Hinge at Your Hips (Relax Your Quads)
When we sit in a chair, our bent knees shorten both the hamstrings and calf muscles. Then, when standing and walking around, we have a harder time straightening the leg which causes us to overuse the fronts of our thighs (quadricep muscles) and ends up creating too much tension in the knees.
So this exercise is intended to help us stretch the hamstrings, straighten the legs, and release the quadricep engagement that may be causing knee pain:
Put your back up against a wall/vehicle and walk your feet forward. This puts your hips behind the feet.
With legs straight, hinge at the hip tilting your body forward. Hands on the pelvis helps to feel the part that should be tilting forward, rather than the lower back. You can also use the sensation of your butt sliding up the wall. Once the pelvis/butt stops moving, you’ve reached the limit of your hamstring length, so don’t tilt any farther or you will be flexing from the spine instead. (Rounding over from the spine is fine to stretch the back, but first try to keep the back straight to identify what’s happening in the legs)
From this hinged position, rest your hands on your thighs and try to relax your quadriceps. Allow your kneecaps to drop down toward your shins. Sometimes, to access a release of your kneecaps down, you have to first flex your quadriceps harder and intentionally lift the kneecaps up. Then let go and let the kneecaps drop.
Come to stand vertically, off the wall, and see if you can keep you hips back over your heels with your kneecaps down/quads relaxed.
