Knee/Ankle Rehab: Tibial Internal Rotation Mobilization

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Knee/Ankle Pain During Squatting _ A lack of sufficient tibial internal rotation during closed-chain knee flexion (or the knee bending when the foot is on the ground, as in the descent of a squat) may cause pain on the inside of the knee, around the kneecap or at the ankle. A self-mobilization to help restore this important motion is to grab onto your lower leg, manually orienting it inwards and then performing repeated bouts of closed-chain knee flexion. Here I'm wrapping a band around my tibia which helps take up some of the soft tissue slack, gives me a good grip and helps enable the internal rotation. _ Squatters who have limited ankle mobility (such as over-pronators or people lacking dorsiflexion) inhibiting their squat could have this motion examined to see if it's contributing to the problem. After spending some time mobilizing this joint it's vital to perform movements that help the newly-freed up motion stick a little. Two such exercises include split squats and reverse lunges, with maybe a little more emphasis on loading the ankle into dorsiflexion (i.e. letting the knee come forward a little more than usual). As you do these, occasionally give your ankle a bird's eye view to see if it's compensating for dorsiflexion by over-pronating.

A post shared by PhysioStrength (@physiostrengthnyc) on Jan 11, 2019 at 4:07am PST