Knee pain is a common complaint by many people on a daily basis. Most knee pain is caused by “wear and tear” due to poor mechanics with your day to day movements. When you maintain proper mechanics when squatting, kneeling, standing up, or sitting down, the risk of you getting knee pain decreases.
When kneeling or squatting down to the floor, whether it be to lift something up or just to tie a shoe, knee position is important. Your knees should never go in front of your toes when in a kneeling or squatting position. This puts a lot of force and strain on your knees and puts you at risk of injury, especially if you have any weight in your hands. To assist with this, your feet also need to be flat on the floor. Going onto your toes, which is a common occurrence with most people, encourages the knees to shift forward.
You also need to pay attention that your knees do not track inward toward each other. Going into what is called a “valgus position” in which the knees track toward each other puts a significant amount of pressure on your medial knee. Long term, this could mean increased degeneration and possible tears in the medial meniscus or cartilage. This is also important to pay attention to when standing up and sitting down from chairs
