Common Problems I’ve Come Across as A Performance Coach
Medial Knee Pain
Overview I’ve treated many endurance runners, team sport participants, and other sports performers, who all suffer from pain in the medial aspect of their knees. Commonly this is a repetitive, overuse injury that mainly occurs from a muscular imbalance, which can lead to poor movement patterns and mechanics through altering the toe knee hip alignment, which can affect all the activities listed above.
Many complaints regarding this injury originate around the area of the Vastus Medialis, or its attachment point below the knee. The Vastus Medialis is the teardrop shaped Quadricep muscle on the inside of your leg, medial meaning towards the inside or center of the body.
Common Causes A common trait is an underactive Vastus Medialis, where we see a muscular imbalance across the set of Quadricep muscles, where Vastus Lateralis is dominant. This usually is a result of poor training habits, where the athlete has created this muscular imbalance through repetitive movements.
Active Solutions There are many ways to solve this problem, some of which have become rather complicated and require specialist equipment. I’m going to give you some easy-to-use advice on how to solve medial knee pain.
Foam rolling your ITB (Iliotibial Band) and your Quadriceps, mainly focusing on Vastus Lateralis, this will reduce any stiffness and combined with static stretches for the quadriceps will reduce the tension around the knee joint.
Activating your glutes before exercise will help stabilise the leg and develop your toe knee hip alignment. This will help you produce better movement patterns and eradicate any internal buckling of the knee.
