Knee pain

Knee pain rarely starts in the knee.

Most knee pain we see is the body telling you that something above or below the knee has stopped doing its share of the work — the hip, the ankle, the foot mechanics — and the knee, stuck in the middle, is taking the load that should have been distributed across the whole leg.

What we see in knee pain

The knee sits between the hip and the ankle. Its job is to transfer load efficiently between them. When the surrounding joints lose mobility or the surrounding muscles underperform, the knee compensates and gets irritated.

The patterns we most often see:

Tendon-related pain (patellar or quadriceps tendon) — localized discomfort above or below the kneecap, especially during dynamic activities. Usually a load problem upstream.

Ligament injuries (ACL, MCL, LCL) — affect knee stability; result from pivoting, impacts, awkward landings. Some require surgical evaluation, and we’ll tell you when that’s the call.

Patellofemoral (front-of-knee) pain — relates to how the hip and thigh muscles distribute load, ankle mobility limitations, and repetitive stress. The kneecap is along for the ride.

Meniscus injuries — shock-absorption problems between the thigh and shin. Usually twisting or repetitive loading.

Common contributors across all of these: prolonged sitting, limited hip mobility, weak glutes, poor foot mechanics, sudden training-intensity increases.

How we evaluate knee pain

Every patient at Move Better starts with a Movement Paradigm Evaluation. We watch how you breathe, how you stabilize, and how you hinge — three foundational patterns that show up in nearly every knee case.

In knee pain we usually find:

• A hinge pattern that loads the knees instead of the hips. Squats, stairs, lunges — all of them happen at the knee instead of being driven from the hips and glutes.
• Brace patterns that change how the leg tracks under load.
• Foot mechanics or ankle mobility limits that send the kneecap somewhere it shouldn’t go.

Read more about the Movement Paradigm →

How we treat knee pain

Treatment for knee pain typically combines:

• Movement retraining — usually centered on the hinge and how load travels through the leg.
• Chiropractic adjusting — knee, hip, ankle, and foot, where the kinetic chain is stiff or stuck.
• Soft tissue work — releasing the tissues that have been holding the compensation.
• Targeted strengthening — glutes, hamstrings, calves, and intrinsic foot muscles, depending on what we find.
• Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) — when there’s tendon involvement that’s not responding to load management alone.

We coordinate with massage therapists, acupuncturists, imaging centers, and other healthcare providers when a knee needs more than we offer.

Why early matters

Unaddressed knee pain creates compensatory patterns that show up in the low back, hips, and ankles. The body finds a way to keep moving, but the cost is paid somewhere — and often by the time the original knee pain finally calms down, something else hurts.

Early intervention is cheaper than chasing those compensations later. Restoring efficient movement at the knee usually means the rest of the leg gets to work the way it’s supposed to.