Pain Relief Exercises During a Workout

Posted on December 26, 2022

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Hey coaches athletes, Michael Hughes here of Gymnazo Edu. And our second installment of tweakology covering this joint right here, the good old fashioned knee, got to give credit to the great Institute for teaching me about tweakology, inventing the word and all the different aspects that can go into modifying a session, a workout, an environment of training and conditioning, on the fly, making it happen. So as the coaches, the athlete can go into it, and making sure the success is happening, even though there’s dysfunction going on in every single person. In this video, I’m gonna be covering the muscle anatomy of the knee, all the major players, and then the common exercises, dysfunctions and tweaks associated with the knee and dive into it. Now, again, there’s a revolutionary process happening in the fitness and athletic industry. And it’s being fueled from the knowledge that in the past, has only been held by those who could obtain a six figure graduate degree. But even then that knowledge has been vastly incomplete in its application. It is an analysis edu goal to share that knowledge and therefore enable the greater capability of those individuals who have the most power and capacity to possibly help the greatest number of people. And those are the movement trainers of the world. That’s us. That’s me. But before Australians can do that, we need to know more about how and why the human body functions the way it does, not just from a textbook or nutritional education, but from the multitude of methodologies that are rooted in the principles of physics, biology and behavioral sciences or the applied functional sciences. It is then we move it trainers can fill the gap that has been in the void of our health care system. Slip this series just be a little bit of information to kind of what the palette get you on a starting point on how to think about human movement in a way that training and conditioning really needs it and the environment. That once we become well educated and are able to think and process in a principles first thought process than the vast majority of us have the capacity and capability to train a condition every athlete and client that has the amazing opportunity to be in front of this thought process. So if you want to join that revolution, hit the subscribe button if you like and want to support this revolution, hit the like button. And if you really want to dive into checkout or MDMC mentorship where we dive super deep into everything that we’re going to be talking about, check it out in the link in the description below. But without further ado, let’s get into the muscle anatomy of the knee. Now the knee has essentially two massive parts, right? Our lower half the TIB fib or upper half the femur, but also that kneecap, the patella, that is essentially just hanging out flowing with everything that’s going on. So those are the those are the kind of the four bones, the muscles, oh, it’s not for, it’s five times that amount, at the very least. Right? We’re talking about 20 Different plus muscles just in the local neighborhood of in that knee and why it is the joint that is so complex and so often faltan right, so we’re going to talk about the soleus, the gastroc, the deep layers of the posterior calf, the quadriceps these four muscles, the adductors, these five muscles, and then we go to the glutes, those three muscles, but then like the posterior hip complex, right? We got like six other deep little suckers in there that definitely affect the knee. Can’t forget about the the TFL going into the IT band and then and then and then all the cruciate ligaments that surround it and capsulate that knee and keep it as a stable joint. So we have to understand all those major players. Before we can dive into the biomechanics of the knee, the knee is a three dimensional joint. Yes, it likes to flex and yes likes to extend no question, but it is 3d. It has a valgus and Varus, which are not bad movements. Yes, it has ability to spin internally and externally rotating in sync and out of sync not that much. But it’s really heavily influenced by the ankle foot. And by this hip, and it’s really a pass through joint right, whatever that ankle foot and that hip do the knee says I have to come into play. But it’s not just general, right? It’s different for men and women, women have a different hip configuration than men do, which is going to put women to much more of a valgus seeing position. Again, not a bad thing. Just necessarily understanding how good is it and when it’s good. And when it’s not good how to dive into it, right and check it out and make sure it’s nice and set. So this knee can be trained for mobility, but really it’s an adaptability to handle uncommon movements. Right we should be able to train that need to move manage the heavy valgus drill to manage that rotation? And it’s really how do we do that? Well, it’s really going after all the anatomy that I previously mentioned, those 20 other muscle groups. And that’s just the limb. That’s just the lower limb. Let me talk about the, the thoracic spine and how that influences the knee, which it definitely does don’t mistake in that. So it’s one of our most complicated joints, not because of its simplicity and movement, right? Because of the integration and how many influences the knee has. So the can knee pain could happen all the way because of lack of shoulder motion on that same side or opposite side, and how it feeds and trickles down. So don’t misplace this joint as being just a kicker, right, just a nice little straighten back. It is way more than that. And as we get into the common dysfunctions, and the exercises that go with it, we have to kind of understand one of the basics which is just squatting right? And what does it take squatting, but also the ballistic