“Bend your knees, girl!”
A man yelled this at me in an airport one time.
I was standing outside the bathroom waiting on a friend when I caught his eye—or my knees did, anyway.
They hyperextend, which means my knees can bend backward, most noticeably when I’m standing.
This man caught a glimpse of my backward-bending knees from across the airport terminal and couldn’t handle it.
He yelled out the most common cue for fixing hyperextended knees, “Bend your knees, girl!”
Aside from the awkwardness of yelling at a stranger in the airport (and calling a grown woman ‘girl’), what he said makes perfect sense. If the knees are going backward, just bend them forward, right?
Maybe, but finding “straight” is difficult when your knees hyperextend because they do FEEL straight even though they are bending back, and when they’re truly straight, they FEEL super bent.
If your knees hyperextend, a mirror is a helpful tool to see where straight actually is and how it feels.
But there’s another overlooked component for knees that go backward: a game-changer called rotation.
In today’s video, I’ll show you how to add the element of rotation when straightening the knees.
If your knees hyperextend, or you work with people who have knees that do, you won’t want to miss the tip in this short video.
If the man from the airport saw me today, he’d look right past me because, over time, I’ve taught myself how to stand with straight knees without bending them.
To knee health!
Sydney
P.S. If you’d love to learn more about alignment and ways to help your joints keep moving with freedom and ease, check out the Pilates Tonic Online (PTO) membership.
There’s a 2-video series with my full protocol for knees that hyperextend, and it also helps flat feet and pronated ankles! Plus, there are many more videos for knee health and SO much more.
PTO is a self-paced membership that costs $79 a month.
Every month, PTO members receive:
- Two live Zoom classes + the class recording (so you never have to worry about missing a class)
- Two new movement videos
- The Membership Journey: a roadmap for alignment success so you get more out of every other exercise you do
- Unlimited access to the PTO video library
- Weekly emails
6 Responses
Thank you thank you thank you.
Perhaps this will help me stand naturally and prevent my knees from “twisting and buckling”. Hoping to lose the fatigue.
Yes! Hopefully, this will help. Thanks for sharing, Carole!
Sydney you are my literal favorite! You helped me re “learn” how to walk by using my glutes instead of my quads, and now this is a huge piece to why my body hurts! I have knees that rotate inward, slightly but enough to throw the whole system off balance. By turning them , I can feel for the first time how it should feel to be grounded in my feet. I can feel a center. Thank you! My question is, do I keep practicing anytime I stand, and will my body eventually catch on that this is a more natural way to stand. Are different muscles starting to work and build when I do this ?
Thank you, you are the best!
Awww, thanks for your feedback, Kat! You made my day. 🙂 I’m thrilled the blog videos have been helpful, especially this one!
This is something you can practice throughout the day when you’re standing, and your body will catch on.
The muscles used to make the adjustment are the deep rotators of your hips. Every time you make this adjustment, it’s making a request to those deep muscles to hold your leg bone in this more neutral position instead of letting them rotate inward.
As you get the hang of it, you can layer this alignment point into other corrective exercises too. The pelvic list, for example, is a fantastic place to add this inner thigh spin for a deep rotator/glute combo!
Here’s the link to the pelvic list in case you want to check it out:
https://www.pilatestonic.com/2020/the-pelvic-list-could-be-your-game-changing-exercise-right-now/
Thanks again, and hope this helps!
Sydney, I’ve been practicing this but it is hard to tell if I am doing it correctly. I feel my quads doing most of the work and I am already quad dominant. Any suggestions?
Hi Kat! This can be challenging at first, for sure. Are you able to lift and lower your kneecaps? Below I’ve linked a couple of blog posts that go over relaxing the kneecaps. Stretching the quads and hip flexors can be helpful, too.
https://www.pilatestonic.com/2015/got-bad-knees-you-may-need-to-relax-your-kneecaps/
https://www.pilatestonic.com/2020/fix-your-tight-quads-and-thighs-with-this-unlikely-move/
Inside the PTO membership, I have a 2-video series that goes through my full protocol for aligning the femurs and dropping the kneecaps, in case you want to check it out.
Here’s the link to the information page:
https://pto.pilatestonic.com/
Hope this helps, and thanks for your question!