Knee Pain? Your Flat Butt is Likely the Problem

So you know that your knees are bothering you but did you know that your knee pain is likely originating from your butt?
The problem all starts out with two gluteus muscles, particularly your glute medius. There are a lot of great articles out there on the function and action of these muscles but I won’t bore you with that here. In lay terms, the glutes are responsible for stabilizing your hip and legs…depending on if you are standing on that leg or not.
When we sit all day at a desk or in a car, our glutes gets turned off and your body really forgets how to turn them on effectively while you stand, walk or run. Is this a problem? Yes, a very big problem. When you Glute Medius in inactive, it can cause your knees to fold inward in a condition called “valgas knees”.

When you are standing, and draw a line from your hip to the center of your knee cap, does that line point straight down at your toes or does it point inward? If it points Inward, you likely have valgas knees and an inactive gluteal complex. The force of every step is then transferred not through your knee and down into your foot but rather through the interior portion of your knee thus causing pain and potentially damaging the tissue in your knees.
Now, things get worse if you are a runner because most of the running motion is spent suspended on one leg. The exact function of the glute medius is to stabilize on one foot so when it is inactive, you get a LOT of instability through the knee. I would venture to say that almost every running injury analysis should begin with assessment of glute medius strength.

Now look down at what else that internally rotated knee effects…yup, your foot. Valgas knees can also cause you to roll inward on your foot and big toe causing bunions over time.

So, What can you do about it? A great exercise for this muscle group is the old fashioned “Jane Fonda” leg lifts. Yup, old Jane had the right idea. Lay on your side and raise that leg toward the ceiling between 20-50 times. If it burns like heck, you know that those glutes haven’t been doing their job when you walk or run. You can also hit all three fibers efficiently be pointing you toe down, straight, and then up during the exercise. Try doing 30-40 per segment for a total of 90-120 repetitions per leg to really get those muscles activated and strong enough to correct your valgas knees. As a bonus, it will also tone up your rear.

Of course, this is just one exercise and most postural and structural problems are very complex and should be assessed by a professional corrective exercise specialist. However, this one tip has the potential to save many people the frustration of knee surgery.