#006 Mat class: hurdles stretches and advice for a sore knee

(The knee joint is like a hinge on a single hinged door; it works well if the hinge is strong and you don't habitually twist the door our of alignment when you use it).

This mat class is dedicated to TK, a client with a sore knee.

The knee is like a single hinge on a door.

Open and close the door carelessly, and it twists and damages the hinge and eventually breaks it. Three strategies prevent damage to the hinge:-

1. Carefully hold and align the door when you open and close it

2. Keep the door closed, or open it only a little.

3. Make the hinge stronger

Applied to your knee, you can:-

1. Prevent nasty twists by creating better alignment with good posture (good posture is when your body, legs and head are held tall, relaxed and ALIGNED).

2. Improve and hold your better alignment by putting strength and coordination into your feet and ankles, and buttocks and back.

3. Use the knee less and other joints more. Strong, flexible ankle & hip joint muscles, and core muscles that comfortably and safely hike a hip, will all help. (And they may in fact be the most important things to work on!)

4. Build the strength of muscles that send tendons across the knee: the quads, adductors, and hamstrings. Armed with the picture of the single hinge knee joint, you can make sense of advice from therapists and this video.

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