4 Simple Fixes for Knee Pain in Golfers

Golf Round Starts Strong 0:00

Tell me if this is something that sounds familiar to you. You stepped up to the first tee box in the morning feeling great. For 11 maybe even 12 holes you were in rhythm, you are competitive, and you're playing the round that you came for, the type of golf round, that keeps you coming back for more and reminds you why you love the game. All the while, you're quietly collecting your playing partner's money, one skin at a time. Fun day, right? Then, your knee starts talking. And by the 14th hole, it's not talking, It's nagging at you.

Your stance has now changed, Your tempo has changed and the back nine that you'd been looking forward to all week? It is not there anymore. Now you are also losing all the money you just won from your buddies. on the front nine, sucks. Most golfers tell me the same thing. Doc, I think it's just my age. I'm probably just playing too much. But what I want you to understand right from the start is this. It is not usually just your age, in most cases, it is one specific correctable mistake in the way that you move.

Now in this video, i'm going to show you exactly what that mistake is, why it silently destroying your lead knee, and I am going give you some precise steps that can take to fix it.

Why Knee Pain Shows Up on the Back Nine 1:07

and you can do this all starting with your very next round. My name is Dr. Guy Improvedrin, I am a medical doctor and I have helped thousands of golfers over the past 15 years eliminate their knee pain without having to resort to invasive surgery. I'm a board certified sports medicine physician and i'm going to explain this in plain language but from a doctor's point of view so that way you understand what's truly happening inside your knee. Before we get started, there is one quick but very important note.

Everything here is presenting as general education. This is not personalized medical advice. So if you do have significant pain or swelling or instability, please go see your own physician. Now stay to the end because I'm going to give you some very specific changes that you can make and you could make them today. Let's start with the basics. Think of your knee like a strong door hinge. It bends and it straightens, right? What's inside that hinge? Well, there's a couple of different things. There is cartilage, the smooth padding on the ends of the bones, kind of like the shiny white end of a chicken bone when you have fried chicken, that provides padding.

There's also these meniscus, which are these rubbery shock absorber types of things that sit in between the bones. If you look at them in cross tension, they kind of look like this, where they have this fibrous ring and then they're kind jelly on the inside or rubber

Knee Anatomy and Golf Swing Stress 2:23

on inside. Then you also have ligaments. They look this or they look, like they connect bone to bone. These are strong straps that hold everything together and keep it stable. And then finally, there's muscles and tendons. Muscles and tendon, what they do is they help the knee move. And when they're strong, they helped protect the need joint. Now here's the key insight for golfers. When you swing, your weight has to shift from your back foot to your front foot. Your front knee ends up having to manage a significant amount of rotation force.

If your hips and your glutes and feet are working correctly and in concert, that force is shared over the entire body. But if they are not, this guy, absorbs it all alone on every single swing. So this is why I tell every golfer that I see a bad knee is rarely just about the knee. It's about how your whole body moves. And the numbers back this up. There are over 17 million golfers over the age of 50 in the United States. Research shows us that roughly 18% of those patients or people will develop symptomatic knee arthritis or pain in their knee related to arthritis.

This is very similar in number to people that participate in high impact sports like tennis or running or even basketball. So golf sometimes gets a bad rap because it doesn't look that demanding. It looks like it's low impact. But the biomechanics tell us a very different story. So what is the number one mistake that golfers make that makes their knee pain worse? Here it is in plain language. Twisting your whole body hard over a lead foot that doesn't move. Sounds simple, right? Your upper body turns, your hips rotate, Your shoulders drive through, but then your lead is completely locked to the ground.

Your heel, toe, everything. And when that happens, something in the middle has to absorb all the rotational force.

The Main Swing Mistake That Hurts the Lead Knee 4:11

Can you guess what that one thing is? Yep. It's your knee. And here is what breaks down when that happens repeatedly. The meniscus, again, the one here, they get pinched and torn because that cushion is not built for the sheer stress of rotation. the MCL, ligament here on the inside, that will get irritated or it can get overstretched. The cartilage on the inside of your joint, again the white shiny smooth glass ice-like surface, it wears down faster becoming irregular and accelerating arthritis.

Now peer-reviewed biomechanics research, these are the scientists that study how our bodies move and the forces that it has to deal with show that your front knee can take more stress during a golf swing than it does when you're running or when your climbing the stairs. So you may be able to walk 18 holes and feel fine, but 70 full swings over a walked lead foot, that is going to accumulate damage fast. And this is the knee killer in golf. The good news is it's completely fixable. Are you ready?

We have four fixes for you. Let's go. Number one fix is fix your swing mechanics. Turn your lead foot out at your setup, rotate your front foot outward by 20 to 30 degrees instead of having them point directly in front of you. What this is going to do is this allows your hip room to clear through impact and it dramatically reduces the rotation demand of the knee. Number two is let your heel lift. As you follow through, allow your lead heel to rise naturally and let you foot turn with your body. Everything should rotate together, your foot, knee, hip, torso.

Remember your knee is a hinge, it's only designed to go backwards and forwards. It's not meant to spin like a top or rotate. So give it the permission it needs to move the way that it's supposed to. Next is initiate the downswing from your hips, not your shoulders. Remember, move your hip first, then your torso, than your arms. If your shoulder's raised ahead of your head, that mismatch of rotation lands directly on your lead knee every single time.

