Knee pain is one of the most debilitating discomforts that you can feel when you’re working out, especially during a leg workout. Pain in your knees can come in many different forms.

You can get ligament pain usually seen from an injury to the ACL or MCL. You can get meniscus pain that usually results in a knee that gives out or locks unexpectedly.

You can also get arthritic changes to the surfaces of the bones in the joint that makes movement difficult.

The most common cause of knee pain in those working out is patellofemoral or patellar tracking dysfunction.

Most pains are caused by dysfunction at joints below the site of the pain. In the case of the knee, you have to look at the ankle for the real cause of the pain.

Patellofemoral exercises are usually the focus of treatment for knee pain. They even are considered the best workout for knee pain. That’s a mistake.

There’s more to getting rid of knee soreness than just working on that VMO. Knee pain on squats is common when there are tracking issues in the kneecap. Most often, weak hips (glute medius exactly) cause the femur to track incorrectly.

In this video, I show you the root cause of the knee pain and more importantly, how to fix the pain.

There are many exercises for knee pain but if the ones you’re doing are only focusing on the quads and the muscles around the knee, then you’re not looking at the complete picture.

Tip Number 1 – Fix Your Feet Fix Your Knee

The movement of the knee joint is influenced by the movement of the ankle joint. To make sure you have proper biomechanics of your knee, you should first ensure that your foot has optimal movement. Start by testing your shoes. Position your foot on top of your shoe. You’ll want to make sure that the width and length of the shoe is big enough to accommodate the size of your foot and toes. If your toes are sticking out, then the shoe is too small. Change shoes.

Tip Number 2 – Remove Your Inserts

By default every running shoe has an insert that has arch support. If your knees already have a bowlegged tendency, creating additional supination of the foot will certainly worsen the condition. A quick tip would be to either remove the insert completely, or simply cut out the arch shape from the insert.