{"id":247,"date":"2009-05-20T13:54:54","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T20:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/?p=247"},"modified":"2009-05-20T13:54:54","modified_gmt":"2009-05-20T20:54:54","slug":"valgus-varus-or-neutral-knees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/?p=247","title":{"rendered":"Valgus, Varus or Neutral Knees?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By far, I help more people with knee and shoulder problems in my profession.\u00a0 As a therapist and fitness pro, I often use lingo that some do not fully understand.\u00a0 In fact, I often find myself analyzing gait patterns of people at the grocery store and even the ringmaster at the circus this past weekend. LOL<\/p>\n<p>I guess I am a biomechanics geek of sorts.\u00a0 It just seems as if faulty mechanics stick out like a sore thumb for me wherever I go.\u00a0 Now, when it comes to bony alignment, you can\u00a0thank\u00a0\u00a0your\u00a0parents to a large degree for your shape and knee alignment.<\/p>\n<p>Obviously, girls have wider hips so they naturally tend to exhibit greater tendencies to have valgus overload (knees cave in with squatting or landing) than males.\u00a0 However, other factors that contribute to valgus overload are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hip tightness (adductors and IT Band)<\/li>\n<li>Hip weakness (gluteus medius)<\/li>\n<li>Foot pronation (flatter or collapsing arch)<\/li>\n<li>Pain (which leads to compensation)<\/li>\n<li>Improper muscle firing patterns<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, we know valgus is bad.\u00a0 Does this mean neutral and varus are free from worry.\u00a0 Not so.\u00a0 I have seen many people with neutral alignment fall into valgus due to imbalances, poor muscle memory and faulty motor patterns.\u00a0 Varus knees are often subject to excess stress (compression) along the inside\u00a0of the knee and gapping along the outside of the knee stressing the lateral collateral ligament.\u00a0 Valgus knees offer increased compression on the lateral knee and gapping along the medial knee stressing the medial collateral ligament.<\/p>\n<p>In the end, you simply want to know your alignment and then assess how gravity and ground reaction forces impact your joints.\u00a0 Squatting and gait provide ample cues.\u00a0 Once you know the imbalances, you can address them with exercises.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>I helped do orthopedic screenings last night for a local high school and noticed a few steady trends:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Nearly all of the soccer players had varus knees<\/li>\n<li>All of the offensive and defensive linemen had valgus knees<\/li>\n<li>Cheerleaders had the best single leg squat strength and balance<\/li>\n<li>About 75% of the athletes I saw had less than exemplary single leg dynamic strength\/balance<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>I included two very different pictures below of high school female soccer players doing a drop landing test from an 18&#8243; box.\u00a0 Obviously the valgus landing is more predictive for ACL and knee injury.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_248\" style=\"width: 533px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-248\" class=\"size-full wp-image-248\" title=\"abbey-2\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/abbey-2.bmp\" alt=\"abbey-2\" width=\"523\" height=\"174\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-248\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Minimal valgus at landing<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_249\" style=\"width: 533px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-249\" class=\"size-full wp-image-249\" title=\"carly-2\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/05\/carly-2.bmp\" alt=\"carly-2\" width=\"523\" height=\"174\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-249\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Significant valgus at landing<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Obviously the girl in the second picture has a higher inherent risk of a serious non-contact knee injury.\u00a0 I recommend a knee prevention program for all cutting and jumping athletes, but when you see\u00a0this\u00a0type\u00a0of valgus loading\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0sound the alarm and be sure to implement a corrective exercise plan to reduce injury risk.<\/p>\n<p>I am putting the finshing touches on my ACL prevention DVD as I write this.\u00a0 You can\u00a0still take advantage of the pre order sale if you act now.\u00a0 Visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fitknees.com\">www.fitknees.com<\/a> for more info.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By far, I help more people with knee and shoulder problems in my profession.\u00a0 As a therapist and fitness pro, I often use lingo that some do not fully understand.\u00a0 In fact, I often find myself analyzing gait patterns of people at the grocery store and even the ringmaster at the circus this past weekend. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7,31,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-injury-prevention","category-knee","category-training"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.10 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Valgus, Varus or Neutral Knees? - Brian Schiff&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.brianschiff.com\/?p=247\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Valgus, Varus or Neutral Knees? - Brian Schiff&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By far, I help more people with knee and shoulder problems in my profession.\u00a0 As a therapist and fitness pro, I often use lingo that some do not fully understand.\u00a0 In fact, I often find myself analyzing gait patterns of people at the grocery store and even the ringmaster at the circus this past weekend. 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