Patellofemoral Pain Explained aka Knee Pain
Many people struggle with knee pain but few know how to properly address it. Mostly because there are many ways to address it and the research is not very clear on what the root cause usually is. This is because, every body is so different, there are different “types” of knee pain, and everyone has different activity levels that could be contributing to this knee pain.
The knee pain that we cover in this article is the nagging, achey, sometimes sharp kneecap pain you may be experiencing that is increased by running, jumping, squatting, or even stairs. This pain is usually categorized as “patellofemoral syndrome”. Which at the end of the day doesn’t tell us a whole lot. All this phrase means is that you are experiencing pain in the knee cap area that is being caused by excessive force going through the knee.
“When it comes to this kind of pain I look at many different aspects that could be contributing to an increase in force through the knee leading to pain” says Chelsea Schuman, PT, DPT. For most patient’s the biggest contributing factors that could lead to this type of knee pain are poor ankle and/or hip mobility, decreased hip stability, or a combo of both of these. This is especially true for patients that are active and having pain during running, jumping, or squats.
The knee joint itself is classified as a hinge joint. Meaning that all it does is bend and straighten. It does a little bit of rotation and force absorption. But at the end of the day most of that rotation and force absorption happen at the hip and foot/ankle which surround the knee joint. So if you have an ankle and/or hip that is not as mobile as it should be and a hip that is weaker than it should be; then your knee is going to take on extra force during activity. Over time this extra force is going to place stress on the knee joint and eventually cause a pain response in your body.
In conclusion, for any type of pain in the body make sure you are always looking above and below the joint. There could be a breakdown in mechanics or strength in those areas causing an increased stress to the joint.
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