Knee pain is preventable and treatable!
This program is designed to help those suffering from knee pain treat the foundation of their condition by restoring the ability to function from neutral spine and hip alignment. We adopt an 80% philosophy to helping those with hip and knee pain. 80% of the population are right lumbar loaders. Right lumbar loaders sit shifted to the left and stand with the right knee slightly bent. This overloads the low back and causes joint misalignments in the hips and knees that are predicable. If you are a right lumbar loader and have knee pain, we can help you get on a path for long-term injury management and prevention by conditioning you to perform your daily activities with symmetrical loading through the knees. Schedule a Posture Screen today to confirm our Healthy Knee Program perfectly matches your needs and goals.
What Causes Most Knee Pain?
Laterally loading the outside of your feet, knees and hips is the most common clinical finding with patients with reoccurring or chronic knee pain.
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Here is a breakdown on how collapsed upper back posture transfer all the way down to your knee.
- Collapsed upper back posture causes collapsed pelvis posture
- Collapsed pelvis posture compresses the hips and they externally rotate to get out of the way of the collapsed pelvis.
- You start loading the outside of your feet
- This causes tightness on the outside of the hip and alters the neutral tracking of the patellae (kneecap) within the groove of the femur.
- You now at risk for patellar tracking problems, runner’s knees, meniscal tear, muscles strains and torn ligaments.
But What If I Suffered a Knee Injury?
Those that suffer a knee injury from an accident or sport activity will experience a more complete rehabilitation adopting a neutral spine conditioning approach to their recovery. The reason being, they were likely lateral loaders prior to the injury that may have contributed to the injury.
Path to Chronic Knee Pain:
1. Collapse Posture
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Collapsed upper back posture causes low back extension (collapsed pelvis syndrome).
2. Lateral Loading
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The femurs have to externally rotate to get out of the way of an anteriorly collapsed pelvis. This results in lateral loading strategies in standing and walking.
3. Pain
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Lateral loading of the hips causes soft tissue imbalances at the knee and faulty tracking of the patella (kneecap).
Don’t let your knee pain turn into a medical diagnosis!
Chronic Knee Stiffness Cycle
Collapsed pelvis posture causes lateral loading in the hips, knees and ankles. This causes chronic lateral loading of the knee and results in an imbalance of muscle tone on the kneecap and chronic stiffness. We refer to this as chronic knee stiffness cycle. You rest the knee and symptoms calm down, but you did not address the foundation of the problem. When you try and return to fitness, sport and recreational activities your pain returns. The Healthy Posture System™ combines joint correction techniques with 6 levels of neutral spine conditioning to break this cycle by conditioning you to sit, stand, walk and function from healthy posture.
The HPC Applies Reverse Engineering:
1. Neutral Spine Conditioning
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If joint misalignment is the foundation of the problem, let’s start there. Your first month of the HPC will restore your ability to get into neutral spine alignment.
We will also teach you joint clearing techniques to make sure your low back, hips, knees and ankles are in neutral joint position before you start strengthening exercises.
2. Lifestyle Modifications
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Then we will explore every aspect of your daily routine to identify where you may need some help performing your home and work activities from neutral spine alignment.
We may suggest the following;
▪ Wedge Cushion – to help you sit upright without back support.
▪ Monitor Riser – to elevate your monitor 4 to 6″
▪ Body Pillow – to help you sleep in neutral spine alignment.
▪ Heel Wedge – to bring the floor up to you in sitting.
3. Functional Conditioning Exercises
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When you are demonstrating the ability to function from healthy posture, we will progress your strengthening program to meet your fitness, sport and recreation needs.
We will never progress you to the next level of the program until you demonstrate the ability to maintain neutral spine with every exercise at your current level of conditioning for 8 repetitions.
We will never progress you to the next level of the program until you demonstrate the ability to maintain neutral spine with every exercise at your current level of conditioning for 8 repetitions with a 3 second tempo of control.
That is what makes the us special. The science of the program makes us different.
Knowledge is Power!
Neutral Spine Alignment (NSA)
What is NSA?
Neutral Spine Alignment is when your pelvis, rib cage and skull are in alignment with each other in each plane of motion. All your vertebrae are aligned in a way that allow loads to transfer through each vertebra in a healthy way.
Neutral spine alignment is healthy posture.
Neutral spine conditioning is any fitness program that challenges your ability to perform every repetition of every exercise from neutral spine alignment. Read more about neutral spine conditioning in the next section.
Why is NSA so Important?
Function from collapsed posture is like driving your car with a flat tire. Things are going to breakdown prematurely. If you do not have healthy posture, you are wearing down your joints at an accelerated rate. Restoring your ability to functional from NSA restores your musculoskeletal system to its factory settings. No energy gets wasted, all your spinal vertebrae are involved in support and load transfer.
Every workout conditions you to move efficiently and meets your joint stability needs as well as your fitness needs.
- Every walk lubricates your hips and knees instead of breaking down one side more than the other.
- Every squat and lunge strengthen the low back symmetrically instead of reinforcing a faulty load that caused joint misalignments that overload a disc at one segment.