aspect of squatting, the jumping or leaving ground. Now, generally, we just have kind of knee pain, there’s so many different ways to call knee pain. You know, you got runner’s knee and dead Donnell. What it generally means that there is discomfort around this aspect of the knee or the front back inside. It’s basically goobers going to call it general knee pain, because that’s all your clients or athletes care about in a workout scenario. So what happens when they’re squatting and have knee pain? Well, I’m gonna go to this the easy to that we shouldn’t forget, and I don’t want to miss it in this video, is decreased load. Are you loading the tissue too quickly? Can the connector as you manage that stacking too fast? Is it too fast? And more than likely, it could very well can be so I can’t miss saying that. What about the range of motion? Are you going too deep, too soon, is this lower back hip complex ankle foot not giving you the range of motion. So the knee has to create more range of motion, especially in the frontal plane and transverse plane as it can’t get more sagittal. So dives in other places. So we have to understand that we have to think about decreasing load decreasing range of motion in a workout and just see what happens first and foremost. But the big tweaking the big thing I want you to really take out this video is what we call tweaking and tweaking out or tweaking in means that we’re going to apply more muscle connective tissue friends to support the knee. Tweaking out means that we’re going to remove those friends and have the knee joint kind of by itself a little bit more. Remember talking tweaking in more and bringing more people to the party. A quick way to do that, just to show you just as example, I bring up the wedge again, because it’s so so simple. If I have a more dorsi flexed position or an upward ramp position on that wedge, and I step onto it, my foot is going to dorsi flexors sooner, therefore my soleus or my deep calf is going to therefore go under tension sooner. Therefore if it’s a healthy soleus has good elasticity, it’s going to therefore decelerate my lower leg sooner, giving my knee if it had a lack of support, more support sooner, therefore can make me feel more stable as an example. Right. So that’s just a quick example to understand, like what we’re talking about, about bringing friends into the party. As we talked about this more and more. Understanding that position tweaks as well. Right. So position tweaks, if I do a squat, just what you call square stance, on basic, allowing a balancing between front thigh, back thigh, lateral thigh, middle thigh, rotational fight your legs, just to say I hope everything’s balanced. But what if you split your feet too right foot in front of Left? Right? What if we do a squat just like this? Well, what are the differences between these knees? Well, we have a lot of videos and podcasts just on this exact topic. But for in a workout. I’ve now if I my right knees feeling a little bit of discomfort on the way down, if I put my right foot in front, I now have less knee flexion. There for less tension on that joint. On this site, I had to make up for it by putting more tension here. But I reduced tension there. Interesting. I actually have more glute loading faster sooner with my knee in front because my hip flexes faster sooner than if my foots behind me. I have more relative extension here. More relative flexion here so that for more posterior chain activation, tension support, right bringing friends into the party, these guys are helping out their knee.

Well what if I go wide? Well, now bringing my adductors into the party more and removing my lateral musculature less well if I go narrow will the exact opposite is true. I’m Britt removing my abductors from the party and bringing in more lateral or posterior hip. What if I go toe open with my squat? Right now what I’m saying things have kind of happened with wide I’m bringing much more externally rotated abductors to the party and decreasing tension in my posterior chain. opposite of that is also true if I go toe in a little bit. This is not a bad position. It’s just the opposite of going toes out on bringing more posterior chain, more rotational chain of the glutes, hamstrings into the party and removing my adductors from that party. Now, because the glutes are much more powerful muscles than the adductors, and have a lot more tension in them typically reduces our range of motion, but doesn’t mean that you are going to have bad knees. Because of that, in fact, you may save a knee from that, and that has happened to a client of mine, just that exact story. By simply toning in on a squat, boom, knees had the ability to restore themselves. And it’s a long story short, five years later, she’s doing Spartan, tough motors that ended up when no one else said that the knee would be ever functional. Again, I digress. Also, we got to think about tension, right, if you can also think about adding a band into a person’s workout, throwing that on, throw that on, so it’s around the knees, and now I have I can just push against that band, you’re restoring tension to the posterior lateral hip complex. And if that knee is moving too much, we’ll add some add some tension through here, which reduces D motion, which is typically the problem the knees moving too much, then the glutes say, Wait, this is what it’s like to be activated, this feels like to have the appropriate amount of tension. Therefore, to keep that knee from over, going crazy, because the knees under or the hip is under more control. So don’t forget about this band concept, right? It’s a huge, huge win, just like the wedge, just like your foot positions. But let’s not forget about what the upper body can do, I can drive my upper body to influence how my hips work, which influence how my knee to work. So if I have a overhead squat, let’s just call it a normal squat, just some