Many people suffer from knee injuries. There are so many different diagnoses from sprains and strains to degenerative diseases and more. The list is long. Your knees take a beating over your life time. It is important to make sure the supporting muscles around your knee are strong and flexible. Many injuries occur because of imbalances created by weak or tight muscles.
Muscles that support your knee are-
- Quadriceps- These four muscles run from your hip bone in the front of your thigh attaching around your knee and shin bone. The quads help to straighten your leg and move your knee cap.
- Hamstrings- These three muscles start deep under your butt muscles and run down the back of your thigh to your knee and shin bone. They help to bend your knee and allow you more strength when pushing.
- Adductor Muscles- This group of muscles runs from the top of your inner thigh to your knee. They help to stabilize your knee as well as extend the thigh and pull your legs in.
- Abductor Muscles- These run along the outside of the thigh and insert by the knee. They also assist in stabilizing the knee and extending the thing from the other side.
- Iliotibial Band- This is actually not a muscle, but a band of tissue with less vascular and nerve innervations. As a result it can not heal as quickly as your muscle and tends to tighten quite easily especially in runners and cyclists. It runs from the upper hip joint along the outside of your leg attaching to the knee. Often when tight you feel a pull on the outside of your knee where it inserts.
- Calf Muscles- There are three muscles on the back of your leg between your knee and ankle. These are your calf muscles. They help to flex your ankle and bend your knee.
If one group of muscle is stronger or tighter than the other side an imbalance is created. Often what happens is that the knee is then pulled in one direction or another. Add to that the pounding each time you take a step and you are setting yourself up for all sorts of possible injuries. You can go to the gym and find out from a trainer what sort of exercises you should start with to build up the muscles supporting your knee. Always start slow and build up at a pace that won’t injure you. If you find that one leg is stronger than the other always do the weak side first. Whatever you can do on the weak leg do only that on the strong leg as well, nothing extra. This way the weak one can catch up to the strong and you will decrease the imbalance over time. If you always work more on your stronger leg you will increase the imbalance and put yourself at a greater risk of injury. Always give yourself enough rest between work outs. Don’t work the same body part 2 days in a row.
Listening to your body is key. You should feel like you have worked your muscles after, but you shouldn’t be in pain for days. Feeling fatigued and lactic acid build up is ok. Slowly increase your intensity so that you can allow the ligaments and tendons to strengthen. Because they have less blood and nerve innervations they take longer to heal after a work out or any type of exercise.
If you have any pain whatsoever in your knee stop what you are doing. If the pain persists get it checked out by a physiotherapist. They can diagnose what the problem is as well as figure out if you have any muscle imbalances. They will give you exercises to strengthen and support your knee.
Flexibility is also important. Try to stretch for 5 to 10 minutes at the end of your work out. If your muscles become too tight you are setting yourself up for injury.
It is very important to keep all of your ligaments and joints strong. This will allow you to be able to do things as long as possible. Moderation is key along with a good balanced program. Get yourself set up on one today. You can do it in front of the TV at night or go to the gym. Just make sure that a qualified trainer has set you up on a program that will build you up slowly over time safely. |
