Full Transcript Introduction to Inner Knee Pain 0:00 Have you ever wondered why your golf swing, the thing that you love the most, is starting to feel more like a trap for your left knee? 0:06 You wake up the morning after a round, and there it is, right inside of your knee, this nagging ache. 0:13 Maybe it's sharp when you pivot, maybe if it was a dull throb that just doesn't go away. 0:18 And the worst part of it, you don't even know what you did wrong. 0:21 You just went and played golf, just did the things you loved to do. 0:25 Well, today, we're going to change that. 0:28 Because once you understand why your knee hurts, you can start doing something about it. 0:32 Hi, everybody. 0:33 I'm Dr. 0:34 Guyon Kuventrin. 0:35 And I am a medical doctor, and I have spent the last 15 years helping golfers get back to their game without surgery. 0:41 If you've been following along with me in this series, You know that we already talked about the meniscus in our last video. 0:46 That's the cushiony pad that's on the inside of your knee that takes a beating every time you take a swing. 0:51 If you haven't watched that one yet, we'll link to it below. 0:53 It's a great foundation for what we're covering today, because today we are talking about the MCL, or the medial collateral ligament. 1:00 This is one of those body parts that you never really think about it until it starts to scream at you. 1:05 And if you're a golfer with pain on your inside knee, This video is made for you, so let's get into it.
What the MCL Is and Where It Sits 1:15 Let's talk about what the MCL actually is in plain language. 1:18 No medical textbook needed, I promise. 1:21 Picture your knee as a door hinge. 1:23 It bends forwards and backwards, right? 1:25 Now that hinge joint needs something to keep it from wobbling from side to side. 1:29 That's where your ligaments come in. 1:31 Ligaments are tough, fibrous bands, kind of like really strong rubber bands that connect bone to other bones. 1:37 The MCL, or the medial collateral ligament, is just one of those rubber band. 1:41 It runs on the inside of your knee here, from the bottom of the thigh bone, to the top of you shin bone. 1:48 keep the inside of your knee stable and keep it from shifting when it's not supposed to. 1:53 Now, in my last video, we talked about the meniscus, which is a shock absorbing pad that sits on the inner side of the knee joint. 1:59 The MCL is on outside the joint on your inner leg. 2:03 It's a different structure, but it is in the same neighborhood. 2:06 See, meniskus here, MCl here. 2:08 And like noisy neighbors, when one of them has a problem, the other one often feels it too. 2:12 So when somebody tells me I have pain on the inside of my knee, one of the things that I'm immediately thinking about is that MCL. 2:19 And if they're a golfer, my ears really start to perk up. 2:23 Where is your pain? 2:24 Before we talk about why this happens in golf, I want you to do something for me. 2:28 I Want you To touch the Inside of your left knee. 2:30 The part of Your knee that's closest to your other leg and gently press along that inner edge. 2:35 Do you feel any tenderness there, maybe a little soreness when you press? 2:39 Or does it hurt when try to straighten your leg after it's been bent? 2:42 Maybe it aches after a full round of golf right in that same spot. 2:46 If you're nodding along with me yes right now, I see you.