When your joints function from their neutral positions your muscles strengthen symmetrically. You maintain the joint integrity that allows for healthy aging.
NSA is a free fountain of youth that will not just keep you in the game, but it will have you performing like a champion throughout your life physically. You will also save tens of thousands of dollars because you suffered less injuries and needed fewer medical procedures.
How Do I Get Into NSA?
There are 4 principles of neutral spine alignment that you must learn to get into healthy posture. They are very precise and subtle movements that your nervous system needs time and supervision to properly integrate into movement. We could not explain its nuance in a video or paragraph.
We suggest you purchase a movement screen to get started on this powerful journey to healthy posture and symmetrical movement.
How Can a HPC Membership Help?
The HPC virtually guides you through 6 levels of neutral spine conditioning in combination with individually prescribed joint clearing techniques to restore your ability to function from neutral spine alignment. We will explore every aspect of your daily routine and get you on the path to healthy aging physically. If you have a knee pain condition you will be guided through the program by a physical therapist.
Here is what you will accomplish.
————— Get Started Membership —————
- Month 1: Functional Mobility Phase – This usually requires a month of functional mobility exercises and joint clearing techniques to help you start each day with access to neutral spine alignment. During this first month we will look at every aspect of your day and identify what lifestyle modification are needed to help you break your collapsed posture behaviors.
- Month 2: Neutral Spine Conditioning Phase – now that you can get into neutral spine alignment, we start challenging your ability to maintain it during daily activities.
- Month 3: Functional Conditioning Phase – we add resistances and modifications to each exercise to safely return you to your fitness program.
————– Maintenance Membership ————–
- Month 4+5: Functional Fitness Phase
- Month 6: Healthy Sport and Recreational Activities Phase
Neutral Spine Conditioning (NSC)
What is NSC?
Neutral Spine Conditioning (NSC) is when you condition yourself to perform 100% of your fitness, sport and recreational activities from neutral spine alignment. At this level of neutral spine conditioning your workouts and sports are no longer driving faulty loading patterns. This is the goal you want to reach for long term injury management, injury prevention and healthy aging.
Can NSC Prevent Injury?
Yes. When you can maintain neutral spine alignment during fitness and sport you have reached the pinacol of physical wellness. Your nervous system is now wired to function from neutral at a level that far exceeds your daily tasks.
You have broken the collapsed posture and joint misalignment cycle!
Conditioning yourself to perform your fitness, sport and recreational activities from healthy posture establishes a foundation for long-term injury management and prevention.
NSC is a free fountain of youth that will not just keep you in the game, but it will have you performing like a champion throughout your life physically. You will also save tens of thousands of dollars because you suffered less injuries and needed fewer medical procedures.
Can NSC Reduce Knee Pain?
Yes. If joint misalignment is the foundation of your knee pain. You must not just strengthen your abdominals; you have to neurologically condition yourself to maintain neutral pelvis during daily activities. We must restore healthy posture and condition you to perform your daily activities from neutral spine alignment before we progress to strengthening and fitness.
Any exercise performed from collapsed posture only strengthens the faulty loading patterns that are causing the misalignments causing your pain.
Todd Ball PT
If you are receiving massage therapy or manual therapy to treat the misalignment but not addressing the collapsed posture, you may be spinning your wheels. A HPC membership is the perfect complement to treatment protocols that focus on pain management/reduction.
If you are doing exercises to address knee pain but did not improve your posture, you may be strengthening the faulty loading patterns that are causing your pain.
How Do I Know if I Need NSC?
You could benefit from Neutral Spine Conditioning if;
- When you stand in front of the mirror your head is tilted
- If you cannot lift an arm overhead without pain
- Your shoulder blade hikes up when you lift your arm overhead
- You cannot place both hands behind your head
- You cannot lay on your back comfortably without head support
- You cross one leg habitually over the other in sitting
- You stand with your feet pointing outward
- You cannot squat to pick something off the floor without balance support
- You cannot go up or down stairs without balance support
- You cannot stand on one foot for more than 10 seconds
- You wear out the outside of your shoes quicker than the inside
How Can a HPC Membership Help?
The HPC virtually guides you through 6 levels of neutral spine conditioning in combination with individually prescribed joint clearing techniques to restore your ability to function from neutral spine alignment. We will explore every aspect of your daily routine and get you on the path to healthy aging physically. If you have an active back pain condition you will be guided through the program by a physical therapist.
Here is what you will accomplish.
————— Get Started Membership —————
- Month 1: Functional Mobility Phase – This usually requires a month of functional mobility exercises and joint clearing techniques to help you start each day with access to neutral spine alignment. During this first month we will look at every aspect of your day and identify what lifestyle modification are needed to help you break your collapsed posture behaviors.
- Month 2: Neutral Spine Conditioning Phase – now that you can get into neutral spine alignment, we start challenging your ability to maintain it during daily activities.
- Month 3: Functional Conditioning Phase – we add resistances and modifications to each exercise to safely return you to your fitness program.
————– Maintenance Membership ————–
- Month 4+5: Functional Fitness Phase
- Month 6: Healthy Sport and Recreational Activities Phase
