Here is a good article I found on WebMD
“Why You Must Protect Your Knees.” featured in REDBOOK
There are points about this article that are very good and there are other points that are given in this article that I don’t believe are explaining the entire picture on the subject of knee pain…
One point that is brought up about addressing knee pain is to strengthen the “muscles” around the knee. If you have ever looked at an anatomy chart like the one posted below. The muscles are in “red” or the darker colors. However, when you get down in and around the knees, especially in the front of the knee. There really are no “muscles” to be seen. On the muscle chart everything is “white.” The reason it is white is because there are no muscles there! What really needs to be strengthened are the tendons which connect the muscle to the bones in your knee. Tendon strength is what makes knees strong and flexible without pain like they were when you were younger.
So a deeper question would be, “How do you strengthen the tendons around the knee to both get rid of the knee pain while at the same time make the knees more flexible to prevent future knee pain issues?”
The answer is in breathing!
After exerting a muscle for 7 seconds, the muscle fatigues and all you are left to work with is your tendons. The idea is to do an exercise for your knees longer than 7 seconds. The catch happens is when we do the exercise for more than 7 seconds and don’t breathe. We pass out and have a whole host of other issues besides the knee pain! 🙂
It is important to understand how to breath first, which is, in through your nose and out through your mouth. The more difficult the exercise the faster you breathe. This is something you can practice just sitting down and getting up from a chair. You will begin to realize how much tension you hold in just that simple movement with or without knee pain. How much we hold our breath is directly related to how much tension we have in our bodies which can result in knee pain. A broader perspective of knee pain is that the knees are not necessarily what is wrong. They are just the weakest link in the series of tension from you head to your feet.
Now to get back to the knee pain exercises. When you do an exercise to strengthen the “muscles” (in actuality the tendons) of your knees. You must hold the exercise in position for at least 7 seconds while maintaining the “circular breathing” – In through your nose and out through your mouth. You will find out how strong your legs really are, or in this case are not. This is how you are really going to make a difference with your knee pain.
I have been working on an e-book and video that are going to go into specific exercises that will show how to both stretch and strengthen your knees while at the same time relax the stress/tension in your body resulting in your knee pain.
I hope to have some of the exercises up soon to share with you so you can begin to both feel and see in the difference in how your knee pain feels.
If there are further questions you may have regarding your specific type of knee pain. Please feel free to contact me directly at Bill@TheKneePainGuru.com
Best regards,
Bill
(The Knee Pain Guru)
P.S. – If you have not downloaded my FREE Knee Pain Report please click the link.
