Stoppin' Knee Poppin'

Not the most technical way to refer to the occurrence of your knee hyper extending. Knee Hyper-extension occurs when the knee straightens (extends) beyond the normal range of motion when you shift your weight onto the more affected leg. Often it results in the knee "locking". Lots of Stroke Survivors who have the knee lock out experience a sudden and jarring "unlocking" that creates some fear and unbalance. I see this in lots of Stroke clients that I help.

When it is occurring I go through a specific set of assessments to determining what are the key 2-3 things going on to cause the "popping back". Once I figure out those key things, I am able to choose the exercises that will be the best medicine to treat the problem.

A good number of the things I assess, you can assess too! You can... B.Y.O.T... Be Your Own Therapist. By starting from the bottom, the foot, and moving up the leg you can look at each joint and see if there is something going on there to contribute to the issue. And, after that is done you will take into considerations other things such as impairments in your sensation and joint sense and if you were a person who tended toward knee hyper extension prior to your stroke. Some people are just "built that way". This issue doesn't mean that you will have to live with the uncontrolled knee hyper-extension, but you will probably have to put more of an emphasis on the strategies to help increase control in your knee. I made a guide for developing a plan of action to address knee hyper extension- you can get it here

If you want to ask me a question directly about your knee hyper-extension problem, just send and email to Shannon@thrivestroke.com