I got this awesome question that I'm going to address in this video, why do my knees hurt
with lunges and why do I get inner knee pain from lunges? Isn't that an awesome question?
This is what we're going to explore in this video. My name is Chi and you're welcome to The Body
Conditioner. Here we work in, not out. If you're new to the channel, hi, you're absolutely welcome,
please say hi in the comment section because I really want to get to know you. If you like
my content then please click the like button, also subscribe to the channel because that helps
me help others too. Lunges are actually quite complex shapes because they keep the hips flexed,
the knees flexed, and if our bodies especially our leg muscles are not aligned this may actually
cause pain in the body, and this is what we're going to address in this video. If you like that,
then please consider subscribing because this way others may find my channel too. If you're familiar
with my content then you know that I look at the body functionally to understand how to help and
heal. So here's a scenario where your inner thigh muscles, your hip abductors are super tight, they
pull your thighs together and because of that you have knock knees, and your lateral meniscus gets
injured. Now if you have bow legs then it is the medial meniscus that gets more impact and
where you feel the discomfort. So I suggest the first exercise, we need two blocks, if you do
not have blocks then you can use two stacks of books, and you place them in-between your feet
and your thighs. So in the first instance, you feel the mound of the feet, the inner
heels squeezing the blocks together but you keep the outer edges of the feet down and then notice
what happens at your hips, breathe in and out, and notice the sensation. Remove the blocks and take a
moment to feel what that feels like before I show you the next exercise. So here in this exercise,
we understand how to use our hip abductors, the deep buttocks muscles to understand how to secure
our knees, so stand parallel to a wall, move the right foot forward, use the books or the blocks
and squeeze those blocks in-between your legs, so one block in-between right knee and wall,
and the left leg in-between the left leg and the wall, and you can also see that my left foot is
turned out slightly, so in between 45 to 90 degrees. You can lift your arms up if you like,
you can then look forward but most importantly you want to squeeze those blocks,
those books towards the wall and that is harder than it looks, so breathe in and out,
take the breath deep into the lungs, and really allow the hips to work and as you do that,
you will use the right muscles to secure your body when doing lunges. Slowly dismantle the pose, feel
the sensation, and then we do the exact same thing on the other side. So squeeze one block
in-between your left knee and the wall, your right thigh squeezes the other block,
and then you lift your arms up as you inhale, look straight ahead and breathe regularly,
notice this sensation. Remember again that your right foot is turned out,
the angle is about 45-degree to a 90-degree angle, you breathe regularly, and then you slowly undo.
So let's do our first lunge, again we need a block, and you breathe, so you take your left
foot forward, you place one block at the side, the inner side of that foot because you really want to
keep the alignment just as we did initially, you want to feel the mound of the big toe
in contact with the block and equally the inner heel. Now as you go into your first
lunge make sure that you keep the left knee over your ankle, left knee over the ankle,
keep breathing. At the same time, the right knee gets lower to the ground but you try to keep your
pelvis square, so here I show you how to tilt the pelvis, you want to curl the belly in a bit,
and if you like you can lift your arms up but most importantly notice the work and remember the
exercise that we did in preparation for this where you squeeze the block in-between thigh and wall,
this is exactly the activity that you need here to avoid more pressure on your knees. So as you
do the other side notice this sensation, the right knee stays right over the ankle,
you move your left hip forward and you curl the belly in slightly, and then you allow the left
knee to lower to the ground. I want to show you something that normally goes on at the hip, so
now keep your left heel here high up on the wall, so that it looks a bit like wearing
high heels at this point, then you take your right foot forward again, we have our
blocks to just make sure that we are in contact with them, that we do not lose contact, and here
you can see nicely that my right hip is hiked up and my right knee points inwards, but we want to
get the right hip back down into the socket, so you can use your right thumb and take it all the
way down, can you see the difference that already the right knee is much more over the right ankle,
and that's why your knee is much more secured and this way you do not get the knee pain.
Also, make sure that you pin down the big toe, and that you kind of imagine a little string
attaching your right knee towards the hip so that the knee stays nicely secured over your ankle.
Breathe, and notice the sensation. Now I want to show you something, we want to really understand
how to get the hip into the socket, so let's use a belt, if you do not have a belt maybe you can use
a towel, that could also work, so we get into exactly the same shape, your left heel up on the
skirting board, and then the right foot in front of you, bend the right knee and use this belt
to get your hip back into the socket, can you see what's going on in the body? The right knee
is right over your ankle, your big toe, the right big toe in contact with the ground and
you breathe regularly. On top of that, press the left heel into the wall and notice that sensation,
and your right knee is absolutely solid and yeah, your knee is safe. So keeping your knee secured
requires a lot of hip work and that is what we forget, so let's do the other side as we do this.
We use the block again, you keep your right heel elevated against the wall, you bring your left
foot forward, pin down the big toe, use the blocks to make sure that you keep the right alignment,
and here again we externally rotate the hip, you really want to feel the hip in the socket, your
left knee is secured right over the ankle and not the hip hiked up, and you really feel solid here.
So this way you avoid knee pain, this way you're absolutely secure and you can see my smile on
the lips, the body is happy when you do this. You are still here, that's absolutely amazing
because I have something for you. I am offering a new program, it's called Radical healing, Radical
Transformation. It's a six-week online program and it is for you if you want to go from aches
and pain, stiffness and tightness to freedom, it is for you if you're looking for tools for better
well-being, it is for you if you want to be more alive for the things that you really want to do,
it is for you if you want me to help you, liberate you from aches and pains, stiffness and tightness.
If this is you, then please come on over to thebodyconditioner.com or send me an email
at thebodyconditioner@gmail.com and I'll reach out to you because the waiting list is open.