Knee locking is the brief locking of the knee muscles in one position. Normally knee lock happens when you either straighten or bend your knees. You will hear a knee popping sound when you try to move your leg which is due to the lock knees when standing.
Knee lock
Body movement is possible due to multiple joints. The major joint responsible for the movement of the legs is the knee joint. It is made up of cartilage, bone, ligaments, and tendons. If you are wondering why my knee hurts when I bend it and straighten it. It is due to the damage in the knee joint leading towards instability and knee locking.
Types of knee lock
There are two types of Knee locking
- True Knee locking
This type of knee lock occurs due to damage to cartilage or bones. In truly looking you are unable to straighten your knees for a few minutes. It happens if you lock knees when standing.
- Pseudo knee locking
It is temporary muscle pain that occurs due to the damage to muscles surrounding your knee. When there is some injury in the knee muscles this type of knee locking takes place.
What happens when you lock your knees when standing
Following are some of the symptoms that happen when someone locks knees when standing.
After locking knees, the first thing you will notice is chronic stiffness in the knee. You will find it nearly impossible to bend or straighten your knee. You may also experience pain behind knee or around the knee.
Other symptoms of knee locking include
- A problem in straightening knee fully
- knee popping
- Intermittent pain
- Swelling around The knee
- Feeling a bump around the knee.
Should you lock your knees when standing
No, you should not lock your knees when standing. But why unlocking your knees when standing is so essential? Because locking knees exaggerate the curves of the lower back. It stresses your spine and back, resulting in stiffness and contraction in the spine and lower back muscles. The pain in the lower back makes it very difficult to perform any core muscle exercise.
We hear every day that a good body posture helps in strengthening the core and rescues from back pain issues. When the knees are locked while standing it stretches the abdominal muscles making core contraction difficult. with loose abdominal muscles, you can easily perform core exercises.
Why should you not lock your knees when standing
while you lock knees when standing it creates tension in the quadriceps muscles located on the front of your thighs, resulting in pulling of the knee cap. The knee cap pulling against the femur bone creates joint compression. Due to the compression friction is created leading to the reduced movement of the kneecap and femur bone.
If you lock knee when standing it can even cause damage to the cartilage that is present under the kneecap. The constant pressure and stress on the knee bones also reduce blood flow. The blood is accumulated in the lower limbs and does not flow toward the heart.
The human body is just like a machine it can take pressure according to its strength. When you put excessive pressure on the knees it will only lead to stiffness and improper movement.
Why is it bad to lock your knees when standing
You should never lock your knees when standing. Since locking knees results in stiffness and inability to move forward and backward. By locking knees high stress is built on the knees tensing up the quadriceps muscles, present on the thighs.
If you are wondering how to unlock knee joint by yourself then the correct knee posture is “soft knee”. You can build a soft knee posture while standing. With soft knee posture neither your knees are locking nor bending.
Try out peacefully standing with a soft knee posture. All you have to do is stand on the four corners of each foot. The glutes and quads should not contract. The spine and head should be straight and up, towards the sky. Your arms should also be relaxed. This will improve the blood and fluids flow in your body.
Also read : Cankles vs. Normal Ankles
Conclusion
The knee lock can be for a few minutes or more than that all you have to do is rest at the very moment. But afterward, make sure you work on your standing posture to relax your knee muscles and for better blood flow to your body.
