Hiking and knee pain are a common problem and especially in Tahoe because there are so many places to go and hike and none of them are flat for very long. One of the big things you have to be aware of is knee position. Next time you are going up or down stairs or hiking and look at where your knee goes relative to your foot. I’m not as concerned with knee going in front of the foot, but more going inside or medial of the foot. You don’t want your knees to dive in toward each other. The other big thing to be aware of is hip strength. Something that you can do to prepare is doing squats. By putting an elastic band around the knees, your body will push against that band, which will help turn the glutes/hips on a little more and will encourage better positioning while pushing the knees out during a squat. When you are hiking down a mountain and you fatigue, you can easily watch the knee start to dive in more and have to be more aware of your positioning. Your hips are helping stabilize that knee and building strength up in the hips will help stabilize the knee. This stabilization will help in a lot more aspects of fitness such as running, jumping, and even walking. Ideally, you should be able to keep that good knee position while doing a squat on one leg, since you are on one leg more and more with increasing your walking to running pace and going up or down stairs. Thanks for watching and enjoy the trails around South Lake Tahoe.
Come in to see how you can strengthen the right muscles and move the right way to keep hiking all summer long.
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Tahoe’s Premiere Sports Chiropractor
