Our knee can be a very dependent joint when walking, running or any loaded exercises(feet on the ground). What I mean by that is that the hip and ankle play a crucial role in what happens at the knee, therefore when addressing knee pain we need to look at both of these joints. One big aspect of that is ankle mobility/flexibility, which is what I’m going to elaborate on here.
When you squat, walk up a hill or stairs your ankle must bend a certain amount, as you can see in this photo.
If your ankle stops bending then your knee is next in line to get the pressure, so when I am rehabbing someone I want to take a look at this. It’s the low hanging fruit so to say.
So let’s address ankle mobility, specifically something called dorsiflexion (ankle bending).
○ Assess this by laying down a piece of tape along the wall, you can make
centimeter 4 inch marks along that piece of tape up to 10 cm or 5 inches.
How does the ankle affect knee pain?
With shoes off start somewhere along the tape maybe in the middle and try to
touch your knee to the wall while keeping your heel flat. If your hair comes up first
before your knee touches the wall even a little bit, move your foot a little forward.
If your knee touches the wall very easily move your foot back. If your foot can get to your toe is at 5 inches or 10 cm, then don’t worry too much about this. (video)
○ But if it can’t then add the stretch to your repertoire so that your ankle it’s not
loading into your knee when you do things such as stairs or hills. No of course be careful when doing any stretches that they don’t hurt your knee as well so take it easy and relax.
○ Now the marker for 5 inches or 10 cm it’s not perfect but in general if you can get to that Mark you’re probably doing OK and it’s not the reason for knee pain. Now to ask what stretch to do in order to improve us, and this is where it’s easy Peezy. The assessment that you’re currently doing and also be the stretch, so to get
better at it keep practicing this.
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