Four Fixes to Reduce Knee Load 6:07

You have to think of you hips opening like a revolving door. They have be smooth and sequenced. Your knee is not the pivot point of the golf swing, your HIP is. Fix number two is a pre-round warm-up. Most golfers I play with do the same thing. They go straight from the car, they pay their greens fees, go to the bar to get something to drink, and then they hit the tee. I'm guilty of that sometimes, but your knee ends up paying for that on the back nine. I'm going to give you three moves that can be done in 10 minutes before you're around, probably even faster.

Number one, march in place for a minute. Really easy. All you have to do is march and place. It helps get blood moving into the joint and it helps activate your hip flexors before your first swing. it's going help prep you for movement. number two is lateral leg swings. Do 15 repetitions per side. Hold on to the end of the cart or a guard railing. What you do is you just swing your leg in and out like a pendulum in a wide arc. This is going to fire up something called the glute medius. It's one of those butt muscles on the back outside of your hip and it is the single most important stabilizer for your lead knee.

The last one you're going do during your warm up is a slow hip focus practice swing. Just do 10 reps here. No ball. Take 10 deliberate swings, focusing entirely on initiating the movement from your hips. Pause at where your impact would be. Feel how your glutes are engaged. feel how the weight is transferring to a rotating, not locked lead foot. 10 minutes in the parking lot can be the difference between finishing strong on 18 holes or limping to the scores table. Fix number three is off course strength.

If your glute muscles, the ones on your butt and your quadriceps, those ones in front of your thigh are weak, your knee compensates on every single swing. And that happens every round and every season and it adds up. So I'm going to give you three exercises here. Do these twice a week. This should be done in under 20 minutes per session. Exercise number one is glute bridges. This is going to be done three sets of 15 repetitions. Lie on your back with your knees bent, drive your hips towards the ceiling or towards a sky, squeezing at the top.

When you're squeezing up the hop, hold it for two seconds, then lower back down slowly. What this is gonna do is it's going build the posterior chain or the muscles on the backside of your body that are your primary knee protection system. Exercise number two is step ups. Again, three sets, 12 repetitions per leg. Step onto a low box or a step. Drive through your heel, bringing your opposite knee up to hip height, like kind of like walking up the stairs. Then step back down with control. What this does is this builds the single leg stability that your body demands at impact.

And lastly, resistance band hip abductions. again, 3 sets 15 repetitons per legs. What you're going to do is you are going put an resistance band around your ankles or your knees. You are gonna stand tall and you gonna lift one leg out to the side in a slow and controlled manner. What this does is this isolates that gluteus medius muscle again and it helps directly prevent the lead knee from collapsing inwards during your downswing.

Warning Signs and When to See a Doctor 9:08

Now I've linked a recommended exercise band in the description that you can buy. It's pretty inexpensive and can use this anywhere. Fix number four is recovery. There are three habits that are non-negotiable if you're struggling with knee issues. Number one is ice within 30 minutes of finishing. If your knee feels warm or achy, 15 minutes ice reduces the inflammatory load before it compounds overnight. But remember, make sure that you are putting something to protect your skin in between the cold substance and your body, like a towel or a t-shirt.

Number two, stretch your hamstrings and your hip flexors after your round. This can be done in five minutes. Why is this important? It's because if those muscles that are in the back of your hips and legs, the posterior chain muscles, if they're tight, that increases the compressive force on your knee with every single step. And lastly is prioritize sleep. Cartilage repair happens actually during deep sleep, so if you have poor recovery, you're gonna end up creating cumulative joint stress that adds up fast over full seasons.

Now the four fixes I just gave you will help the majority of golfers with early to moderate knee pain, but I do wanna be straight with you and be honest. Some of you that are watching this video have more damage that goes and it's gonna go beyond what mechanics and strengthening can address on their own. So here are some red flags to look out for. You need to go see a sports medicine physician or an orthopedist if you have any of the following. Pain that does not resolve within 48 hours of rest, walking, catchling, or a stuck feeling of a knee, which often tells us that there's a meniscus problem, the knee giving way or giving out, which tells us that there may be a ligament problem, swelling that keeps coming back every time you return to the course, or pain that wakes you up at nighttime.

If any of those apply, do not try to manage around it. Please go get a proper evaluation. Now in my practice, I use real-time ultrasound imaging to assess the joint as it actually functions. And I help build a plan around that. It's an around to your specific anatomy. it's not just a generic protocol. Now I'll be dedicating a full video later to advanced treatment options for golfers whose knees haven't responded to conventional care. So subscribe if you don't want to miss it. All right. I know that was a lot, so let me bring this home.

Number one, your knee hurts because it absorbing forces that belong to hip, glutes, and feet.

Key Takeaways and Closing Advice 11:23

Number two, the number one mistake that golfers makes their knee pain worse is twisting hard over a lead foot that doesn't move. Fix that one habit and you immediately reduce the load on your knee. Number three, turn the leadfoot out. Let the heel lift and lead with your hips. Four, 10 minutes of warmup, twice weekly strength work and the recovery trifecta are your long game insurance policy. And number five, if you have red flags that apply, please get a precise evaluation. Don't just keep guessing.

You've worked really hard to play the game well. Your knee should not be the reason that you had to stop. Now if this video helped you, Please help me out and subscribe. Every week I post evidence-based content for serious golfers who want to stay on the course for the long haul. And tell me here in the comments, where does your knee hurt when you play? Is it on inside? is it the outside? In the front? in in back? Do you something specific that want me to talk about? Leave it in comments. This is Dr.

Guy and Bhuvendran. Take care of your knees and they will take care your game. Keep following this page and I will see you pain free in the fairway.