Where does it hurt?

This is just a short story - where you feel the pain may not be where the problem is!

I had a client who was complaining of pains in their knees.  Sometimes they were finding it difficult sometimes to walk.  The pain was in the knees.  They had been to the doctor who thought that there might be "some arthritis" in the knee.  "It was to be expected at that age!"

I suggested that a massage session might help to release tightness in the surrounding muscle tissue.  This would reduce compression forces coming through the knee which in turn should make knee movements easier.  At the very least, they might as well enjoy a massage session!

After doing a short health screen, I then had a look at them.  I asked them to stand up in their bare feet.  I looked at how they were standing.  The first thing that struck me was nothing to do with the knees but with their feet.  Their feet were pronated  and it was quite noticeable!  (By pronated, I mean their feet were rolling inwards so there was more weight on their big toes.   The inner arch of their feet was closer to the floor than one would have liked.)

I asked if anyone had ever made a comment about their feet.  They said "no". 

I then asked them to look at their feet.  Could they see that their feet were tending to roll inwards?  Did they feel their bodyweight was more on the inside (big toe side) of their feet?  Could they shift the weight more to the outside of the foot?  What happened with the knee?  Did it feel better?

Basically the position of the feet was stressing the knee.  So the whole time they were focused on their painful knees, the "problem" was the position of their feet! 

This was a case of looking at the whole picture because as the saying goes "the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone, the..."  Pain is likely to show up at the "weakest link"!