Knee Pain Going Down Stairs? Probably Reversible (Here’s How)

It’s probably not arthritis. Even if you have arthritis, then if you’re getting pain going downstairs and not up, then it’s probably actually this:

Getting eccentric

Why downstairs hurts but upstairs does not: walking downstairs loads your quadriceps eccentrically—your muscles are lengthening under load—which is harder to control than the concentric work used going upstairs, and weakness here commonly shows up as pain at the front of your knee.

The reason that this is so common is because daily life mostly trains concentric muscle action, and with more sitting and less movement over time, overall quadriceps strength—especially eccentric control—declines.

Fun fact: one head of your quadriceps crosses your hip, so prolonged sitting can make it tight and less effective, often causing stiffness or ache in the front of your hip, and reducing your ability to control your knee when stepping down.

This means that if your hip muscles are not working well, your knee may drift inward when you step down—called a valgus force—which increases stress on your kneecap, and causes that familiar pain at the front of your knee.

How to test it: when walking downstairs, hold a handrail and watch whether your knee collapses inwards as you load it.

How to fix it: you can restore proper hip movement with mobility work and strengthening your hip abductors—the muscles on the side of your hip—to keep your knee aligned and reduce patellar compression (see the “learn more” below for more details on an excellent exercise for that, that doesn’t even require any equipment, nor getting on the floor).

For more on all of this meanwhile, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

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The Only Exercise You Need To Strengthen Every Hip Muscle (Ages 50+)

Take care!