Why Train My Ankles To Stop Knee Pain?

Recently, I was asked a question that I thought a lot of people might want to know the answer to. I was asked why on earth are we training my feet when it's my knee that hurts? My name is Dr. Molly and I'm with Your goals Physical Therapy. Let me explain how this question came about. I am working with somebody who came in complaining of knee pain. She literally feels a knot in the back of her knee and then with that, she's getting tingling in her leg. Which is very alarming, especially since she used to be a runner. However, because of some ITband issues then going to the doctor and being told her ITband, needs to rest and maybe she shouldn’t go back to running. She rested it, her ITband issues went away and she transitioned out of running. She conceded that obviously something was going on with the running. It just wasn't fun because she was always injured even though she is at heart, an avid runner and absolutely loves that sport, she has taken into weight training to replace that adrenaline rush. She really likes the adrenaline rush and the surge and the quickness from playing tennis and running. She just likes being very active. But now she's got this injury.  She was doing a knee extension, where you bend your knee on a machine, the machine that has a bar underneath your ankle and you pull your ankles down, bending your knee. She was on that and she felt a very dramatic pop in the back of her knee. She told her trainer I'm done. I'm not doing that anymore. That hurt. I don't like it. 

She didn't see any bruising, there did seem to be a little bit of swelling, but it wasn't over the top. She became very concerned and that pain didn't really go away after a couple weeks. So, her mind starts playing tricks on you. You're really thinking, something very bad must’ve happened. Maybe there's a cyst? Maybe there's a nerve compression? Maybe I tore my hamstring? She was thinking “Something has to be going on because I know that I heard and felt a pop and this doesn't feel right. I can feel something that does not feel normal in the back of my knee.”

She went in for MRIs and x-rays and when that came out, where her knee was perfectly fine. She went and talked to a doctor and they basically just said, rest it and it'll be better. Well, some time has passed and she's a little anxious because it's not better. It's not worse. There are days that are better but it's still overtly not better. And at this point it's been several months. She doesn't run anymore like I said, now she's not able to work out. She's not able to do the training the way that she wants. She's just at her wits end. “I don't wanna just not move for the rest of my life. I need to find out what's going on with this and I need this to be better.”

And so by chance we meet and I do a full assessment. Of course, I never think of a person as being just one joint, cuz everything is intertwined. Everything moves together. Your body is not one joint floating in space working by itself, that's just not how we were built. After looking at everything and watching how she walks and her flexibility and all of these things just combined. I was like, why don't we try this? And again, she's like, “Why on earth would my foot be affecting my knee?” I was able to show her, on the video I took of her foot while she was walking, some things that were going on at her knee. You get that look where people are like, “mm, this lady is crazy, but I'll do what she says because it's not really gonna hurt me to try to do this one silly exercise she's asking me to do.  The next time I see her. She was over the moon. She's like, “I cannot believe how much of a difference working my ankle has made on my knee.”

And so here we're just getting started, but she's so much better just from strengthening her ankles because that helps support her knee while she's doing other things. I know that I get really excited over all the cool stuff, <laugh> like how the body works and how everything interacts. But really that is the big hope. The big thing of optimism is that just because you're having knee pain and the orthopedic surgeon tells you, there's nothing wrong with your knee. And you're like, I'm not crazy my knee hurts.  I can't do the things that I want to do. If you get told, just rest it, then maybe if you come back we'll do a cortisone shot if this doesn't get better in a couple weeks. Or maybe you get told,  “Hey, try these exercises.  that won’t work because who can look at an exercise sheet and be like, “Oh yeah, I fully understand how to do that.”<laugh> Nobody does. I mean, nobody could hand me a sheet and have me do every exercise exactly the way it's supposed to be done. You just don't learn that way. We don't learn how to do a movement by a  2d image. That's not how we as humans work or how we learn how to do things. Especially, if we're apprehensive and we have some worries that there's something really, really wrong in our knee. Because nobody's really been able to address the problem and say, Hey, this is affecting this and that's why you’re having this problem.

​That's what I love about my job. I love that I can help people see how all the parts of our body relate to each other and how if one thing is off just a little bit, it can make a big difference in another joint. Especially since most of us aren't really into, if it hurts, I'm gonna go run to the doctor. Normally when things hurt, we take a really long time to get to the doctor because we assume if we rest it or we don't do something again, it'll get better on its own. Because it's probably always done that way. When we wake up, you're a little sore by the end of the day, you're not sore and you don't know why it just sort of went away.

When things persist for a long period of time, it can really make you anxious. It can make you very afraid that this is gonna be your reality going forward. 

Then to go into the doctor and have the doctor basically confirm that there's really nothing there. This is all in your head, which is how that feels. It can make you feel like this will be it and you won't be able to do the activities that you want. If you are into running, if you are into lifting weights, if you want to get back and play tennis with your friends or go golf without having pain, it can really feel like if the doctor can't find it on an MRI or an x-ray that then there isn't anything wrong. I know a hundred percent because I see it every day that just because they find something on the MRI machine or an image, it doesn't mean that there isn't something going on that is causing your pain.

It doesn't mean that you will have pain forever. I help people all the time, get back to the things that they like to do without having to worry about surgeries or injections. Just by helping improve how your body heals itself. If you are looking for this type of care, somebody who's gonna listen to you can help you find a robust program to find out exactly what's wrong with your joint, your knee, your foot, then feel free to follow one of the links below and contact me.
I would love to figure out, help you figure out what is going on and get you back to your favorite activities. Have a great day.

If you're looking for more information check out some of my other Blog Post.

what-are-non-invasive-knee-pain-remedies.html
​how-to-stop-back-of-knee-pain-while-walking.html
runners-knee.html​

If you are look for information on how to start healing your knee pain at home check out my Free Ebook "7 Simple Tricks To Stop Knee Pain (No Brace, Medication, or Surgery required)". I've put my best tip in this ebook to you feel better faster. Simply click the button below, fill out a quick form and I will email it directly to you. 

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