Hi all. While reading the newest issue, I came up with paragraphs:
“Suffer from lateral knee pain when squatting or jumping?” - Yep, on the inner side of kneecap.
“Belt out a few heavy reps on the prone leg curl machine and observe your foot position at the peak contraction. Does the foot on the side of your bad knee turn out and roll slightly?” - Yes, they roll (and something in my hips almost cramps).
“Or do you initiate a heavy rep by first flexing the ankle?” - Yep.
“Both situations indicate forefoot and ankle plantar flexor imbalances. Even if knee pain hasn’t resulted, the lateral hip muscles are next up the chain and can take a blow, thus causing back pain.” - Yep, my back hurts, and my IT band, hip flexors and quads are tight despite frequent stretching. Also hips are rather tight (affecting the knee also), and I am having a slight snapping hip problem (IT-band related).
Mostly I have a strange “not tracking correctly” -feeling in my knee, accompanied with occasional popping and a feeling of “release” in the joint. I have a strong feeling that the problems originate from tight hips that affect the knee motion arcs. But still, the article hints that hip tightness can be a calf balance issue:
“This common problem is resolved quickly by balancing out the “roll” and “rotation” plantar flexors.”
Could someone clarify exactly what are the weak links in my situation, and what are the corrective exercises (from the article) that should be used?
I cycle quite a lot, so it might be one factor as it requires rather static calf function and possibly only stresses certain parts of the calves.
I’m at the middle of a HST cycle so cannot start a full specialisation now, but could easily add a couple of exercises to my program. I would like to start rebalancing my calves asap.
Thanks for the great article!