Watch the video first and then check out the links below:

Click on the link immediately below for the Muscle Anatomy Chart to see there are NO MUSCLES AROUND THE FRONT OF YOUR KNEES!

Click here to see the “Muscle Anatomy Chart.”

Now click on this link which takes you the New York Times Video with the mis-information I was talking about in my video above that can actually make your knees worse!

Click here to see the New York Times video for “Stabilizing The Knee.”

Here is my link shamelessly promoting my e-book and video showing you how to CORRECTLY STRENGTHEN YOUR KNEE JOINTS!

Get my e-book & video combo – -> Click Here!

None of what I am going to share with you today is to be taken as medical advice. This approach is what I used to get myself out of knee pain that I learned over the past nine years.

These are truths as I know them. Use what you like and disregard the rest. If you have any concerns as to what you are to do, please consult your licensed health care professional.

When you begin a movement, this movement is initiated by your muscles and is kept going by your tendons and ligaments.

Quick anatomy lesson: tendons connect muscle to bone and ligaments connect bone to bone.

It is so very important that you remember this when thinking about your knees.

The knee is a joint where two, actually three, bones are coming together to form the joint. The femur (the bone in your upper leg), the tibia, and the fibula (the bones in your lower leg).

The next time you go to a doctors’ office or to see your physical therapist, ask them to see an anatomy chart of the muscular system of the human body.

If you look at this chart of the lower half of the human body, you will find that there are no muscles to be found in and around the front of the knees.

You might find this a little surprising; however, it’s the truth. And if you’re in front of a computer right now you can double-check me by doing a Google search on ‘muscle anatomy chart’ to see what I am talking about.

You can get a blow-up of it on your screen and you can see all the muscles are in red, and the tendons, the ligaments, and the bone are in white.

When you look at the anatomy chart in and around the front of the knees, it is primarily tendons, ligaments, and bone.

So this begs the question: How can you build up the muscles around the front of the knee to address you knee pain if there are not any muscles there?

The key here is to understand the tendons and the ligaments I mentioned a little bit ago. This is what truly needs to be strengthened in order to address the pain, tension, swelling, and discomfort in your knees.

You see, the way the body works in strengthening the tendons and the ligaments require you to first fatigue the muscles. Once the muscles are “out of the way,” then the real work begins.

It takes approximately seven seconds for muscles to fatigue.

If you are questioning me on this one, think of the last time you were at the gym and saw some guy trying to bench press a lot of weight. You know, “doing their max.”

They will first get the bar off the rack and bring it down to their chest before they begin to push the weight back up. If they don’t get it back up within a certain amount of time, usually seven seconds, then odds are they are not going to be able to push the weight up at all.

Go ahead and time it. One thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three…all the way up to one thousand seven.

This is just as important when you are doing an exercise for your knees. However, in your case you are looking to fatigue the muscles so you can begin to build up the tendons and ligaments in and around the knees.

Another component of exercise in relation to building strength in the knee joint is to understand what I call “practical strength” or “dynamic strength.”

What I mean by practical strength or dynamic strength ties directly into how an exercise is performed. It must reflect how you move in real life in order for the exercise to really be applicable.

After my ACL reconstruction surgery, I went to physical therapy and for all intents and purposes everything went “well.” At the end of the 8 weeks my left leg was as strong as my right leg yet I still had lots of pain, tension, and discomfort in my knee.

I did the usual, leg extensions, leg curls, leg raises, and step ups to build up the strength in my legs and this, to a degree, was beneficial however it was not the “big picture.”

In actuality when moving in real life you rarely get up in a linear fashion. There is regular “dynamic movement” – getting up and pushing to the side at the same time. An example would be like getting out of a car.

So the exercises I did at the PTs made my leg stronger yet it was not practical for me to function in my life without the pain, tension, and discomfort in my knee.

Building practical or dynamic strength is key for you to get over your knee pain not only physically, also mentally to rid yourself of the fear of certain movements.

