› Forums › Knee › Mini band squats help knee pain

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    • 11/28/2013 at 1:31 pm #70616
      AvatarGio Fitzgerald

        Hi, I discovered the other day, that squatting with a mini band around my knees almost completely stopped the patella/quadricep junction knee pain that I get both during and after squatting.

        When squatting without the bands I do focus on keeping my knees out, and don’t let hem collapse in. So I was wondering what people thought that this indicates and why it helps? It’s obviously curing a deficiency somewhere. Adductors?

        Any thoughts appreciated, cheers.

      • 11/28/2013 at 7:52 pm #73304
        AvatarNathan Richer
        Participant

          There is something called RNT or Reactive Neuromuscular Training which I learned about when I certified for the Functional Movement Screen or FMS.  A typical RNT protocol is to cause facilitation of the error with some tool like a band, and then you resist the error to imprint the proper neuromuscular result, which will hopefully stay without the tool later.

          So your mini band is pulling your knees together into error, which you resist and create the correct motion, and is proper form for your knees so that you don’t have pain any more.
        • 11/29/2013 at 6:28 am #73312
          AvatarGio Fitzgerald

            Thanks David, that’s quite interesting. So is it a case that the correct muscles just aren’t firing as they should? Is there anything else I can do to help this remapping?

          • 11/29/2013 at 10:08 am #73314
            AvatarNathan Richer
            Participant

              Are you still having pain in the knee when you squat and focus on, well – i believe the proper cue now is “NOT KNEES IN!” (vs. KNEES OUT)?

              One way to take a quick look is to video yourself from the front squatting with the band and without the band. If your knee in both videos are tracking the same AND you’re not experiencing pain, then you’re doing the right thing! Just keep doing it!
              I suspect you are having valgus collapse inward on one leg which is causing your knee problem during the squat. During a heavy squat you may not even notice it in the heat of pushing the weight up. But you notice it after with the knee pain.
              So yes your movement pattern on the squat is faulty which means some sequence of muscle firing is not right.
              Movement patterns are wonky.  Just because it happens here doesn’t mean it would happen in another movement.  There are other correctives which address valgus collapse but they are for other movement patterns which may or may not translate.  So mobilize mobilitywod style to make sure you have no restrictions in ROM which may be causing the problem, and keep using the band RNT and slowly wean yourself off of it.  Also, doing the RNT movement often helps repatterning – you may try using the band with air squats outside of your normal workout, just to keep imprinting the patterning.
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