 Next question is from Nick Folkman. What exercise helps improve knee pain and functionality? You know back in the day I would focus on the knee joint whenever somebody had issues with the knee joint So this someone would tell me oh my knees hurt when I squat or you know When I lunge and I would look at the IT band and I would look at you know the knee function and okay You know did you get any imaging done? There's a conglomeration under the kneecap and blah blah blah hips and ankle later on exactly later on it really I started to figure out that it had way more to do With the ankle and hips than it did with the knee because the knee joint. I mean it bends and it extends That's it doesn't it doesn't rotate it doesn't bend laterally I mean if it's got ligaments in there actually to prevent it from doing anything other than Flexing and extending but the ankle moves all kinds of different directions the foot moves in lots of different directions You know not not even just the ankle just the foot and so does the hip So if the ankle and the hip and the foot Lack strength and stability in any of the directions that the knee doesn't move Then all that support is going straight to those ligaments in the knee Prevent it from doing that and then you start to think about how much pressure the knee is taking on constantly with gravitational forces going straight down You know, where's the weak link in the kinetic chain? You know, it's gonna take on a lot of stress and now if it's taking on a lot of those It's not tracking properly like any little thing is isn't You know, you don't have proper mobility and your ankles or your hips are Rotating like they normally could and the knee has to kind of adjust to that It's gonna add all that excessive pressure to an already Stressed out joint now. There's obviously there's value in building all the muscles that surround the knee Right, so your quads and hamstrings and your calves like having strong muscles that are around your knee Support the knee to so there's there's tremendous value that I remember when I tore my ACL and MCL And the doctor was so blown away on the how stable I still was even without with with losing those those ligaments But that was because of all the muscle that I had developed around it. So there's obvious value in building the muscles around but when I think of clients that would complain of knee problems To your point Sal. Yeah, it's it's almost always Related to poor, you know hip mobility and or ankle mobility and then the knee is just carrying all the stress And so that's the first place that I go now if someone complains about their knee is We're gonna look right away to the hips and the ankle and address there nine out of ten times Nine out of ten times is what I find the issue. I mean think about it this way You know, there's a submission in jiu-jitsu called a heel hook Where somebody takes your they have they trap your leg and they hook around your Your essentially your heel and then they twist your leg And it looks like you're attacking the foot But the reality is the the joint that gets damaged in a heel hook is the knee because Imagine this for a second. So here's the knee joint right and the knee joint flexes and extends That's it and there are things that prevent it from twisting and sliding and bending laterally And let's say somebody grabs your ankle and starts to twist your leg to the outside Well, what's going to happen is your hip is going to allow your leg to twist But what happens when the hip Runs out of room. Let's say you're too tight and you can't twist anymore Well, now the pressure is going to the knee more torque Right on the knee and it's the meniscus holding things together But that can only do so much and then the meniscus eventually tears or gets strained So when you have knee problems and knee pain It's almost always in my experience because your hips and your ankles just aren't doing what they're supposed to I mean the kneecap tracks Supposed to track nicely in this groove. Well, if it's always pushing to the side Laterally because your hips aren't doing what they're supposed to your ankles aren't doing what they're supposed to Well, now your kneecap is tracking kind of weird Maybe at first you don't feel any pain But you'll work out this way you walk this way you go on hikes Next thing you know like man my knee always bothers me like what the hell's going on then you go to the doctor They do some imaging and they go. Oh the bottom of your kneecap. It's all chewed up We need to go in there and clean it up So they go in there and they clean up all the pieces or whatever and you feel a little better But you never fix the root cause and so then you end up with the same problem again And then eventually you have to get a knee replacement or whatever So it's all about the surrounding joints that are way more mobile Than the knee joint and if they don't have the support and strength Your knee joint all those ligaments and tendons and all that cartilage is holding itself together But over time you end up developing lots of problems and inflammation And a lot of times you'll you'll feel this in your it and this is where I didn't fully grasp this as a trainer when I first I I thought oh this I have these knots in my it that's and I T runs in the front of patella. And so when I would foam roll the it It would relieve the knee and then my knee wouldn't bother me And so I I I blamed it on the it all time and then I'd get clients that would ball It's your it's your it and you know, and then I'd foam roll them and then they feel relief and they'd be like Oh, wow, you know, and so I thought I was addressing The issue but what was happening was I all I really was doing was giving them a little bit of instant relief And the reason why their it was so tight was because of the lack of mobility and strength and control in the hip It was doing what it was supposed to do is protecting. That's right, you know, the joints That's right. Yeah, your body's smart with that stuff and and Yeah, you have to trace it back to the root And this is why it's important to have standards in terms of alignment and an optimal alignment So your joint can travel the way it's supposed to So to be able to find your way back to that Optimal alignment position is something that, you know, we should always kind of be looking at Yeah, no great point and what we need to understand is that our joints Really we we evolved or were designed To last you a lifetime. So, you know, what does that mean? What that means is when you do things properly, right? So Although our our bodies are kind of like machines. They're actually a little different than machines A machine if you use it over and over again, you start to get wear and tear over time Well, the human body's there's this interesting dichotomy going on where when you move a joint, but you do it right And you strengthen it. It actually heals itself and becomes stronger and replenishes itself So somebody who does proper exercise Even though they're using their joints more than somebody who's sedentary The person who exercises has healthier joints So this belief that oh Yeah, I got bad joints because I've been working out for 30 years No, you've got bad joints because you've been working out wrong For 30 years, there's movement patterns that are wrong that have been happening And your joints haven't been working Optimally and you're right adam and 100 percent when something is tight when your shoulder is tight Your back is tight your it band is tight What your body's literally trying to do is just trying to minimize movement By tightening the muscles because it senses that something's not moving right and just loosening up those muscles Will make you feel better temporarily, but you're not solving the root cause at all Well, that's how you know, you have a good trainer is that they may foam roll you, but then the work's not done Right, so you foam roll and then you would go over to something that Works on the mobility and the hip so and strengthens and can in gets control and stability there in the hip So if you just foam roll and to give yourself temporary relief And then you go about your normal exercise routine, then you're going to keep you're going to be in that Constant which is where I was for a long time for every roll every time. Yeah It was a foam roll that before every training session And I had to just to give myself enough relief to go train legs and stuff And not realizing that I wasn't addressing the root cause which was related to the instability of my hip