How to STOP “Clicking” Knees (for Ages 50+)

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In this episode, Farnham’s leading over-50’s physiotherapist, Will Harlow, reveals tips and exercises to help solve clicking knees!

These exercises can be done over a period of a few months for a significant reduction in clicking from arthritis or patella issues for most people.

If you’re suffering from nagging knee pain that hurts in the morning and stops you from walking as far as you’d like, you can take our free knee pain guide – which will give you 5 expert tips to put a stop to knee pain at home – by visiting here: https://ht-physio.co.uk/knee-pain-guide-download/

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If you’re over-50 with a painful problem in the Farnham, Surrey area, you can learn more about how Will Harlow and HT Physio can help you overcome a painful problem here: https://ht-physio.co.uk/

**Any information in this video should not be used as a substitute for individual medical advice. Please seek advice from your local healthcare professional before taking action on the information in this video.** Full policy here: https://ht-physio.co.uk/injury-disclaimer/

if you’re concerned about clicking knees then this video is going to reveal the two causes of clicking knees and how to stop it if you don’t know who I am my name is will harow and I’m the over 50s specialist physio here at HT physio in farum and today we’re going to be talking about how to stop clicking knees now clicking knees is really really common and the main area that the knees click is around the kneecap so it’s usually around the front of the knee that people notice their clicking so on the knee model this is your shin bone this is your thigh bone and this is your kneecap and when things move correctly as you bend and straighten your knee your kneecap should directly move up and down within this little groove on the femur the thone now in an imperfect world what happens is the kneecap doesn’t always move perfectly up or down within the uh the groove on the femur and this is one of the major causes of clicking knees so this can happen to anyone it isn’t just 50 plus specific I’ve seen people as young as the age of about 13 or 14 who are suffering with painful clicky knees and it’s because their kneecap isn’t moving directly in the groove as it was designed so we call this patella Mal tracking and this is the first major cause of clicking knees now the second major cause of clicking knees which also happens around the front of the knee is arthritis behind IND the kneecap so again what this causes is the patella and the femur not to move on top of each other correctly and then that can cause clicking and popping now what this is not is it’s not your bones rubbing together so don’t worry if your bones were rubbing together You’ have much too much pain to be doing anything active so for most people who’ve got clicking knees they can still exercise but they just don’t like the sound or maybe it hurts a little bit when their knees click and the cause of that is usually either Mal tracking or a bit of arthritis behind the kneecap now thankfully for both of these problems we can often improve it with physiotherapy exercises so in today’s video I’m going to show you three of my best exercises to fix clicking knees and stop patella Mal tracking and if these exercises are suitable for you please do give them a go if they cause pain or if you’ve had a review from a healthcare practitioner and they said don’t do them then definitely avoid them but otherwise let’s have a look at these exercises and hopefully they can help you to feel a bit better so the first exercise I’ve got for you and this is one that’s great to help with the tracking of the kneecap or the patella I just call patella guidance and it’s a great exercise for most people who have clicking knees just to get them started so what you want to do is you want to start off sitting up against either your back rest or on your sofa and you’re going to need a rolled up towel like this one just to prop under the knee that we’re going to work now it’s important important to note that the muscles that attach to the kneecap are your quadricep muscles so the ones at the front of the thigh so for this exercise we’re going to be working our quadriceps because if they pull correctly the kneecap is going to move directly up the groove on the femur but if they’re not pulling correctly then you’re going to end up with some of this side to side kneecap movement that causes the clicking so this exercise is really simple I’m going to show you the easy way first and then we’re going to use a more specific bit of guidance so the easy thing we’re going to do is push down into the towel and straighten your knee just gently and you should feel that these muscles here the quad muscles start to activate you might find it easier if you pull your toes up as well and then relax like that and even though you won’t feel too much happening at the knee cap it there will be some gliding up and down now if your kneecap is not moving correctly what’s happening is usually the kneecaps going laterally which means it’s going outside okay so what we’re going to do to make this exercise more effective is we’re going to put one set of fingers on the outside of the kneecap and just gently guide the kneecap in a couple of millimeters now you have to start off with your thigh relaxed so relax the thigh then push the kneecap then squeeze and keep that pressure on and what you’re doing here is you’re guiding the kneecap slightly medially at the same time as Contracting okay so it’s a very gentle way to encourage the kneecap to move in the correct way and what this should do is it should bias some of the quads on the inside of the leg Which pull it medially without allowing these ones here to pull it laterally okay so it helps if you’ve got a kneecap that tracks laterally to push it IM medially then you’re going to end up with it central okay simple as that so you’re going to just put that pressure on and relax again put the pressure on squeeze and relax pressure on squeeze and relax and I recommend most people do this about 10 to 15 times in a row just do it little and often throughout the day that tends to be the best way I would do a minimum of three sets per day and you should end up