Knee friendly quad stretch?

[Catrin]

The subject says it all, my knee is behaving itself for the most part, and I am cleared to ride and to go to spinning class - but my usual quad stretch does cause discomfort in the knee right now. Is there a way that I can stretch my quads without really having to bend the knee back so far? My assumption is that there isn't, but you never know unless you ask

I did find something called quadricep isometric exercise - but that looks to be something else. My chondromalacia is quite minor, but since the normal quad stretch (where you grab your foot and draw up your leg behind you) does cause discomfort right now it doesn't seem wise - but I need to find someway to stretch that muscle group. Of course I will keep searching the internet, but thought someone here might have experience with something that would work.

[FunSize]

I stretch my quad in a lunge position on the ground. I'll put my left knee on the ground and my right foot on the ground out in front. I'll gently pull towards my right foot stretching the left quad. I try to make sure to have my hips forward as this helps to keep the quad stretched. I imagine pushing my left hip forward and pulling my pelvis under me (like... not sticking my butt out.) I'll hold it for about 30 seconds. I'll repeat on the right quad.

does that make sense?

I don't know if it stretches the quad to the same extent but i find it to be sufficient.

Sometimes i lie down while stretching my quad the way you describe as i can focus more on stretching the quad without pulling the knee too much.

[OakLeaf]

Pay attention to alignment.

Keep your ankle in line with your sitbone and your femur. Keep your second toe and second metatarsal in line with your tibia. Flexing your ankle while keeping your second toe in line will help set the angle, as well.

Maybe once you grab your foot or ankle, before you begin the stretch in earnest, contract your quads once to set the angle. If you're in good alignment, nothing will move; if it does, line up there and re-check.

(And hopefully Knott will chime in...)


"Chondromalacia," aka patellofemoral syndrome, is a kneecap tracking issue that has everything to do with alignment. A good yoga teacher will give you all this...



The other half of it is that in most Americans, if quads are tight, they're not the half of it. Hip flexors are harder to get into, but obviously they don't involve the knee, and if you can get a good hip flexor stretch, they're all involved with the tops of the quads, too.


ETA: The "Sir Galahad" that FunSize described is a hip flexor stretch. Since the rectus femoris (the big central quad muscle) is a hip flexor as well as a knee extensor, you will get some there.

What goes hand in hand with that is remembering not to rotate your pelvis anteriorly when you stretch your quads (which can be a challenge for those of us with flattened lumbar curves and tight hip flexors). If you're not focusing on lengthening the hip flexors, you won't get a complete stretch of the rectus. A lot of people "cheat" by rotating their pelvis, to get their heel closer to their butt in a standing or side-lying quad stretch - which obviously defeats the purpose. If you can't reach your foot or heel in good posture, use a strap.

[NbyNW]

You could also try rolling the quad over a styrofoam roller or Yamuna ball or other similar toy.

[Catrin]

Thanks for the tips - and I am starting a beginners yoga class Wed eve at my club - it will be a good hour after my personal training session so hopefully that won't be too much.

My hip flexors do seem to be starting to loosen - but not really on my right side where the knee is acting up. I still need all of the hip-flexor-stretching that I can reasonable get. Picturing to myself the position of my leg at the end of spinning class where we just did the quad stretch last night, I do seem to remember my leg being at an odd angle - which would certainly have caused an alignment problem and thus the pain.

All of this just encourages me to become even more aware of what my body is doing, especially where alignment is concerned. I am thankful my schedule is finally allowing me to go to the once/week beginners yoga class - and I have 5 free sessions in which to check it out

[NbyNW]

Be sure to let your instructor know about your concerns with the knees . . . and listen to your body!

I hope you enjoy the yoga class

[Catrin]

Be sure to let your instructor know about your concerns with the knees . . . and listen to your body!

I hope you enjoy the yoga class

I hope I will too Thankfully it is just one knee that is the problem, and it isn't the first time it has flared up in the last decade - but it IS the first time that I am not just ignoring it The original problem started back in my Taikwondo days...

[Catrin]

I DID try my usual standing quad stretch last night. I only did it once as I didn't work out yesterday, but wanted to see if it was possible to do it without any pain. I tried Oakleaf's suggestions about how to keep everything in alignment - though forgot to contract my quad. I did manage to do it once without any pain or twinges, and as I only tried it once I am pretty happy with that.

Thankfully the other leg/knee is fine - or at least it isn't bad enough to hurt. I am going to focus on good practices for that leg as well, it can't hurt!

Thankfully the Pennsaid topical I've been applying to the knee appears to be helping, so if I can be intentional about all of this then I should be able to progress with my planned spring "training" as I would really like to do a century on Memorial Day weekend in Kentucky....but the world won't end if I decide to do a metric instead.

[OakLeaf]

FWIW, I picked up the February issue of Yoga Journal in the chiropractor's waiting room this afternoon, and there's an article that has probably more than you wanted to know about yoga and knees, focusing primarily on triangle pose. I only had time to skim it, but there was a lot of information about anatomy and alignment. It's not on the website - I looked - but if you're interested, it may still be on the store racks or the library.

[Catrin]

FWIW, I picked up the February issue of Yoga Journal in the chiropractor's waiting room this afternoon, and there's an article that has probably more than you wanted to know about yoga and knees, focusing primarily on triangle pose. I only had time to skim it, but there was a lot of information about anatomy and alignment. It's not on the website - I looked - but if you're interested, it may still be on the store racks or the library.

I will check the library this weekend and see if they have this. I was unable to make that beginners class last night - but hope to do so next week.

I did note that my kneecap was giving me a little trouble after my training session last night - can't think what might have caused it outside of the forward/backward lunges. They were not particularly deep...

[Catrin]

I am unsure if it is the medication working, or if I am unconsciously doing things differently to help my knee-cap problem - but it is feeling much better! When I compare my knees in the mirror it is obviously different from my other one, but the discomfort is, basically, gone

I visited my fitter yesterday with my bike and we determined that my seat-post must go up more than an inch!!!!! We had been raising it, but apparently not enough to make a real difference.

That much is required just to get my knee to a 35 degree angle... He wasn't comfortable with raising it that much at once, so we marked the seat-post where it SHOULD be, then raised it a quarter inch from where it was. Every couple of rides I will raise it another quarter-inch, so it should just take a couple of weeks to get it where it belongs, weather permitting riding. We had only been raising it 3mm or so each time, but I stopped doing that when my injuries took me off the bike back in October.