Knee pain sucks.
And like any other body part, it’s pain resolution is a process of restoring access to it’s complete set of options for joint motion, in correct sequencing with other body parts, in a way that feels safe.
AND… You don’t need to have an advanced understanding of joint biomechanics to do it 
(see the video below)
Your knee is a relatively simple, 2D joint (made complicated by biomechanists who’ve attempted to define what it does disparate of their own embodied understanding of it…)
To feel and move happily, a knee must have access to:
- Flexion (bending) with femoral internal rotation, on a pronating foot.
- Extension (straightening), with femoral external rotation, on a supinating foot.
All other combinations of knee, leg, and foot, will not feel happy, or be very efficient.
Here’s a quick demo you can try (this clip is an excerpt from a 60 min Movement Deep Dive I did last week on knee mechanics for my Liberated Body students):
If you don’t feel the above sequencing happening, it would not be surprising if your knees are unhappy with you 
I repeat: A healthy knee must be able to experience the following things:
1) Knee bends + femur rotates in + foot pronates
2) Knee straightens + femur rotates out + foot supinates
And, if you followed the video, you’ll have the basic, embodied understanding that:
A) A pronatED foot will prevent a knee from fully extending
B) A foot that CANNOT pronate will not allow a knee to bend
My intention is to clarify and make simple the complexities of learning biomechanics, so that anyone can benefit from healthier movement. This can only be done by actually experiencing your anatomy.
In the words of Gary Ward, of Anatomy in Motion: Expose yourself to the truth of human movement, then let that experience create the learning.
When we try to understand movement ONLY with our intellect, our body doesn’t learn.
But if the body learns first, no words or intellectualization is necessary for real knowing. Words can be added later to faciliate communication (which is useful, considering all the confusion!)Remember, learning is not the same thing as knowing
I hope you enjoyed and found this mini biomechanics lesson useful! Let me know if it sparked any new understanding for you. Shoot me an email or leave a comment below.
If you liked this little tidbit, you may enjoy the complete 4 day Liberated Body Workshop. More info about that here: monikavolkmar.com/liberated-body-workshop
PS I post stuff like this on my Instagram page sometimes. If you’d like to be my IG pal, I am @monvolkmar
Interestingly, I have hypermobility syndrome and always thought my knees were one joint that is not hypermobile – I am slowly realizing that this isn’t the case. I can easily access bent knees and straight knees in both positions in the video with no pain or limitation, but I’m learning that I think I struggle with getting my hips to fully extend (and thus significant pain in my right SI joint) probably because they are working so hard to stabilize my knees!
I’m sure there’s more to this picture, but this little lesson was so eye opening. I’m excited to learn more from you and from Gary Ward. Thank you so much for everything you share. I expect that I will be signing up for your membership as soon as I finish WYBU 🙂
Hey Alicia 🙂 Hypermobility is interesting indeed! And challenging. Interesting because no-body is completely hypermobile everywhere. So it could be true, like you mentioned, that lots of parts of your body move too much but this one dimension of hip motion- extension- is actually something your body can’t get into right now. Very cool discovery. Gary’s work is brilliant, and of course I’m biased 😉 But I’m glad to hear you are enjoying it, too. Thanks for reading and taking the time to go through the little knee demo 🙂