There is a day that goes by that I don’t have an athlete, coach or my own daughter’s complain of knee pain. If it one of my athletes most of the time by the end of the workout, the next time I see them or within ten minutes of complaining it doesn’t bother them any more. Never the less, it can be bothersome.

Many of the athletes I work with, including my own daughters, are at that age where they are involved with lots of activities and sports, not to mention growing a lot. There are many factors that contribute to theses youngsters” knee discomfort. There are many causes, but most are not “career ending”. For example, my oldest daughter will periodically experience knee pain and she really didn’t do anything directly to it. I will have her foam rolling and more times than not she finds a knot somewhere around her quads. When she spends a little time rolling around on knots and stretching her hips, adductors and thighs she complains of a lot less knee pain.

Obviously, I am not a physical therapist, but I think often we as parents and coaches panic and immediately send our kids to the therapist or doctor. More times than not knee pain is tightness or overuse from starting a new sport or activity. Plus, these youngsters are in a growing stage. It is better to be cautious than not, however if you suspect something that isn’t going away send them to a specialist who can diagnose the problem.

Diagnosing knee problems is out of my scope, but my normal routine as a strength coach and trainer is to have the athletes foam roll and perform functional flexibility as part of their warm up. If they have knots or lack of mobility, then we focus on that particular area. Most of the time knee pain and lack of mobility or knotting are related. If the pain doesn’t go away, then I refer out.

It is very important for all strength coaches and trainers to develop a network of ortho’s, PT’s, chiro’s, and nutritionists. These specialists will help you quickly gain feedback as to what to do next. If I have a problem and I am not sure what to do, I call up one of the professionals and let them tell me my next step. Always play it safe.

Here are some guidelines I have set for myself (which I learned from many others over time) when it comes to training athletes with knee pain:

  1. If their knees hurt while training with me on that day I have them only perform exercises that don’t cause pain. I rely on them to tell me. I can’t feel their pain so they have to be honest with me.
  2. No jumping with athletes that are having knee pain.
  3. If slow controlled squatting with glute medius activation doesn’t hurt them I will allow this exercise, but most of the time I will have them do hip bending (RDL) and this normally doesn’t bother them.
  4. No hard sprinting
  5. And no hard deceleration and change of direction.

Most important, if a doctor told them they can only do certain things than that is what we do.

I am sure many of you have come across youngsters with knee pain. Over the past 20 years I can’t recall but one young athlete that had such bad Osgood schlatters he was really limited all the time on what he could do. Most of the time knee pain is directly related to lack of mobility, starting up a new activity or sport or poor mechanics of the feet, ankles, knees, or hips (send these cases to specialists).

P.S. – Yesterday I taught a new 13 year old female athlete how to correct her posture and lateral movement so she can protect her knees and ankles using low boxes. The concept of using low boxes is to reposition the feet under the body. It works like a charm every time. Go to www.LowBoxTraining.com to see what I mean.