Nagging Knee Pain

Just a little over half of the people I meet, have knee pain once in awhile. The knee pain is never sever it is more annoying and slightly hindering at times. I must raise my hand because I'm also among you when it comes to this issue. Good news is, it's almost always reversible it just takes a little practice. First let me say it has nothing to do with you getting older, this is a myth so many people believe and just accept it. It is almost always one knee that acts up not both. Now I ask you if it was just coming of age why would one knee be perfectly fine?

I'm more willing to bet that you are doing something to aggravate and inflame the tendons/ligaments of the knee. A simple little pattern in our everyday life that feels comfortable but slowly is causing you that knee pain. It doesn't register because it doesn't cause immediate pain.

Let's get a basic understanding of how the knee works, I'll keep is as unscientific as possible to spare you from my geek talk. The knee is a hinge joint which lucky for us makes it the simplest joint to understand in our body. It is designed to open and close that is pretty much it. It acts just like a door hinge (picture). Any twist or bending out of that movement is damaging this will cause inflammation which is what you feel in that nagging knee.

As I said before we do a simple little pattern we aren't aware of because it feels comfortable to us that in turn aggravate our knee. Now that we know its primary function let us look at some pictures of common things we tend to do, that will in turn aggravate our knee.

Females more so then males cross legs. Notice the top leg is slightly bending to one side which is pulling the outer knee tendon as a result. It's also possible depending how close to the knee cap you cross your leg to put pressure on the bottom legs knee cap causing aggravation.

Doesn't this guy look so relaxed as he hurts his knee? How many of us cross our legs like this watching TV or just relaxing. I know I'm guilt of this personally. The top leg is bent slightly straining the knee tendon as a result similar to the picture above.

Some of us when playing with our kids or are just sitting on the floor sit like this (minus the whole meditation with a laptop thing). In yoga it's called the Lotus position. This picture is a more pseudo version of the lotus position that people typically do when on the floor. Well it's plain to see this form is bending both knee joints in an awkward position. Once again causing strain to the outer tendon region.

Look at the person in the middle (oh how happy she is hurting her knee), I'm guilty of this as well. The knee is twisted in a bad way, to make it worst pressure from our body is applied to the knee in this vulnerably position.

Many of us sit on the floor sit like this. The knees are bending wrong and pressure is being applied to the bottom leg.

Men do have a variation to crossing our legs. It is no better then female's version in fact it is worst for the knee joint. As the knee joint is severely bent and the top leg's ankle is applying pressure to the bottom legs knee cap.

Last one. The picture to the left many people also sit on the floor. The knee isn't bent in a weird position however the joint itself is being hyper extended without going into to detail if you do this try not doing it see if it helps.

These are just some of the many common things I notice we have a habit of doing that cause knee aggravation. I personally whenever I'm having knee pain try to monitor myself to see just what it is I'm doing wrong. Eventually I figure it out and work towards correcting myself. It isn't easy to correct at first as we are creatures of habit but once you start you'll feel better I promise. After catching yourself doing it enough times you'll eventually stop. I hope this can relieve your knee pain.