How To Fix Knock Knees (Exercises To Correct Knee Valgus) — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00What's up guys? Dr. Jared here, Tone and
2. 0:02Titan, and in this video I wanted to
3. 0:03share with you a few simple exercises
4. 0:05that you can do right at home to correct
5. 0:08knock knees or knee valgus or genu
6. 0:11valgus. Basically, knees that collapse
7. 0:13in towards the middle and the pain that
8. 0:15might be associated with this. A lot of
9. 0:17times I hear about pain on the like
10. 0:19around the kneecap, inside, outside
11. 0:21kneecap, or the inside part of the knee,
12. 0:23or the outside part of the knee. If you
13. 0:25have those symptoms, this video can
14. 0:27hopefully help you out. Now,
15. 0:29interestingly enough, this actually
16. 0:31isn't a problem with your knee. Let me
17. 0:33explain why. I've said it before, I'll
18. 0:35say it again, your knee is a dumb joint.
19. 0:37Your knee bends and it extends and
20. 0:39that's about it. If we talk about the
21. 0:42position of your knee and where your
22. 0:44knee bends and extends, that's actually
23. 0:46controlled by what happens in your foot
24. 0:48and ankle and controlled by what happens
25. 0:50up here in your hip. If you have this
26. 0:52genu valgus or knock knees, most likely
27. 0:56your problem is either down in your foot
28. 0:57and ankle or up in your hip. I actually
29. 1:00shot a video a couple of weeks ago
30. 1:02addressing flat feet, addressing kind of
31. 1:04the pronation issue that we might run
32. 1:06into. I've got it linked in the show
33. 1:08notes. I'll also link it at the end of
34. 1:09the video. Please watch that because
35. 1:11that's definitely going to help you out.
36. 1:13For the purposes of this video, I want
37. 1:16to run you through some simple stretches
38. 1:17and exercises to address what's
39. 1:19happening right up here at the hip. When
40. 1:22our knees come together, it's because my
41. 1:24my femur internally rotates, so my knee
42. 1:27rotates to the middle and adducts,
43. 1:29meaning it comes in here to the inside.
44. 1:31That is what is creating this knock knee
45. 1:34appearance. What we need to do is
46. 1:35stretch those tight adductors and
47. 1:38internal rotators to get out into this
48. 1:40position, and then we're going to
49. 1:42strengthen the external rotators and the
50. 1:44abductors to keep our knee out in that
51. 1:47better, more healthy position. So,
52. 1:49that's exactly what you're going to get
53. 1:50with this video. First exercise is
54. 1:52coming your way right now. Stretch
55. 1:54number one is going going for those
56. 1:55tight hip internal rotators. In order to
57. 1:58stretch those out, we need to get into
58. 1:59external rotation at the hip. One great
59. 2:02way to do that would be with a figure
60. 2:04four stretch or with a piriformis
61. 2:06stretch. This is how it looks. You're
62. 2:08going to lay down on your back with both
63. 2:10of your knees bent. I'm going to cross
64. 2:12one leg over the other. Now with my
65. 2:14hands, I'm going to grab behind this
66. 2:16other knee and pull that knee up toward
67. 2:19my chest just until we get a good
68. 2:21comfortable stretch through this hip. So
69. 2:23right now I'm pulling my right knee up
70. 2:25into my right shoulder in order to
71. 2:28stretch my left hip into this external
72. 2:31rotation position. I would hold that for
73. 2:33about 20 seconds and then come over here
74. 2:35and repeat it on the other side
75. 2:37stretching out my right hip. Hold that
76. 2:39for 20 seconds and repeat it three
77. 2:41times. Now I realize it's not always
78. 2:43convenient to get down onto the floor
79. 2:45and lay down and do a stretch like this.
80. 2:48If you can do this seated, in my opinion
81. 2:50not as not as effective but better than
82. 2:53nothing. And so, you know, sit in a
83. 2:55chair or at your bed or couch and then
84. 2:57you're just going to cross the one leg
85. 2:58over the other to externally rotate
86. 3:01again right up here in this hip. Now if
87. 3:03that's comfortable, you can add with
88. 3:05your hand just a little over pressure
89. 3:07right on the top of your knee to enhance
90. 3:09that stretch even a little bit more.
91. 3:11Three times 20 seconds on both sides.
92. 3:14Now for the abductors, the groin muscles
93. 3:16right here on the inside, there's a
94. 3:17couple of different ways that I like
95. 3:19this. You can do them both at the same
96. 3:21time with a butterfly stretch. So you're
97. 3:23going to sit down, you're going to bring
98. 3:25both the soles of your feet together.
