Why Your Knees Hurt (& 5 stretches to help)

Parenting is extremely physical. As parents we are constantly carrying our kids around, squatting low, standing up, pushing strollers, carrying car seats, running to grab snacks, picking up toys, taking the stairs two at a time to grab a diaper because you just ran out downstairs and your baby is threatening to poop on the carpet at any second. Phew! So it’s no wonder that many of us moms experience knee pain, either in one knee or both knees. There are several different reasons you might have knee pain but luckily many of the ways to treat it are the same.

Reasons your knees hurt

Extra Weight :

Extra weight places extra pressure on the bones and ligaments of your knees. And a quick weight gain (such as during pregnancy) causes increased wear and tear on the cartilage of your knees. However, extra weight might not be from actual weight gain but from carrying your kids (plus all their stuff) around all day. Carrying your 10lb or 30lb toddler up the stairs every night is placing a lot of stress on your knees. It has been said the stress placed on your knees is 1.5 times your body weight. So just an extra ten pounds of weight is quiet a bit of extra pressure on your knees. Ouch!

Bad Alignment:

The way your legs are aligned is very important. Ideally, if you draw a line from the hip down to the knee, down to the ankle it should be a relatively straight line. Unfortunately, for us women with our wonderfully wider, childbearing hips this “line” is often not straight. Without getting too “physical therapy-ish” on you there is something called a Q-angle that goes from the outside of your hip to your knee and then from your knee down to the middle of your shin. If that angle is too high it can cause your muscles to pull awkwardly on your knee cap leading to inflammation and pain usually under and around the knee cap. Long story short, often the wider your pelvis is the more at risk you are for a bad Q-angle and potential knee pain.

Weak muscles and tight muscles

The knee can be a very picky joint. It bears much of our weight and takes a lot of stress from our body when we stand up, walk, squat, do stairs, run, and jump. And the knee needs to have sufficient amounts of strength and stability from the muscles around it as well as good flexibility. If either the strength or flexibility conditions are not met your knee is going to let you know it’s not happy. And if you start a new activity or exercise and your muscles are not strong or flexible enough your knee is going to get real ticked off. Pain most commonly occurs when our hips or quadriceps aren’t strong enough and when the muscles on the outside (IT band), inside (your VMO), the top (quadricep), or the back (hamstring) are too tight.

How To Fix Knee Pain

Ok, great. So now we know why your knees might hurt but the burning question is “how do we make them feel better?!” Obviously, it’s hard to know why specifically your knees hurt without formally assessing what is tight, what is weak, and what your alignment looks like. However, below are some general tips and stretches that can likely help to relieve your knee pain.

Activity modification

It may be necessary to change how you are moving to allow your knees a chance to heal. For example, if you recently started a new exercise program you may want to rest or modify the exercises (such as limiting jumping or squats). Also you may want to avoid squatting too low when interacting with your kids or having your partner do more of the heavy carrying. Butttt…I’m a realist and know this is often not possible. So what’s next.

Knee brace or shoe inserts

If you think you might have bad alignment it may be helpful to try out shoe inserts that provide support to the arches of your feet. This can help improve your alignment and reduce the pressure placed on the middle part of your knee. You can find inexpensive, over the counter ones that work great. 

 

A soft knee brace can also provide some external support and help keep your knee cap in a good alignment. A brace is helpful during times when you are more active such as when you are exercising or on a long walk. 

Ice

If you are having pain under or around your knee cap you may have some inflammation of your ligaments. Try applying an ice pack at night on your knees for 10-15 minutes to reduce pain and inflammation.

Strength

Having good muscle strength is honestly one of the best ways to prevent or treat knee pain. As I mentioned earlier, your knees take a lot of stress and those suckers need to be strong and stable to prevent wear and tear on the ligaments and cartilage. These pelvic stabilization exercises can be helpful. Other exercises include quadricep strengthening, any and all gluteal (butt) strengthening, and calf strengthening.

Stretching

Stretching our muscles is very underrated. I myself often neglect stretching my muscles. Below you can see several basic stretches that are great for stretching the muscles around your knee that may be pulling on the joint and causing pain.

Stretches to Fix Knee Pain:

Hold all stretches for 30 seconds and perform 2 sets. Aim to stretch daily. With stretching… the more the better. 

1. Hamstring Stretch

Place legs out straight in front and reach towards toes. Should feel a stretch in back of legs.

2.Quadricep Stretch

Grab your foot with one hand and pull your knee back. Try to keep your knee perpendicular to the floor. Should feel a stretch along the front of your thigh.

3.Butterfly Stretch

Sit with your feet together and knees flaring out. Should feel a stretch along the mid tight and into your groin.

4. Hip Flexor Stretch

Perform a deep lunge forward with the tight leg backwards. Press forward the hip of the leg that’s extended backwards. Should feel a stretch in the front hip of the leg that is back.

5. IT Band Stretch

Stand upright and cross the leg you are stretching behind the other leg. Pop the hip outwards on the tight leg and lean your trunk away from that hip. For a deeper stretch you can reach forwards towards your front foot.

Enjoy and happy stretching.

 

–Monica