New Research On Knee Pain
If you are struggling with Patelo-femoral pain ( runners knee ) if your lead up to the Niseko Ski season you are not alone. It’s a very common condition that can shorten your time and enjoyment on the ski slopes.
Get to work on those hips
Some interesting research has just been published on the importance of exercising the entire kinematic chain. The authors did a study of many other studies ( a meta-analysis) and found that your knee pain is likely to resolve better when you work strengthening the hip muscles ( specically the abductors that pull your legs sideways ) as well as just the flexors and extensors of the knee in your pre Niseko workouts.
The take home message here is ( and we have said it before ) that you should not only focus on addressing the joints that are pain but look making sure your entire bio mechanics are doing the right thing by you. One of my mentors used to say ” the knees are the punching bags of the body ” so if you have problems somewhere else they are often the place that you feel the blows.
You can see a link to the full study on the link below
In the meantime here so some suggested abductor strengthening exercises that may be beneficial to incorporate into your knee conditioning routines