with stronger quads which is only a good thing and also better patella tracking over a number of months if you do this consistently so there’s a second cause of patella Mal Tracking not just the quads but the hips can cause it as well so if you don’t have strength in your glute muscles namely your gluteus medius and your gluteus Minimus your leg rolls inwards when you walk and then that can cause the clicking knees as well so I’m going to show you an exercise to strengthen your gluteus medius and glutitis Minimus but before I do that it’s really important to note that 88% of people who watch these videos have not yet subscribed to the channel so if that’s you go down subscribe to the channel and and then you’ll be the first to hear about our new videos when they come out anyway let’s have a look at this exercise so this is called the clam with a band and I’m going to use a resistance band to make this exercise work so you can get these pretty cheaply online and all we’re going to do is we’re going to start off by slipping it around our legs just around the point of the knees and you want it quite tight around your knees to begin with now this Exercise Works by lying on your side on a nice comfortable surface either a mat on the floor or your bed and you’re going to start off by Rolling further forward than feels natural and just putting this top hand on the bed like this and I should note now that this one at the top is the leg that we’re going to be working so you’re in this position you’re rolled forward you’ve got your knees together you’ve got your ankles together like that we’re going to keep everything still and then we’re just going to lift that top knee up towards the ceiling hold for a second and then come back down now you’ll notice that this is actually a really small movement that I’m doing here and I’m doing that on on purpose because I don’t want to roll backwards I want to keep my body weight forwards and just lift that top knee and then back down and the area I can feel this is here so it’s at the top of the hip and that’s exactly where we want it because that is your gluteus medius and Minimus and if those are working they’re controlling the alignment of the knee as we walk and as we come downstairs and things like that and then we’ll get less clicking knees as a result so it’s like that and then back down if you can’t do this with the resistance band you can try it without but for most people adding a resistance band is a great way to accelerate that strengthening process so basically just keep doing that until you start to get some fatigue so for most people it’s about 10 or 15 repetitions when they start and do that a couple of times per day if you can do that over a period of a few months you will get better mechanics in your lower leg for most people because most people to be honest are quite weak there as well and then the final exercise I’ve got for you here to help you with your patella tracking and stop those clicking knees is a sit to stand with a band now to make this exercise work again we want to be using that same band you’re using for the clam and you want it around your knees in exactly the same place now the toughest thing for people with this exercise is finding a chair or a seat that’s the right height so you want something that’s raised you up probably just above 90° at the knees so nice high chair or maybe the side of a bed if you’ve got a raised up bed would be good and if you don’t have that at home you can build up a chair with a couple of pillows just to sort of get you started so you want a nice firm high surface you want to shuffle towards the edge like this and you want your feet flat on the floor in front of you okay and what you’ll notice here is I’m keeping my knees apart if I was to relax the band would pull me in like this so what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to fight against the band and the reason we’re doing this is because these muscles out here the same ones we worked before are the ones that do this movement and they are the ones that are responsible for the alignment of your thigh and that is what causes clicking knees in many people so you want to keep your knees apart you want to put your feet in a position where you feel you can do a sit to stand you’re going to use uh no hands for this so Hands Across chest going to bring your weight forward and stand up without letting the band pull your knees in and then same thing on the way down but do it really slowly fighting against that band now the reason I’ve got you quite high up is because if people have clicking knees or arthritis behind their kneecap the lower down they go the more likely they are to get clicking and pain so we want it to be as high as possible to not get the clicking and not get the pain in the knee but to still allow the exercise to take place so for me that’s about here so I’m up and then very slowly back down and on the way back down that’s where you have to fight harder to keep those knees apart because the band wants to do this okay so you want to keep your knees apart come forward and up we’re sort of pushing through the heels as we go and then slowly back down now a common mistake people make with this exercise is they try on the way back down to bend the knees without sticking the bum out so you definitely want to have some hip hinge like that and watch all the time that you’ve got that consistent space between your knees because if you switch off for a moment that will start to happen and that’s going to make the problem worse so with this exercise cuz it’s a bit tougher you don’t need to do quite so many so I recommend most people start with just doing five in a row several times a day as long as that feels comfortable and do that over a period of a few months and it will get stronger and the clicking knees will improve as well so those are three of my favorite exercises to stop clicking knees I hope that video has been useful to you if it has please do subscribe to the channel and if you want to get more from me please pick up a copy of my book it’s called thriving Beyond 50 and you can find it on Amazon using the link below it’s perfect for anyone age 50 plus who wants to remain active healthy and mobile as they get older anyway thank you so much for watching I appreciate your time and I’ll see you on the next video