So dynamic strength must be slow and controlled to re-educate your nervous system. Your nervous system must understand that your knee is strong enough to handle the weight of your body and not give out anymore.

You will know when you “arrive” at this place because your body will not fear injuring your knee anymore.

Bill sustained a severe knee injury over ten years ago that required reconstructive surgery on his left knee. This experience led him on a path to figure out how to relieve the pain, tension, and discomfort in his knee as well as the rest of his body resulting from the knee injury and the subsequent surgery. He now teaches others how to relieve knee pain for themselves in their own bodies through education about water, nutrition, exercises, stretching, and breathing.

It is a great example of how to understand what needs to be strengthened in and around your knees in order for your knee to be properly supported to overcome an existing knee injury and prevent future knee injuries…

Muscle Anatomy Chart

Everything in red is muscle and everything in white is either bone, tendon, ligament or connective tissue…

As you can see in the front of the knee there is no “red” so in actuality when it is indicated that you need to “strenthen the muscles in the knee” they are really not telling you the truth.  It is the strenghtening of the tendons, ligaments and connective tissue that is the “difference that makes the difference.”

I go into how to strenghtend the tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue in my book, “Stop Your Knee Pain Now!”

Click on this link to purchase the book: “Stop Your Knee Pain Now!”

Let me know your thoughts below…

Bill

(The Knee Pain Guru)

“Why You Must Protect Your Knees.” featured in REDBOOK

There are points about this article that are very good and there are other points that are given in this article that I don’t believe are explaining the entire picture on the subject of knee pain…

One point that is brought up about addressing knee pain is to strengthen the “muscles” around the knee. If you have ever looked at an anatomy chart like the one posted below. The muscles are in “red” or the darker colors. However, when you get down in and around the knees, especially in the front of the knee. There really are no “muscles” to be seen.  On the muscle chart everything is “white.” The reason it is white is because there are no muscles there! What really needs to be strengthened are the tendons which connect the muscle to the bones in your knee. Tendon strength is what makes knees strong and flexible without pain like they were when you were younger.

So a deeper question would be, “How do you strengthen the tendons around the knee to both get rid of the knee pain while at the same time make the knees more flexible to prevent future knee pain issues?”

The answer is in breathing!

After exerting a muscle for 7 seconds, the muscle fatigues and all you are left to work with is your tendons. The idea is to do an exercise for your knees longer than 7 seconds. The catch happens is when we do the exercise for more than 7 seconds and don’t breathe. We pass out and have a whole host of other issues besides the knee pain!

It is important to understand how to breath first, which is, in through your nose and out through your mouth. The more difficult the exercise the faster you breathe. This is something you can practice just sitting down and getting up from a chair. You will begin to realize how much tension you hold in just that simple movement with or without knee pain. How much we hold our breath is directly related to how much tension we have in our bodies which can result in knee pain. A broader perspective of knee pain is that the knees are not necessarily what is wrong. They are just the weakest link in the series of tension from you head to your feet.

Now to get back to the knee pain exercises. When you do an exercise to strengthen the “muscles” (in actuality the tendons) of your knees. You must hold the exercise in position for at least 7 seconds while maintaining the “circular breathing” – In through your nose and out through your mouth. You will find out how strong your legs really are, or in this case are not. This is how you are really going to make a difference with your knee pain.

I have been working on an e-book and video that are going to go into specific exercises that will show how to both stretch and strengthen your knees while at the same time relax the stress/tension in your body resulting in your knee pain.

I hope to have some of the exercises up soon to share with you so you can begin to both feel and see in the difference in how your knee pain feels.

If there are further questions you may have regarding your specific type of knee pain. Please feel free to contact me directly at Bill@TheKneePainGuru.com

Best regards,

Bill

(The Knee Pain Guru)

P.S. – If you have not downloaded my FREE Knee Pain Report please click the link.