Did you just call me knee, ‘stupid’?

I think we all remember singing the song, “your hip bone’s connected to your, thigh bone. Your thigh bone’s connected to your, knee bone. Your knee bone’s connected to your, shin bone….” you get the idea. There’s a lot of truth behind those lyrics and it’s quite common that compensations in one area of your body can place more stress on another area. The fancy term for this theory is Regional Interdependence (there will be a quiz later).

The concept of Regional Interdependence applies to many areas of the body, but possibly the most common area is the knee joint. My first year out of PT school, I heard a more experienced PT say: “the knee is really a stupid joint, it just listens to what the hip and ankle tell it to do.” Research study after research study confirm that if your hip or ankle aren’t working the way they should be, your knee is going to try and pick up the slack. Imagine you have 3 employees that all have the same job duties. All three show up to work, but two of them just kick back and take a nap while the third is trying to do all the work. That hard worker will be able to sneak by carrying the extra load for a period of time but eventually will become overworked, burnt out, and cranky. Many times your knee joint is that hard working employee trying it’s best to make up for inefficiencies at the hip and/or ankle. Enter meniscus injury, ACL injury, early arthritic changes, tendinitis, bursitis, and even dislocations.

Any good rehab program should address both the injured, painful structure as well as the underlying issues that caused that structure to become painful in the first place. If you’re struggling with knee pain, remember that song we used to sing as kids, you could be a few simple hip strengthening and ankle stretching exercises away from a much happier knee!

As always, let me know if you have any questions, we’re here to help in any way we can!

Have a great month,

Joe