I HAVE BAD KNEES! Knee pain when you lunge? Yeah, you don’t have bad knees, you have compromised mechanics.
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When your knees feel like they’re filled with thumbtacks with every lunge step, most of you think of only TWO solutions:
1. Quit the workout and stop doing that exercise forever.
2. Suck it up and plow through it (nope, never a good idea).
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I’m going to give you a third solution, fix the mechanics, repair the tissue and get back to lunging like a champ.
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Here’s why it hurts.
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The quads load across the patella via the patellar tendon.
The entire system is under a tensile load (it’s in a ‘stretch’ position).
This presses the patella INTO the femur and tibia.
You drop into the floor forcing your foot to adapt to the terrain and the kinetic chain to adapt to the load under deceleration
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Back step vs front step lunge???
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Back step for knee pain, here’s why it’s better.
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The ‘working leg’ stays on the ground and has less forced adaptation.
The quads (one specifically the rectus femoris) is ‘loose’ because it also crosses the hip which is in flexion
No impact
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Bam! Much better version for you.
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Now, if you’re dead set on those front step lunges, one other variation that will massively reduce pain, is a longer stride in your lunge.
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You’ll end up loading much more Glute complex as opposed to quad complex.
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Now, there are also three movements to provide relief long term to your knees and feed some slack into that patellar tendon so you don’t feel like you’re taking a shovel in the knee with every step or squat.
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What ends up happening is an argument between the posterior chain and the quads themselves. So, while loosening up there quads is a great idea and helps substantially, the muscles will simply tighten up repeatedly, forever, if the opposing muscle group isn’t handled as well.
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1️⃣ ACTUAL Quad Stretch: 2 minute hold.
2️⃣ Hamstring Kickout: 2 minutes of work.
3️⃣ Hamstring Double Leg Sit: 2 minute hold.
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Do this and your knee pain WILL go away.
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Love you guys.
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Trevor B