air squats, right? Well, what if I take my hands and do a forward reach with that squat, and I go as far as I can? Well, I’m gonna start creating more forward body positioning, or my essentially my gravitational pull is going to want to throw me that way. Well, for me to counterbalance not fall on my face, my hips are going to shoot backwards more, oh, what happens when I hit my hips get into more flexion I get more tension back here, stiffer, more my hands go, my hips want to go the opposite. For me to stay balanced, I get more tension here, my knee reduces its tension or has more support, I can say that same concept. And rotate right as I do a rotational reach, I get more internal rotation at my hip joint, therefore getting more glute loading in the transverse plane, that could be a way to support that knee, but could also be the exact same way to help the other knee as it maybe there’s too much tension in your hip, too much tension in your posterior lateral hip. If I do a squat, rotate the opposite way. Now I put more tension in the opposite side abductor, removing tension from my opposite side glute. And that could be the same way that the opposite knee says thanks for the relief. On that squat. I can rock and roll by doing a simple squat just with a little bit of rotation. There’s more to go with that. But I want you to open your mind on how many different ways we can influence the knee because the knee has so many influences. What about a lunch? Right? What about a common good old fashioned lunch which would you so much on? Well, we can take that exact same thought process from before with squats, and add it into a lunge no different as maybe doing a lunge with a slight toe in to incorporate more tension through this posterior lateral hip, I can do the same thing with a little bit of a toe out. And that may look ooh, that’s dangerous, that’s putting the knee at greater exposure. It may but also may be doing the exact opposite. Because now I get more tension through my adductors. Because this is over tense, right you had about thinking about don’t just think about what the book says is good or bad kind of thing about what the body’s presenting to you. And what different positions can do to make that knee more successful. That’s all that really matters is can you coach athletes, or can you the athlete make sure your workout is successful by not being in Dogma mode of what is right and wrong. But processing what can be right and wrong. So it’s a big, big, big, big play. So I can also do the same thing instead of a foot position. I can do an angulation by just doing a ladder lunch. It’s programmed to do a forward lunge. Well, why did you change that same thing to a ladder lunch, you’re still lunging right? Want to take into a rotational lunch. It’s adding different angulations into the process that is still a lunge to the athlete to that client. So why not change it up to make them successful? Again, we can just the same thing with our hands as we did with our squats. I don’t want to take that away. It just adding the same components to our reaches. Whatever it is to make sure you saw where that needed, right it changed where I went with baseball where my hands go, all good things to take into consideration. We want to tweak our driving of the driving of our hands. We call it tweaking the driver on how that knee can position itself and then What about the last one locomotion, right? With locomotion? Well, it’s be a running drill with cases a cone drill, speed ladder drill, right? All those things are they need just add just not feeling it too too much? Well, the one thing that we can really do is change it up a lot, right. So a lot of kind of step patterns we do, right, a lot of kinds of step patterns we do. As we step up, and step down off boxes, I’ll turn that around, step down off boxes, right, there’s so many different ways that we can get up and off a locomotion, in a sense with Evie box jumps as as well. But think about you don’t always have to do something forwards that have gone backwards, may take away all that knee discomfort, maybe taking it sideways, takes away all that neat discomfort, maybe splitting your feet. And then doing a sideways shuffle takes away that knee discomfort because it’s all changing the way that the hips are positioned, and therefore those 20 Plus muscles that I talked about how they are influencing their percentages to that knee because the percentages now change. So don’t don’t mistaken, a sideways, step up or don’t mistaken a lunge, I’ll go back to a lunge, stepping up and six inches higher, my foot now has six inches higher, therefore my knee and hip relationship have much more flexion Much, much sooner. So there’s all these different ways that I want you to think about it in terms of how your body goes, maybe you can do a shuffle forward, and that right knee never gets into that push off position where it hurts or is the opposite way. So it’s a lot to think about. But I want to give some quick hitters for you to dive into how locomotion can change by just changing the angulation or the pre positioning of the feet. And doing those same patterns. Hope this video gave you a greater understanding of the insights of how you can start thinking about your coaching and training sessions for all the movement practitioners out there. And for all those athletes doing kind of that do yourself workout. It’s important that you don’t think about not where the dysfunction is, but where it’s coming from and how you can influence in that to make it all happen. Now I’m gonna see you next time on the art tweak ology series about the lower back so get ready for that one. If you even want more content for Gymnazo Edu In the meantime, please check out our podcast, please follow Gymnazo Edu on Instagram. You can also follow me Michael Hughes at 3d athlete or 3d underscore athlete on Instagram. And I’ll see you guys on the next one.