Are You Hypermobile and your knees hurt during squats and lunges?

VASTUS MEDIALIS OBLIQUE: This muscle is key to stabilizing your kneecap because it helps pull the patella slightly inward and balances the natural outward pull from other quad muscles. If the balance isn't quite right, it can lead to knee pain. It helps with knee tracking, too. If you tend to under-recruit your VMO often, you might feel instability or pain. The VMO is located on the inner side of your thigh near the kneecap. It's fibers angle straight toward the kneecap and you can see me flexing mine in the reel, which is cool because we get a visual of this muscle when we engage it. I sometimes call it 'lifting your kneecap' when it's on because it sort of looks like that! 

Mandee pointing to her Vastus Medialis Oblique, your best knee stabilizer.

The VMO is most active at the very end of when you straighten your knee, which is a crucial place for those of us who tend to be hypermobile & hyperextend our knees. I love exercises that work on 'terminal knee extension' or just getting into that range and finding 'zero' which is what I say when I mean perfectly straight rather than hyperextended or a little bit bent! I love leg slide and hip release from Pilates for working on that, and using the band around foot to support as we fully straighten the leg hanging off the edge of a chair while seated. It also helps improve how we organize under load by focusing on the eccentric phase and paying attention to knee tracking. Plus, footwork with pulses on reformer and so many more! I often include the hip and the foot when stabilizing the knee, too! 

We go over this a TON in Pilates for Hypermobility, a course I offer 3X per year: in Fall, Winter & late Spring. You absolutely want to be a part of if you could benefit from figuring out your knee pain, among the many other segments of the body that we cover!