We all know that our knees bend and extend, but did you know that the knee also has a slight amount of rotation? Right at the base of the knee joint where it meets your shin, there is a slight amount of internal and external rotation (meaning move in towards the center of your body, and moving away from the center of your body).
We don’t notice our knees rotating in this way because this rotation is so minimal, but when they don’t have good rotation, we sure can feel it!
There is 1 major reason why you should care that your knee rotates:
For every day walking!
When your knee bends, your shin/knee actually starts to internally rotate. When your knee straightens, your knee/shin actually externally rotates.
So if it’s not doing these 2 rotations effectively, you bet you could start to feel something not so great at the knee joint.
Here are some more examples of when you need your tibia (shin bone) to rotate:
- Squats. Again, you start to bend your knees, your shin needs to internally rotate. You start to stand up from that squat, your shin should externally rotate. If you don’t think you squat, think again – when you sit on the toilet or sit/stand up on/from the couch, you’re squatting.
- Skiing – ever notice turning to one side bothers your knee more than the other? Check out your knee rotation and see if this is the culprit (I might be speaking from experience lol).
- Running – same issue as walking!
Really any movement where your knee bends and straightens – the deeper or straighter the movement, the more you’re going to want your shin to rotate with the knee.
Stay tuned next week where I’m going to send you a video of how I’ve been working on my knee rotation capabilities.