Knees are funny things when you think about it – a healthy knee allows you to have so much freedom but really it’s just a group of bones that only bend in one direction. There are any number of reasons for your knee pain but have you considered it may actually be caused by your glutes?
When you’re standing still almost all your body weight passes through your knees, but what if you stand on one leg. Now the entire force passes through one knee. Think you don’t do that often? This is what happens when you walk and the force increases greatly when you run. Your knee – that only bends in one direction – is now supporting your mass and the centre of that mass is no longer directly above. This creates a force that tries to rotate your knees sideways (never a good direction for a knee) and the knee itself is not designed to compensate for this sideways force.
This is where the all-important gluteal muscles come in. In particular glute medius, which has many actions and is your best friend in compensating for the rotational force applied to your knee during single leg weight bearing. Gluteal weakness results in more of the rotational forces felt at the knee and will ultimately result in biomechanical knee pain and aggravation.
We can’t diagnose your knee pain through a blog post and you shouldn’t try to self-diagnose your knee pain either. Book a visit to our experienced physiotherapists who can assess and provide the treatment plan you need to a stronger, pain free knee!
