 Hey does your knee hurt? Oftentimes the knee pain is actually not coming from your knee. It's caused by something else What would that be Sal? Yeah, you know what you know what this the the reason why I wanted to say this is we had a question Not just one we've had like three or four in the last few weeks. We have Maps Prime Pro is a correctional exercise kind of based program and All the major joints are in there that you can address Except for the knees and oftentimes you get people messaging us Why aren't the knees on here my knees hurt and that's a common area that people have pain Yeah, and so I wanted to explain a little bit around about knee pain And what the most common reasons are that your knees tend to bother you So the best explanation I can give is this is that the knees joint itself Although it's this way more complex and the way I'm gonna make it sound it really only has two functions, right? It flexes and extends so I can I can bend my knee and I can straighten my knee right flex and extend I can't rotate the knee joint. I can't bend it laterally I can only you know flex my knee and extend my knee But the ankle joint and the hip joint that are attached closest to the knee. They're very dynamic, right? I can rotate my ankle to a certain degree. I can definitely bend it laterally flex it and extend it my hip joint I can rotate it bend it laterally. I can flex it. I can extend it And so when those joints lack stability, they lack strength or mobility What happens is the ligaments of the knee that keep it from doing anything but flexing and extending all those ligaments that keep it from Rotating and bending laterally they have to bear the brunt of the pressure to prevent the knee from doing these things So if your ankles and your hips are off Oftentimes over time you'll start to have knee pain and you're like, whoa It's something that's wrong to make up for a lot of the stress that it needs to stabilize the knee And and it a lot of times because your your ankle and your hips are so dynamic You'll get put in a lot of different angles and your knee will tend to travel You know in one direction or the other and to try and keep it stable a lot of times It just stresses it out and then the ligaments take the brunt of the force the same principles apply for the elbow, too So if you're suffering from elbow pain a lot of people are always looking for like Exercises they can do or things that can do for the elbow itself, but many times that's related to the wrist or the shoulder So if you have poor mobility in your shoulder or your wrist or lack stability and control and either those joints The stress goes to the elbow So a lot of times you're looking at the area that's bothering you thinking that there's something wrong there But it's actually stemming from one of the other joints. Yeah, I think of it this way, right? Like if I I think of a submission to just you called a heel hook, right? So if I took your foot and I straighten your leg out and I go to twist your leg But your hip won't rotate for whatever reason your hip lacks mobility And I start twisting the ligaments of the knee are gonna have to hold tight and if I twist hard enough I'm gonna tear your knee and so this is your last line of defense it is and so this is the problem So people will squat and lunge and deadlift and do all these different exercises and their ankles and knees aren't doing I'm excuse me Their ankles and hips aren't doing what they're supposed to and over time, you know when the knee flexes and extends the knee cap Kind of tracks There's like a little groove in the in the femur and the knee cap tracks in it and things have to be in the right position Well, if it's if pressures, you know being put in one direction Things start to track wrong the joint stent it starts to get undue pressure over time that builds inflammation Then you are the doctor they image your knee and they oh you have inflammation in your knee But they're not they never address right or oftentimes they don't address the root cause which is it's because your ankles are tight Or immobile or weak or your hips are tight or immobile and weak and so this is why Oftentimes oftentimes the solution for chronic knee pain resides there and not in the actual You know doing stuff with the knee itself type of deal You know the low back is like this too a lot of times clients will have you know Say they have a bad back or their low back is always bothered And they think it's their low back where the issue is and a lot of times It's related to your your hips the inability to control and have stability in your hips and mobility in them is what is causing the low back to to be stressed a lot of times too Yeah, and think about this way right like you're like oh my knees bother me when I squat So I'm gonna put knee sleeves or knee wraps right what those are doing is they're doing the job or they're there It's like your ligaments except externally and now you've added more ligaments and support So now the knee doesn't hurt as much again not addressing the root issue Which is when you squat maybe your knee is trying it's pushing it You know laterally or there's some rotate sometimes if your feet your ankles are tight And you go down to squat there's this rotational pressure that happens because because really tight ankles when you squat down They want to turn out but if your feet are grounded that rotational pressure then gets taken on by the knee like gosh weird when I squat Heavy I have this weird pain inside my knee like there's must be something wrong on my knee It's just a little tiny like degree of change if it's off track Just that little bit like your analogy with the sliding glass door Yeah, like it did just that little like fractional inch that it's off You know it just it ruins the whole thing like the whole thing is is you know Based on the fact that it stays stable in these movements And if it's not there's lots of compensations that have to occur which stresses out You know the the entire system well It's really obvious to like when you go through maps prime pro and when and most often when someone has like a Knee issue it's it's normally on one side or the other more than the other side Right so this is where it becomes really obvious of what the issue is is when you get into and you do the 9090 test or you do the ankle mobility test in prime pro if the side that you have pain in your knee Also has issues with the in the 90 90 position and or the ankle you know This is where it's coming from that's and that's how you know you start you need to work on that It's like you know, okay I've got pain on the side when I get down in this 90 90. Oh wow I can't even get my knee on the ground or I can't lift my back heal up in that position Oh, there's obviously a stability issue and control a mobility issue in that hip That's where you need to start is addressing that and the same thing goes for the ankle Yeah, it's funny. I mean I I experienced this myself a couple few years ago. I was on vacation and I was working out in a hotel gym. This was in Mexico So it's real warm and kind of humid or whatever and the there were marble floors and as I was leaving the gym I fell down the stairs and my left foot I sat on it and kind of sleep And I thought for sure when I got to the bottom like I tore something. Yeah now when I stood up Luckily, I didn't tear anything but I did do a number on my left ankle and Since then my left ankle has always had a little bit less mobility than my right So still to this day if I squat heavy and if there's any issues with my form I feel it in my left knee. I never feel it in my left ankle But that's where it's coming from because as my left ankle is tight That's exactly what happens as I squat I know it happens to compensate my leg wants to rotate but because my foot is so grounded I get that rotational pressure in my left knee which goes to my meniscus, right? And so then I'm squatting so I'm bending the joint with this back up the kinetic chain Yes, and I'm bending the knee while I'm with weight, but the meniscus is holding tight preventing things from twisting With enough weight and reps you're gonna start to develop pain And this is the these are the causes of chronic pain Which by this is different than an acute injury, right? So if your knee here knee hurts because you just tore your knee Okay, that's different, right? But if you're like oh my knee, you know, it always bothers me And it's been an issue I've had for a couple years And I don't know what that deal is and when I walk too much or run too much or you know Do lots of squats that starts to bother my knee. It's coming from a a dysfunction and it's usually The joints closest to the knee like in this case in this case the knee is surrounded by or connected to Very in content in the in comparison very dynamic Joints you can do a lot of things with your ankle and your hip especially your hip Your knee doesn't do those things. It just flexes and extends. So that's where you know a lot of the pain comes from Hey, if you enjoyed that clip you can find the full episode here or you can find other clips over here and be sure to subscribe