99. 3:27Yes, I do need help with this one. I
100. 3:29know, I understand. Uh bring the soles
101. 3:31of your feet together. Now with my
102. 3:32elbows, I can apply a little pressure
103. 3:35right here to the inside part of my leg
104. 3:37trying to push my knees down closer
105. 3:39towards the floor until I get a good
106. 3:41stretch through these groin muscles,
107. 3:43through these abductor muscles. I hold
108. 3:45that for 20 seconds and I repeat it
109. 3:47three times. Sometimes I found that
110. 3:49patients it's kind of hard to get into
111. 3:51that position with both legs. If you
112. 3:53want to do just one at a time, you can
113. 3:55sit with one leg extended, pull this
114. 3:57knee up into this position, and then the
115. 3:59same principles apply. I'm going to push
116. 4:01down. I'm going to give a little more
117. 4:02pressure to that outside until I get a
118. 4:04good stretch here in this left leg. Hold
119. 4:07it three times 20 seconds, and then
120. 4:08repeat that on both sides. Those are the
121. 4:11stretches that I like. For a
122. 4:12strengthening exercise, coming your way
123. 4:14now. Now, with these strengthening
124. 4:16exercises, these are going to be some
125. 4:17simple exercises that will externally
126. 4:20rotate and abduct your hip that are
127. 4:22going to pull your knee out of this
128. 4:24collapsed position. That's our goal. The
129. 4:26way that we start is with some clam
130. 4:28shells. You're going to lay down here on
131. 4:30your side with both of your knees bent.
132. 4:33Feet are together, knees are together,
133. 4:35knees are at about a 90° angle. Really
134. 4:37simple, what we're going to do is
135. 4:39activate the muscles here in the back of
136. 4:40our hip to pull our knees apart up into
137. 4:43that position, and then right back down.
138. 4:46It's a super simple movement, but if
139. 4:48you've never done it before, getting
140. 4:50through about 10 to 20 of these, you'll
141. 4:52really start to feel that here in the
142. 4:54back of your hip. What I recommend is
143. 4:56that you start with three sets of about
144. 4:5810 to 20 reps on both sides. If you need
145. 5:01some more resistance, you can use a
146. 5:03resistance band. Um these are pretty
147. 5:05cheap. I'll link to these down in the
148. 5:06description below. But what you would do
149. 5:08is put those around your knees, and then
150. 5:11the position and everything is just the
151. 5:13same. Now, what we're doing is we're
152. 5:14pulling against the resistance of this
153. 5:16band up into this position. Still, three
154. 5:19sets of about 10 to 20 reps is a good
155. 5:22number to shoot for. Make sure you do
156. 5:23that on both sides to keep everything
157. 5:25even. Um the next exercise is going to
158. 5:28be for the hip abductors. So, laying
159. 5:30down on your side one more time,
160. 5:33but now my bottom leg is bent, but my
161. 5:35left leg is out straight. What I'm going
162. 5:38to do is activate these muscles here on
163. 5:39the side of my hip to pull my heel up
164. 5:42towards the ceiling. I don't want you to
165. 5:44pull your toe up towards the ceiling.
166. 5:46That uses a lot of hip flexor. We want
167. 5:48to keep it right back here in the
168. 5:50backside, posterior to kind of the big
169. 5:52bone here on the side of your hip.
170. 5:53That's where I want you to feel it. That
171. 5:56is what hip abduction looks like. So,
172. 5:58that would be exercise number two. About
173. 6:0010 to 20 reps on the right, 10 to 20
174. 6:03reps on the left, and then we're going
175. 6:04to repeat that three times. If you're
176. 6:07looking for something even a little more
177. 6:08aggressive to strengthen and train those
178. 6:10outside muscles or those hip abductor
179. 6:12muscles, I like the side plank to do
180. 6:14that. What we're going to do
181. 6:16is get up here on a small table. Do
182. 6:18these down on the floor where you have
183. 6:20more room.
184. 6:21Um
185. 6:22I'm going to prop up to work the left
186. 6:24side. I'm going to prop up onto the
187. 6:25outside of my left foot and on the
188. 6:27outside of my left elbow in this
189. 6:30position right here. That really works
190. 6:32these oblique muscles here on the side.
191. 6:35Great core strengthener, but it's also
192. 6:36going to work these muscles on the
193. 6:38bottom side of the plank right here.
194. 6:40Now, about a 20 to 30 second hold is
195. 6:43what I typically recommend. If that's
196. 6:45too easy, what we can do is make this
197. 6:47static hold more dynamic by adding a hip
198. 6:50dip to it. So, you're going to let your
199. 6:52hip collapse down towards the floor, not
200. 6:54all the way to the floor, but just right
201. 6:56above it, and then use the muscles in
202. 6:59your obliques, in your hips to pull your
203. 7:01hips up towards the ceiling as high as
204. 7:03you can, and then right back down. And
205. 7:06so, that's kind of what that I call this
206. 7:07a side plank with a hip dip. Again, a
207. 7:10little more aggressive, makes
208. 7:11strengthening a little more effective.
