Supported Reach Exercise for Knee Pain

Knee pain is more commonly a symptom of dysfunction elsewhere in the body than an of isolated problem of the knee itself. Two common areas of dysfunction leading to knee injury are the feet and the hips.

You can often identify signs of dysfunction from simple observation. For example, a common dysfunctional pattern for the hip is overuse and tightness of the gluteal muscles at the back of the hip. This pattern can be observed as a deep concavity in the sides of the buttocks when standing relaxed (as shown – red lines).

 

Weakness of the stabilising muscles of the feet can be seen as curling of the toes at rest.

 

These imbalances of the feet and hips lead to the typical compensation pattern of the knee:

This inward collapse overloads the tissues of the knee, potentially leading to a host of problems such as patellofemoral pain syndrome, ITB syndrome, jumper’s knee, ligament injury and knee arthritis.  The supported reach exercise for knee pain is a simple, yet very effective exercise that address weakness in both the feet and the hips.

 

 

How to perform the supported reach exercise for knee pain

 

To perform:

• Stand in front of a bar or handle.
• Reach one leg straight back as far as possible keeping your chest up and shoulders and hips square.
• Your standing leg should flex at the knee while the thigh approaches 90 degrees.
• Push through your supporting foot to come back up to standing
• Repeat up to 12 repetitions.
• Common errors:
  • Bending at the waist without flexing the knee of the supporting leg.
  • Inward collapse of the supporting knee or foot.
  • Gripping too hard.

 

 

Progressions

This exercise can be made more difficult by performing without support which will further challenge the stabilising muscles of the feet. It can also be progressed by reaching the trailing leg backwards at diferent angles

 

 

 

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Related articles

• Knee conditions
• Top tips for knee pain relief
• Chiropractic for knee pain
• Nutrition tips for injury recovery
• Footwear for foot pains

 

Images

• Liebenson. C., Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies

 

 

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‘Supported Reach Exercise for Knee Pain’ was written by Steffen Toates. Steffen is a chiropractor at Dynamic Health Chiropractic in Jersey, Channel Islands. For more information about Steffen click here.

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