Progressive Strategies: Loading Knee Valgus
Yesterday, knee valgus was the topic of dissucssion. knee valgus isn't bad, lack of control of knee valgus is bad. Tradition teaches to avoid it, yet injury occurs when forces are presented that the body can't handle. Knee valgus is normal & happens as the foot loads into the ground. Therefore it should be trained to prevent injury! More importantly, if the motion is ugly, figuring out what is making it ugly is important. check the foot? hip? thoracic spine? this video illustrates 4 progressive strategies load knee valgusing. Of course, working at the individual threshold is imperative! If any of these motions looked ugly, I simply wouldn't do it. in order:top left: utilizes a band to create more knee valgus, combined with a transverse pivot squat. top right: a lunge plus hand drivers to create thoracic type 1 & 2 to load the stepping knee.bottom left: step down from step, plus hand reaches to increase ground forcesbottom right: locomotor patters (anterior shuffle with hand reaches) to load kneeI mentioned thoracic Type 1 vs. 2 motions. the thoracic spine a a criminal to many areas of the body…..especially the knee. lack of thoracic motion contributes to knee, low back, shoulder and neck injuries. both are important for optimal knee function, and tomorrow will describe the difference, and a quick assessment strategy.
Posted by Adam Wolf PT on Monday, October 3, 2016
In my previous blog, we discussed why I believe knee valgus isn’t bad, rather not controlling knee valgus is bad. Tradition teaches to avoid it, yet injury occurs when forces are presented that the body can’t handle. Knee valgus is normal and happens as the foot loads into the ground. Therefore, it should be trained to prevent injury!
The video above illustrates 4 progressive strategies that load the knee valgus motion. Of course, working at the individual threshold is imperative! If any of these motions looked poor, I simply wouldn’t do it. More importantly, if the motion is poor, figuring out what is making it poor is important. Places I usually check on include the foot, hip and thoracic spine – a lack of motion in any of these regions usually results in the system being unable to lengthen appropriately.
Key points
Top left: Utilize a band to create more knee valgus, combined with a transverse pivot squat.
Top right: A lunge with hand drivers to create Thoracic Type 1 & 2 Motions to load the stepping knee.
Bottom left: Step down from step, with hand reaches to increase ground forces
Bottom right: Locomotor patterns (anterior shuffle with hand reaches) to load knee
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