The knee joint is one of the most heavily used in the body, which is why they are very prone to pain. Pain in the knees has several reasons but the most common is a muscular imbalance between the medial and lateral aspects of the upper thigh.
Rectus Femoris:
Quite often this muscle is tight and therefore shortened in length. When the muscle shortens in length, excessive pressure is added to the tendon and its insertion in the knee. The shorter a muscle is, the greater the pull. Due to this, the following problems often occur:
Patella Tendonitis: Tracking problems with the patella.
Often the most common cause of ongoing knee pain is due to tension held in the muscles that attach to the lateral aspect of the knee vs the lack of muscle conditioning of the main muscles which attach and support/stabilise the medial aspect of the knee.
Problems with Knees:
Excessive tension on the lateral attachment to the knee pulls the patella out of alignment, which causes the patella to track incorrectly. Further to this, the muscles on the inside of the thigh are not strong/conditioned enough to counter-support the tension present at the lateral insertion of the knee. As such, the patella (knee cap) simply does not slide smoothly. Think about ten pin bowling ? your knee is ?gutter balling?!
In most instances purely releasing the tension in these tight muscles will immediately eliminate knee pain. In more advanced cases, where the Vastus Medialis is extremely underdeveloped, combining specific strength training with hands-on treatment will rid the knee of pain and dysfunction.
