Stephan Contratti

Super Beitrag von Max Shank über die Feinde des Knies (Beitrag auf Englisch)

The top 3 most injured areas in humans are the low back, shoulder, and knees. Today I wanted to give you a brief overview of the knee and help you make sure it doesn’t suck and hurt you.

First, understand that your body is a brilliant compensator, and it will get the job done using any means necessary. This means that if you lack function in one area (strength or mobility) that you will make up for it in another.

With regard to the knee, we have to look at these possibilities:
1. If the ankles aren’t properly mobile, the knee will try to compensate by being hyper-mobile (not good).
2. If the hips are stiff, the knee will once again compensate by trying to give you more movement.
3. If the core is weak and unstable, the hip will try to give you stability (this makes the hip stiff, which brings us back to the above point).
4. An imbalance in strength between the front and back muscles of the knee (quads and hamstrings) will take the knee out of its ideal position and cause damage over time.
5. For any joint to be considered healthy, it should have a good active range of motion, and a small gap between the passive and active range of motion.

How to address these issues:
1. Make sure your core is working–some side planks and crawling would be great here.
2. Mobilize the hips and ankles. Start with some simple joint circles.
3. Building symmetrical strength between the front and back side by utilizing a combination of squats/lunges (pushing movements) and deadlifts/single leg deadlifts/leg curls (pulling movements) as part of a balanced training program will be of critical importance.
4. Check your range of motion passively (use hands to pull heel toward butt), then actively (use your hamstrings to pull heel toward butt while standing). If there’s a big discrepancy (a small difference is expected) you have an active knee flexion problem that you’ll need to address with mobility and strength work.

Let’s recap the plan of action…. 
1. Turn on that core.
2. Mobilize the hips and ankles.
3. Close the active-passive gap.
4) Get stronger, but balance it out between pushes and pulls.