209. 7:13You're definitely going to feel that
210. 7:14one. So, set it down on the left, set of
211. 7:1610 on the right, and then repeat that
212. 7:18three times. Our last two exercises are
213. 7:20going to be in standing in a
214. 7:21weight-bearing position. Get up off of
215. 7:23the floor. We're going to make these a
216. 7:24little more functional. We're going to
217. 7:25do some squats and some heel touches.
218. 7:28Now, the problem with your squats that
219. 7:29you might be experiencing, especially if
220. 7:31your knees collapse to the inside, is
221. 7:33you come down into the squat and this is
222. 7:35kind of what the bottom position looks
223. 7:36like. What we need to do is train your
224. 7:38body to keep a better position through
225. 7:41that squat. The way that I love to do
226. 7:43that is we're going to get this
227. 7:44resistance band again, and I'm actually
228. 7:46going to put that around my knees, just
229. 7:48right above my knees, right in there.
230. 7:51Once again, if you don't have a
231. 7:52resistance band or if you don't have one
232. 7:54at the gym, links down in the
233. 7:56description below in this video. So, now
234. 7:58you'll see that in this position, as I
235. 7:59come down into the squat, I'm going to
236. 8:01engage these muscles here on the side of
237. 8:03my hip to pull my knees out, and I just
238. 8:06want them to push into that band the
239. 8:08whole time. I'm focusing on keeping my
240. 8:10knees over the toes with my knee
241. 8:12pressure out into that band as I drop
242. 8:14down into the squat and then return back
243. 8:17up. Squat's a great exercise for your
244. 8:19glutes and for your quads, but as soon
245. 8:21as we put this band on, this band wants
246. 8:23to bring my knees together, kicks on
247. 8:25those abductors and external rotators to
248. 8:27keep in a good position as soon as I put
249. 8:30this band around there. Three sets of
250. 8:32about 10 to 20 air squats is what I'll
251. 8:35typically start with, and then um if you
252. 8:38want to progress that one, you can get
253. 8:40under like a barbell back squat or a
254. 8:41goblet squat, things like that with that
255. 8:43band on there are some really good
256. 8:45ideas. Our last exercise is going to be
257. 8:47some heel touches. Um at home, what I
258. 8:49recommend is you just do this on the
259. 8:51edge of the stair or a curb. Um stairs
260. 8:54are usually a little easier cuz you've
261. 8:55got a railing to hold on, so you can
262. 8:57support yourself a little bit better.
263. 8:59Now, when we're up here, really simple,
264. 9:02what we're going to do is stand on the
265. 9:03edge of the stair, drop down until our
266. 9:05heel just touches, and then return to
267. 9:07the starting position. If you've got a
268. 9:09hip weakness, if you've got the knee
269. 9:10valgus, if you've got the knock knee
270. 9:12going on, your knee is going to want to
271. 9:14travel into this position right here.
272. 9:16Hopefully, you can see that on the
273. 9:18camera. I want you to focus on that and
274. 9:20consciously try to avoid that. Activate
275. 9:23these muscles here on the outside of
276. 9:25your hip such that as you lower yourself
277. 9:27down, your knee stays right over your
278. 9:29toe until that heel until my left heel
279. 9:32just touches the ground, and then I'm
280. 9:34going to pull myself back up to return
281. 9:36to that starting position right here.
282. 9:39With your trunk, I don't want you to
283. 9:40lean way over here. You should be
284. 9:42relatively upright. As you lower
285. 9:44yourself down, just touch your heel and
286. 9:46then come back up. Once again, with that
287. 9:48knee traveling in a good position. Three
288. 9:51sets of about 10 to 20 reps on each side
289. 9:54is what I recommend. Now, once again, I
290. 9:56mentioned in the beginning of this,
291. 9:58training your hip and treating the
292. 9:59issues up here are half the battle. If
293. 10:01you don't address the foot and ankle,
294. 10:03you might not get the maximum benefit
295. 10:05that you could be getting. If you're
296. 10:07interested in that flat feet video, in
297. 10:09that pronation video, I've got a link
298. 10:11right here. Click on this. That will
299. 10:13really help you out as a supplement to
300. 10:15this video. Here's one more that YouTube
301. 10:17thinks that you might like. You might
302. 10:18check that one out from Tone and Titan.
303. 10:20If you haven't subscribed yet, hit the
304. 10:21circle here to do it and we'll see you
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