When you come to Physical Therapy for knee pain, you may be surprised that your therapist spends just as much time evaluating your hips. This can be confusing for many patients, as they wonder why their therapist is so focused on strengthening their hip muscles when they do not have any hip pain.
If your car has one tire that keeps becoming worn, it does not help much to continue changing that tire if you do not address the underlying imbalance/alignment issue in your car. This is also true for your body: altered biomechanics in one are can often lead to the manifestation of pain in a completely different body part. Only focusing on the painful site can lead to reinjury or future injury in other areas.
The hip muscles, particularly the hip extensors and abductors (the ones that let you lift your leg out to the side and out behind you), are essential for maintaining good alignment at the knee joint. Weakness in these muscles can cause abnormal stress on the knees and lead to pain. Often times strengthening these muscle groups are as important if not more important than actually strengthening the muscles of the knee.
A basic way to begin to strengthen these muscles is to stand at a counter and kick your leg straight out to the side, making sure to keep your toes pointed straight forward and to keep your pelvis and trunk still. You should feel the muscle on the side of your leg working after multiple repetitions, and you may even feel the muscles on the side of the led that you are standing on working as well. After that activity you can kick your leg straight backward, making sure to avoid rotating your pelvis. You should feel the muscles in your buttocks working after multiple repetitions.
Start with 2 sets of repetitions, 1-2X daily and work your way up from there.
As always, if you are having knee pain that interferes with your function, talk with your doctor about making an appointment with a physical therapist who can evaluate and identify which areas of your body may be causing the pain.
