The Exercise That Can Fix A Very Common Knee Pain, Permanently

Notwithstanding the thumbnail, whether or not you do squats is actually not particularly important for this one.

Will Harlow, the over-50s specialist physio, explains:

It’s in your hips

This isn’t the only possible reason for knee pain, of course, but it is one of the three most common causes. Usually, if there’s a knee problem, the problem is actually rooted in one of the following:

• Hip rotators
• Glutes
• Tibialis anterior

Even in the case of osteoarthritis of the knee, the underlying problem (i.e. before the OA set in) usually started in one of those places and then messed up the knee by referral (i.e., undue stress being put on the knee because of the problem in the other place, then causes the joint wear-and-tear that’s characteristic of OA). In contrast, rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune issue from the start, but that only affects 0.5% of the population, so statistically the other things are much more common.

So, today we’ll be looking at the hips: weak hip muscles can let your thigh move uncontrollably, sending twisting and side-to-side forces into your knee, which is mainly built for forwards and backwards motion.

And the remedy for this: the “double clam” exercise, which targets your hip rotators to improve control of your thigh and thus reduce stress on your knee:

• setup and position: lie on your side with the affected leg on top, support your head, place your top hand in front, roll slightly forwards, and keep your knees bent with your heels and knees together.
• double clam movement: lift your top knee without rolling your hips, then keep your knee still and lift your heel by rotating your thigh inwards, before lowering your heel and then your knee with good, steady control.
• progressions: add a resistance band above your knees to increase difficulty, then add a second band around your ankles to make both parts of the movement harder; for each progression, only progress when you can do 15 good-form reps of the easier version.

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

For a much deeper understanding of treating knee pain, here’s a great book that we reviewed a little while back:

Treat Your Own Knee – by Robin McKenzie ← he’s a physiotherapist and not a doctor, and/but with 40 years of practice to his name and 33 letters after his name (CNZM OBE FCSP (Hon) FNZSP (Hon) Dip MDT Dip MT), he seems to know his stuff. His work is very well-respected, and almost any English-speaking physiotherapist will have read his books.

Take care!