Is there such a thing as “weak knees”?
"The Return" lasted all but 10 games. Derrick Rose is, once again, out for the remainder of the season and this one really hurts. It hurts the legacy of the youngest ever NBA MVP, the franchise cornerstone of a proud Bulls franchise. It hurts that same franchise that basically ripped apart its roster last year to put complimentary pieces around a superstar who will no longer be there. It hurts the NBA who needed a superstar who displays humility, but who on any given night, can bring the arena to euphoria. It hurts a certain sneaker brand who put all of it’s marbles on Rose and has been hyping the return for almost a year now.
But this one will also hurt the knees.
Knees have had a bad reputation in basketball players, soccer players, and almost all contact sport athletes. Injuries like the dreaded ACL, MCL and even the less common PCL tears, and with the case of D-Rose, the meniscus tear. But is the knee really at fault or does the blame lie on its upstairs or downstairs neighbors?
You’ve no doubt heard the term “weak knees”. This usually describes athletes who injure their knee repeatedly, most of the time without even contact. You think about what could’ve been had Brandon Roy and Greg Oden stayed healthy for the Portland Trailblazers, before their knees got the best of them. Then there’s Rose, whose left knee gave way in the 2012 playoffs and now his right knee giving way 10 games into the regular season. These non-contact injuries have led to people labeling athletes with weak knees. However, there might be a different version to this story.
If you’ve followed me long enough, you know that I’m a proponent of Gray Cook’s joint by joint theory. If you need a quick refresher, that just means that as you go up the body, your joints alternate in it’s training needs. So the ankle needs mobility training, the knee needs stability training, the hip mobility, and so on. Now, I've been recently reading this old book by Pete Egoscue, a well-respected movement specialist from the US. Although his book "Pain Free" was published 14 years ago, his methods are still effective. Both Egoscue and Cook, preach the importance of proper joint training and Egoscue in particular states that non-contact injuries can be avoided altogether if we just spend time keeping our joints healthy and that means maintaining proper alignment.
This is a very good point and one that I've been preaching for years now. Strengthening muscles around joints that are not properly aligned will not be very smart and will not be healthy to the joint. The worse part is, you probably wouldn't even realize that you're out of alignment. You might dismiss the aches and pains that you're feeling and attribute it to our workouts. You work out more, get stronger the wrong way and then you wonder why you get injured while on a simple landing or even while just taking a jump shot. It's not because you have weak knees, it's a combination of being out of alignment, and the knee compensating for the lack of mobility of your ankles and hips.
Barring freak contact accidents, your knees should be able to take a lot of force from landings and torque from spin moves and sudden changes in direction. Our body is a well oiled machine and if we take care of it properly, we can do a lot of amazing things with it. Although you can not protect your knees 1oo% of the time, there are exercises that you can do (and some that you can avoid) that will help. Here's how:
Add mobility work to your ankles and your hips. The ankle mobility series can be seen here, mini band training for the hips will also help. The hips are a unique joint that needs to be mobile and stable at the same time, so kettle bell work will help here also.
Stop bracing your knee. You don't need it unless you already have some structural damage there. Bracing the knee will put its stabilizers on pause. You don't want to know what happens when you forget your strap one playing day. Lose it and..
Train the knee for stability. Leg lifts, single leg work, goblet squats, lunges, these are all good for knee stability. However don't start here unless you've done step 4 which is...
Put the joints in proper alignment. Egoscue argues that all your major load bearing joints which are the ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders should be in proper alignment. That means 1 straight line from top to bottom., shoulders all the way down to ankles.
Right now, look for a full length mirror and check yourself while standing up straight. Are your feet pointing straight forward or away to the sides or towards the middle? Are your knees over your ankles or are they pointing out or in as well? Do your shoulders have the same height or is one higher than the other? These are all signs of misalignment and can be the future cause of injuries.
Egoscue's methods can be found on his book which is available on Amazon here. He calls them E-cises, named after him. Some E-cises that you can try for your knee can be seen below.
1. Static Back - This is by far my favourite one since you feel the difference almost immediately. Just lie down as the picture shows and allow gravity to help the hips go back in alignment. Stay here for 4-6 or up to 10 minutes.
2. Sitting Floor - Sit against a wall with your legs straight. Make sure to squeeze your shoulder blades together but don't hunch. Contract your thighs and flex your toes so that they are pointing straight up. This reestablishes the alignment between your ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders.
3. Supine Groin - This stretch works on your groin muscle, a very powerful muscle that is often overlooked but should be stretched regularly to maintain alignment. Lie down with one leg up on a block and the other straight out on the floor. The foot of the leg on the floor must be pointing straight up so use something to keep it in neutral. Stay her for about 8-10 minutes. You will know when it's time to change when you contract the thigh muscle of the leg on the floor and you'll feel it most near the groin or hip area.
These are just three of the E-cises that are available in Egoscue's book. I suggest you get it especially if you are an athlete, performer, or someone who suffers from chronic pain.
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Editor's note: The blogger's views do not represent Yahoo! Southeast Asia's position on the topic or issue being discussed in this post.
