I’m looking for some way of stretching my glute and working on my hip external rotation (femur external rotation) without torquing my knee. The seated 90-90, figure-4 (pretzel) stretch, and standing 90-90 on a box all seem to cause too much pain in my knee and I can feel it torquing way too much. I feel like if I try to push my end range of motion I’ll get an ACL tear.
Thanks for any advice!
Hip external rotation:
Kneeling rockbacks
Split-stance kneeling adductor mobs
Split-stance hip swivels
Hip airplanes
Hip internal rotation:
Kneeling glute mobs
Lying knee-to-knee-pull-ins
Prone windshield wipers
it sounds like you need to work on whatever is upsetting your knee. in stretches you aren’t supposed to push them to the point where something feels like it will rip… you are meant to try and coax it to relax longer…
have you tried foam rolling and releasing any knots you have?
i’m wondering in particular whether you might find knots just above your knees on the inside and the outside. releasing that might help take the strain off that region when you do your stretches. otherwise, you might find that rolling your glutes and around your hips helps loosen things up that feel like they need to be stretched.
I have been diligently foam rolling before stretching but I believe I’ll need to upgrade to lacrosse balling the area.
It would be interesting to know if there is some test that could differentiate between glute/hip tightness versus knee and I imagine IT band tightness.
phil armitage: thanks for the ideas, they will allow me to gain external rotation without knee involvement!
if you aren’t finding tension that alleviates with foam rolling and / or tight points that will release with sustained pressure then try finding something that you can dig a bit deeper into the muscles, yup.
maybe…
all those areas are tight??? it isn’t that hard to roll them separately and figure out which muscles are tight, is it??