Knee injuries
Knee pain and knee injuries are the most common leg injuries.
However, knee problems rarely arise from the knee itself. They often arise because of a lack of motion in either the hip, ankle or foot. The kneejoint, which lies between these joints, will try to compensate for this lack of motion, resulting in an overload injury of the knee.
Anatomy
The knee is a stable and robust joint between the thighbone (femur), your shinbone (tibia) and your kneecap (patella). Inside the knee you will find the anterior and posterior cruciate ligaments and your two menisci. These structures provide a lot of stability to your knee and protect your knee against serious injuries. The medial and lateral collateral ligaments are on either side of the knees and prevent your knees from caving in or out.
Compared to the hip or ankle, the knee has limited movement. The main movement in your knee is bending and extending. Your knee can also rotate internally and externally and some degree of side to side movement. The rotation is essential for proper knee movement, but is often forgotten in the treatment of knee problems.
Knee injuries
Patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS)
PFPS pain is located behind the kneecap and is exacerbated when pressure or force is placed on a bent knee, such as when bending, squatting, kneeling, climbing stairs and cycling fast. Even though the pain is in your knee, the underlying cause is often elsewhere. Often a lack of motion or aberrant motion in the ankle or hip is the root cause.
Collateral knee ligament injury
On either side of the knee you’ll find the medial and lateral collateral ligaments. These ligaments stabilize the knee in side to side movements. Injuries to the collateral ligaments often happen during a fall or when you twist your (bent) knee. This causes these ligaments to be stretched and possibly torn. With dosed movement and rest, this problem often resolves on its own. However, physiotherapy can help to speed up the recovery process If the problem persist for more than a week, please contact one of our therapists!
Runner’s knee
With a runner’s knee you have pain on the outside of your knee. Runner’s knee often occurs when you build your running or cycling up too fast with too little rest. The pain is caused by a tendon plate inflammation or irritation that runs on the side of the leg. Your iliotibial band (ITB). The ITB is a tendon plate that runs between your pelvis and your tibia. If you suffer from a runner’s knee, take a look at the muscle strength of your foot and ankle muscles. By strengthening those, you often resolve a lot of knee problems.
Patella tendon injuries
The patella tendon is subject to a lot of forces in our daily lives. Prolonged overload can cause irritation and pain. One of the underlying causes of patella tendon injuries is a dropped arch or ankle causing a torsion force on the lower leg and knee.
This causes the patella tendon to work from a non-optimal position, leaving it prone to overuse and injury. If you have patella tendon problems, often times the knee rotation and patellar movement are limited as well. Try to improve your knee rotation and your patellar motion. This solves the underlying mechanism and prevent it from coming back.
A common patella tendon injury is the Jumpers knee.
Meniscus injuries
The two menisci are cartilage rings that lie between your tibia and femur. They can slide forward or backwards with knee movement. The reason you have menisci is to create a larger contact area between the convex femur and the flat tibia bone. This creates more stability and allows for more movement to happen.
Especially in positions or sports where a lot of rotation and twisting movements occur in the knee, the menisci can get stuck and cause you pain. A stuck meniscus can be quickly resolved with Active Release Techniqeus. In addition, we always advise to improve the rotation of your ankle, knee and hip joints. The better your knee and surrounding joints can rotate, the less chance there is of meniscus injury.
A meniscus can also tear. In some cases, surgery is the solution, but in many cases meniscus problems can be resolved well with the right combination of treatment and training.
Our treatment
As you might have noticed, most knee issues are not coming from the knee, but from surrounding joints like the ankle or hip. Only treating or training your knee won’t solve your issue. In order to figure our where your knee issue is coming from, we have to look at the entire chain of movement.
During our sessions we’ll find out the root cause of your knee issue, treat it and solve it. In addition, you’ll also get a personalized and specific exercise schedule that you can do yourself to make sure your leg is stronger and more resilient than before
Feel free to contact any of our therapists with questions about your knee issue. We love to help and we can often give you some tips that quickly decrease your symptoms.