Climbing Stairs Doesn't Have To Hurt
Your knee pain should not stop you from doing exercises you enjoy!
The video above addresses one specific potential cause for knee pain when going up stairs: excessive quad loading.
Why Do I Have Knee Pain?
When climbing up stairs, it's really easy to let your knee move too much. If your knee moves too far forward, your body will recruit your quads to climb stairs. Excessive quad use, over time, results in excessive pressure in the front of the knee.
It's also really easy to let your knee fall in when climbing up stairs. This results in too much pressure on the outside of your knee and stretching on the inside of your knee. And your knee cap will get pulled too far to the side.
What Can I Do To Fix My Knee Pain?
An easy way to control your knee is with better glute function. By pushing through your heel and keeping your knee back, you will optimize your glute's ability to do work.
Preventing your knee from falling in will also help force your glutes to do more work. It will also help your knee cap stay in its groove (healthy contact forces).
If your knee moves less, your hip will move more. More hip motion usually means more opportunity for glutes to work. And more glute activation means less stress to the knee!
Checkout our post Make Your Knee Feel Better When Climbing Stairs with This Glute Stretch. You'll get a great glute stretch to help your knee feel better when going up stairs.
Remember, This Is Only The Start For Most Injury Recoveries...
The body is complicated and this is one small, but important piece to your injury recovery.
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