How Golf Stresses the MCL 2:49 And that's exactly what MCL irritation feels like. 2:53 It's not this big dramatic thing. 2:55 Sometimes it's just a steady frustrating ache that builds up over weeks or months of doing what you love. 3:04 And the worst thing that I hear from patients is this. 3:06 I thought I just had to push through it. 3:08 Let me be very clear. 3:11 No, no, and no. 3:15 This is your body talking to you. 3:17 So let's learn what it's saying. 3:19 Here's the big picture. 3:20 this is the fundamental problem. 3:22 Golf and the golf swing is a rotational sport. 3:25 You're winding up your, body you're storing this energy and then you releasing it all at once to your hips, your torso and your arms. 3:32 It is beautiful when it works, but it is brutal on your joints when something goes wrong in that chain. 3:37 Your lead leg, that's your left leg if you're a right-handed golfer, acts like an anchor during the downswing. 3:43 Your whole body is rotating around it. 3:45 And while that is happening, your knee is being pulled in multiple directions all at once. 3:50 So there's a couple of causes for this. 3:51 Cause number one is what we call the valgus stress. 3:55 or the knee caving in. 3:57 Here's the big one. 3:58 During your downswing and your follow-through, watch what your left knee does. 4:01 In many golfers, especially beginners, but this also happens in experienced players as well, that knee will start to collapse slightly inwards towards 4:10 your other leg. 4:10 We call this a valgus stress. 4:13 Valgus is just a medical term that says angled in words or towards the middle of your body. 4:18 Every time your knee caves in like that, you are stretching that MCL, that little rubber band that's on the inside of your knees. 4:24 You do it once, sure, no big deal, but you do every swing for every round for weeks and months. 4:31 Now we're talking about developing a real problem. 4:34 Think about it like stretching this hair tie. 4:36 You pull it back a little bit, it bounces right back. 4:39 But if I keep pulling this over and over again in the same spot, eventually it's going to weaken. 4:43 It's gonna fray. 4:44 it won't stretch back, won' bounce back and eventually, It breaks. 4:48 Cause number two is something called forceful pivoting. 4:51 The transition from our backswing to your downswing is a violent transition and I mean that in most mechanical sense possible. 4:58 there is a rapid explosive reversal of force. 5:02 And right at that moment of transition, your lead knee has to handle a sudden changing cutting motion or a sharp forceful pivot. 5:10 If your body isn't ready for that, if your muscles are tight or your mechanics are off, that pivot can overstretch or even partially tear this MCL ligament. 5:19 This is actually very similar to what you may hear or see about in cutting sports like basketball or soccer. 5:24 Golf is not as extreme, but it sure is the same principle. 5:28 Now here's where we're going to get a little bit more technical, because this one is a little sneaky. 5:36 When your lead foot is planted firmly on the ground and your hips start to rotate powerfully towards your target, you create something called torque. 5:44 Torque is physics term meaning twisting force. 5:47 That twisting forces passes right through your knee. 5:50 Now your knees is not a great rotating joint. 5:52 Your hip is, your ankle is to some degree, but your as I liked to say earlier, is really a hinge joint. 5:59 It only likes to bend and straighten. 6:01 it does not like to twist. 6:02 So when you ask your knee to handle a rotation that should be coming through your hip or your ankle, it's gonna protest. 6:08 And your MCL right there on the inside is one of the things that takes the hit. 6:12 This is what we mean when we say that rotation is stolen from the knee. 6:16 If your hips are stiff, if your ankles are tight, your knee has no choice but to step in and compensate, and then it pays the price.
Self-Check for MCL Irritation 6:23 Cost number four is the quiet villain, overuse. 6:26 Let's talk about the one that nobody wants to hear about, repetition. 6:30 Now, you may not have done anything wrong in one single swing, but multiply that little damage over 100 swings per round, 6:37 multiple rounds per week, month after month. 6:39 That's what we call repetitive microtrauma. 6:42 Tiny little injuries that never fully heal before the next one comes along. 6:46 This is how chronic MCL pain develops. 6:48 It doesn't start with a pop, it starts with the whistle. 6:51 and a little stiffness here and little tenderness there and you ignore it and it gets louder and louder. 6:56 And now you're on YouTube looking at videos about why your knee hurts. 6:59 Alright, I want you to do this with me. 7:01 Pause the video if you need to but I think you can do it while you are watching. 7:05 Step number one is I what you stand up, lift your right foot off the ground and balance on your left leg only. 7:11 Keep your left foot flat on the ground and I want you to try to rotate your hips just very gently from left to right. 7:18 What did you notice? 7:19 Well there's a few things that you should be looking out for. 7:21 Number one, did your right left knee start to wobble or feel unstable? 7:25 Does your knee starts to collapse inwards towards your other knee when you try and rotate? 7:30 Do you feel like your knees is doing the rotation rather than your hip or your ankle? 7:35 If you answered yes to any of those, you found out something very important. 7:39 Your glutes, those big beefy muscles in your backside, and your ankle stabilizers are not doing their job. 7:45 And when those muscles check out, your right knee or your left knee, whichever one is your lead knee has to check in. 7:51 It comes right into the firing line. 7:53 Now, I hear you saying this, but This isn't about weakness in a bad way.
