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women's knees question
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shalamOM
Posted 2007-05-03 10:47 AM (#85058)
Subject: women's knees question


Many people experience knee problems and the typical advice is to say that the person's form is incorrect. Another typical bit of advice is to tell people that they are just not strong enough yet (undertrained) or they are over doing it and need more recovery time (overtrained).

I've also read, but less frequently that women are more prone to knee problems because of the Q-angle, the more exaggerated angle between femur and tibia (especially for skeletally curvy women). Women also experience laxity of the ligaments during certain hormonal states.

So I've had women students who are very experienced, know all the rules of alignment, and don't seem to overtrain/undertrain. They complain of knee problems and seem to blame themselves. How does one know if their knee problems are just a side effect of their female bodies or a problem with alignment? Even more confusing seems to be that alignment is much more difficult with skeletally curvy women (wide hips, but overall small frame).
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Nick
Posted 2007-05-03 2:38 PM (#85085 - in reply to #85058)
Subject: RE: women's knees question



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Location: London, England
shalamOM - 2007-05-03 3:47 PM

Many people experience knee problems and the typical advice is to say that the person's form is incorrect. Another typical bit of advice is to tell people that they are just not strong enough yet (undertrained) or they are over doing it and need more recovery time (overtrained).

I've also read, but less frequently that women are more prone to knee problems because of the Q-angle, the more exaggerated angle between femur and tibia (especially for skeletally curvy women). Women also experience laxity of the ligaments during certain hormonal states.

So I've had women students who are very experienced, know all the rules of alignment, and don't seem to overtrain/undertrain. They complain of knee problems and seem to blame themselves. How does one know if their knee problems are just a side effect of their female bodies or a problem with alignment? Even more confusing seems to be that alignment is much more difficult with skeletally curvy women (wide hips, but overall small frame).

Hi Jessica,
Good question. Impossible to answer without being shown the patient, but we do show patterns of muscle imbalance and mis-alignment, as you said. With a greater Q-angle comes a tendency to internally rotate the hips (the kneecaps turn inwards usually), and a lordosis of the lumbar spine. Correcting both these tendencies can help a female to discover true alignment through absence of pain when moving or forming a posture.
I think that one thing that makes it difficult to help women of differnet statures is sticking to mythical rules of alignment-having the feet together in tadasana, for example, is, I feel, a challenge too far for many women-as the feet are brought together, the Q-angle is increased. For many of my students, I tell them to separate the feet a few inches, or maybe just an inch. The same goes for paschimottanasana.
There are a few things, inculding the one you have mentioned, that make a female more susceptible to knee problems-hamstrings that are not as reactive as a man's, so that anterior cruciate ligament injuries are dis-proportunately common amongst female athletes-also a smaller notch through which the ACL passes. A good training in jumping and landing is considered important for the female, as they tend to keep their legs straighter when they land, again causing more knee problems.

Nick
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shalamOM
Posted 2007-05-06 1:01 AM (#85316 - in reply to #85058)
Subject: RE: women's knees question


Thanks Nick. Great comment as usual.
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