Preventing Knee Collapse Knee collapse can be a very harmful aspect of movement, it can lead to knee painand potentially serious knee injuries such as Iliotibial band syndrome, Patelofemoral pain or ACL tears . Identifying you have a knee collapse when jumping or placing you legs under stress is only the first part of the process. It is important that once you identify knee collapse that you then identify the problem. It is important to remember that the sight of the problem or pain is often not the cause of the same problem. The most common causes of a knee to collapse inward are

1)Tight ankles or more specifically poor dorsiflexion (pulling your foot upwards). If you lack the required mobility then to compensate you will pronate (rotate your foot outwardly) creating the knee collapse. It is important to stretch your ankle when doing lots of jumping and running, it is very common to see basketball/volleyball player and runners with extremely tight ankles. What to look for- when initiating a squat or jump do the knees flex forward? Often when the ankles are tight an individual will flex forward in their knees to squat down or their heels will come off the ground. How Do I fix this? - Calf stretching is extremely important here. It is almost impossible to have too much mobility in the ankles. Stretching the ankles will allow movement placing less stress on the knees, meaning they do not have to cave in to create mobility. Another aspect is to strengthen the muscles along the shin this can be done while sitting and pulling your toes towards your knees, pausing at the top

for a second.

2)Weak Hips/Overactive Adductors - Weak hips (and Over active Adductor) - Your Glutes are supposed to be your prime leg extensor for putting power into the ground. However many people are weak in their glutes forcing them to over use their Adductors and Hamstrings. This can be caused by several things but it is important to develop the required strength In the glutes muscles. Deactivating the adductors can also take pressure off the groin lessening the potential of a groin strain.

What to look for? - Do the knees cave in when bracing against someone pushing? Squat down to a bench when you stand do the knees cave in? Do they complain of tightness in the hips or low back pain. It could be due to tightness or weakness in the hips. Using mini bands around the knees if they are too weak to overcome the band you likely have hip weakness. It is important to determine is it an issue of hip tightness, weakness or combination. How Do I Fix This? - if it is a mobility issue foam roll and stretch. get the hips moving. Then Strength the hips with exercises like Clam Shells and body weight squats. It is important to groove the pattern of a squat or deadlift. Engage the glutes and get depth.

3: Coordination - many people lack the required coordination and activation to prevent knee collapse, not knowing what muscles to fire and when to fire them. Working with a coach to correct this is your best option. What to look for? - Often once the ankles are determined to be mobile and the hips are seen as not being the problem. ;it is likely a coordination issue. Getting the muscles to fire in the right order can be difficult, especially in girls, as puberty hits the angles change. How Do I fix this? - Work on squat technique, do basic box jumps, learn to land properly. Often it will take attention to detail here as well as not rushing the process. A lack of coordination often needs good coaching and cueing to avoid bad habits. In this situation practice is important and developing the ability to self correct is extremely helpful.

Personal Training CornerThe Glutes Bridge Progression for Runners

Most runners experience knee pain sometime in their running career. Often this is due to over recruitment of the quadriceps. The Glutes Bridge can be a great core exercise that when properly can be used in multiple situations as a core exercise, a warm up drill or between sets of an exercise. It is important to maintain proper technique to get the full effect.

Phase 1 Lying on your back. Extend out fully, pulling toes towards your knees. Then raise your buttocks off the ground.

Squeeze the glutes to raise the buttocks. start with 20 reps pausing at the top for 2 seconds

Phase 2 Lying on your back raise your hips off the ground, Just like phase 1. Now raise 1 heel off the ground. Do this 20 times

without letting your hips twist or lower towards the ground.

Phase 3Just like phase 1 and 2 raise the hips off the ground. Now this time bring one knee towards the chest marching. Make

sure you do not lower your hips.

Phase 4 Once you have master with the heels on

t h e g r o u n d . P l a c e y o u r f e e t o n a b o x o r bench and march again alternating legs.

Phase 5 The final phase of this exercise phase is to add instability and place your heels into the stirrups. Alternating bringing your heels into your chest again

not letting your hips lower

The most important aspect is to follow and master each progression before moving on to the next one. Rushing through the progressions can produce poor results because you are not firing the proper muscles during the exercise.

Regan Hesjedal is a Performance Coach with Revolution Conditioning & Health Website - revolutionconditioning.caTwitter @rwhesjedalFacebook page - Revolution Conditioning & Health

Performance CornerBulgarian Split SquatsThe Bulgarian Split Squat or Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat is an extremely important single Leg exercise. It Develops single leg strength and hip flexor mobility. The muscle that are activated are often the same muscles used in agility drills such as the Glute Med, Bicep Femoris, Hip Flexors and (in female athletes some research has pointed to more Quadriceps activation compared to a traditional squat). While the squat is still an important part of training, adding a Bulgarian Split Squat can add to your training. So how do you do a Bulgarian or Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat.

1)Place one foot behind you resting on a bench. 2) Maintain an upright posture. 3) keep foot infront of you.

4) Do not let front knee go past foot

The easiest way to start is with you knee on the ground for the initial movement this will allow you to find you balance as You can use dumbbells or barbells or even just body wight.