Quick Fixes to Reduce Knee Stress 7:59 It's about a pattern, a biomechanical habit, something that's crept in over years and months of playing without you even knowing it. 8:07 And now that you know it, we can talk about how to fix it So let's talk some quick fixes to reduce your MCL stress. 8:14 Now, these are not a substitute for seeing a doctor or physical therapist if you're already in pain, but they are smart, 8:21 simple things that can start doing today to start reducing the stress on your NCL. 8:26 Fix number one is flare your lead foot. 8:28 Now we've already discussed this in our last video, but I'm going to repeat it here because I think it is the single most impactful setup change that you 8:36 can make. 8:36 When you address the ball, point your left foot outwards towards your target by about 20 or 30 degrees. 8:44 Why does this work? 8:45 because it pre-rotates your ankle and hip so that they can absorb the torque of your swing before it ever reaches your knee. 8:52 Instead of you knee twisting to compensate, your ankles and your hip are already aligned and ready. 8:57 We call this creating a triple stack. 8:58 Your ankle, knee, hip, are all lined up properly. 9:02 It's a small change, but for your MCL, it is a game changer. 9:06 Fix number two is working on your hip mobility. 9:09 If your hips are stiff, your knee will suffer, period. 9:13 Remember that simple 90-90 stretch we talked about last time, the one where you sit on the floor with both knees bent at 90 degrees and you rotate your 9:21 torso gently over each hip? 9:22 This can significantly improve your rotational range of motion. 9:26 So all you have to do is try holding it for 60 seconds per side every morning. 9:30 Do this three weeks consistently and I think you're going to really notice a difference in how that lead leg feels during your follow through in your swing. 9:37 Fix number three, activate your glutes. 9:40 Remember that balance test we did earlier, the knee collapsing inwards a little bit? 9:44 The fix for that is gluteal activation. 9:48 Now I know, most of you golfers out there have had that phrase burned into your brains from when Tiger Woods was coming back from injury and struggling 9:55 with his swing. 9:56 Your gluteus medius is a muscle on the outer side of your hip and it is responsible for controlling the alignment of the knee. 10:03 So when it's weak or if it asleep, your other knee drifts in. 10:07 A simple banded sidewalk or clamshell exercise just a few minutes before your round. 10:13 This can help wake that muscle up, get it activating and keep your knee tracking properly. 10:18 If you don't know how to do this, your physical therapist or golf trainer can show you how do these movements, or a quick search online will find some 10:24 really great examples. 10:25 Fix number four. 10:26 Don't ignore early symptoms. 10:27 Now, I know this isn't a flashy fix, but it might be the most important one. 10:31 If your feeling that nagging inner knee pain after a round, take it seriously. 10:36 Rest for a day, and if it persists beyond a week or two, please go see a doctor. 10:41 The MCL has a really good ability to heal on its own, only if you give it a chance. 10:46 All right, I want to leave you with this. 10:48 Your knee is not betraying you. 10:50 It is protecting you, but it's doing it in the only way it knows how, by making sure you stop and pay attention. 10:56 The MCL is a tough little ligament that handles an enormous amount of stress in a golf swing, and when the joints are rounded, 11:02 your hip, ankle, aren't doing their job, it has to step up.
When to Get Help and Final Advice 11:06 And then it gives more than it should and more that it can. 11:09 Eventually, its going to start telling you. 11:11 Now you know what its saying, now you have a starting point. 11:14 Here is my standard disclaimer. 11:16 While I am a medical doctor, I'm not your medical Doctor. 11:19 Not yet anyway. 11:20 If this hurts or if your knee hurts, go see a professional in person. 11:24 The information here is meant to be educational. 11:26 It is not medical advice for your specific condition. 11:29 Now if this video helps you even a little bit, if it just gave you the name for what you're suffering from or what have you been feeling, 11:35 please hit that like button and subscribe if you want to keep learning about how your body works in the sport you love. 11:40 And also, leave me a comment below. 11:41 Where exactly is your knee pain? 11:43 How long have you had it? 11:44 I read each and every single one. 11:46 And if you haven't seen the last video on the meniscus, please make sure that you watch that one next. 11:51 It's gonna help give you a lot more context on what we were covering today. 11:54 Remember, take care of your body. 11:56 it's the only one you've got. 11:57 Alright, now get out there, keep chasing those birdies, and I'll see you in the next one!
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