KNEE TUCK JUMPS COMPENSATION FULL

Mobilisation involves moving the joint through a full range of motion dynamically in a controlled manner. Hold each stretch for between 10 to 30 secs (hold the longer time if you’re particularly tight).

Stretching the calf both in a knee-bent and straight-knee position will make for the best progress.Īlthough, the bent-knee stretch is the priority as it’s more specific to the action we need to replicate. Mike Reinhold’s video below also shows rolling the arch of your foot with a ball to also release the plantar fascia, which can also help increase ankle mobility. When foam rolling to improve mobility, move your foot at the ankle (point and flex, or make circles) as you roll to get an even better release. This not only makes a significant difference to how your knee sits when you move, but a strong, stable foot enhances the amount of power you can produce from the floor, and contributes significantly to your ability to balance too.⁣⁣įoam rolling can be used for self-myofascial release, improving the extensibility of the calf, giving you an increased range of motion. Combining that with a short foot exercise to activate and strengthen the muscles in the feet will optimise how your foot engages with the floor. Self-myofascial release using a tennis ball on the sole of your foot (plantar fascia) can massively improve the lift of your foot arch. Crouching lower in the ‘walks’ helps make them more specific… X-BAND WALKS The following exercises are also useful but aren’t as specific as the legs are more extended. Resistance band squats and hip bridges, and Side Lying Clams are good strengthening and activation exercises to prevent valgus knee collapse, as they operate in a deeper flexed position – where the collapse tends to happen, so are more specific. The following exercises go at your glute medius and shout it to attention! However, when there’s a muscular imbalance, lack of activation in a specific area or an injury for example, we often opt for a more isolated approach to get the lazy bit to ‘tow the line’. When it comes to general athletic training, we like to use muscles in coordinated patterns of movement, because that’s how you use your body in real life. This is a bad habit that needs a conscious effort to re-pattern and correct, demanding repetition with good form. If you can’t keep your (bare) foot flat on the floor while flexing your knee beyond your toes by at least 125mm (5”) then you need to work on improving that.įinally, your ankle mobility and hip strength may be good, but you’re just not coordinating the movement properly and allow your knee to drift inward.

Thirdly, you may have poor range of motion in you ankles.

Secondly, you may have “flat feet”, where the inside arch of your foot collapses downward, tipping the ankle inward and taking the knee with it. Just take a look at the difference in the two ‘tuck jumping’ stances in the montage image at the top of the page. In particular, if your glute medius muscle is weak or underactive, you’ll find it difficult to track your knee correctly and it’ll tend to buckle inward when ‘surprised’ by load. That ball and socket in the hip needs its muscles to do a good job of stabilising a joint that allows a great deal of movement – especially for fighters that can kick head height. There’s more than one reason why your knees cave in under load, and more than one of them may affect you.įirstly, poor hip strength or activation will let your knees wander around. So a buckling knee doesn’t just look ugly, it’s trouble waiting to happen. If you don’t correct it, you can end up with (patellofemoral) knee pain, IT band syndrome or even a dreaded ACL tear. I see it a lot, and have to work on this myself too (especially if I become less active through injury). WHY DO MY KNEES BUCKLE IN?Īlthough valgus knee collapse is more common in women (due to a wider pelvis relative to knee positioning), it affects men too. Numerous people contacted me asking, “That’s me, how do I fix it?” – so here’s how I like to tackle this issue in the gym. I illustrated with the example of valgus collapse of the knee, where the knee buckles inward under load…Īs far as problems go, it can lead to a lot of nasty injuries if left unchecked, and as a habit contributes to a less than desirable Muay Thai stance and legs that buckle under low kicks. In a previous article for Muay Thai Scholar, I discussed using strength and conditioning training to discover how your body fails, and working on these weak links – we’ve all got them!

Knee tuck jumps compensation