What really causes knee pain?

Knee pain can be a very debilitating.  It can prevent you from doing daily tasks and make it hard to  care for your family.  It’s also can prevent you from training/exercising.

I know I have had my share of knee pain.  First experiencing knee pain as a young athlete playing soccer in my teens and also more recently from doing CrossFit .

When it comes to knee pain, the important thing to remember is it is a symptom of something else not working properly.  Generally speaking, the knee is a hinge joint.  For the most part, the only thing that will cause knee pain specific to the knee is a traumatic injury, such as an ACL tear due to taking a hit to the knee.  So basically, if you are experiencing knee pain and you didn’t have a trauma, its because some other part isn’t working properly such as the hip joint, lumbar spine, pelvis or foot.

For the knee joint to work properly, it relies on proper motion in all of these joints.  The foot and hip are more complex than the knee joint and have more degree of movement.  If either or both of these don’t work the way they should, it ends up putting a repetitive strain on the knee joint.  The lumbar spine and pelvis also need proper alignment as well as proper motion for the knee to function properly.

This wear and tear shows up  as meniscus tears, cartilage damage, and osteoarthritis. Some of the more common diagnoses for knee issues due to biomechanical deficits include IT band pain, chondromalacia, patellofemoral syndrome, medial knee pain, and patellar tendinitis.

When the hip and/or ankle lose mobility, the knee commonly shifts more forward than ideal in order to perform necessary movements, such as squatting or kneeling.  This forward shift causes increased pressure on the knee and increased forces on the soft tissues of the knee, including the cartilage and meniscus.

Our approach to non traumatic knee pain is to make sure that the mechanics of all the joints around and including the knee are working properly.  We use a combination of soft tissue work, extremity and spinal adjusting to correct any problems we may have found.  We also give specific home care recommendations to correct the problem.

If you have knee pain and would like to find out if we can help you, click the get started button below.  We offer a free consultation where we discuss your case to see if we might be able to help you.