Patient: Hey Ed, just started working with a local trainer and she’s having me do wall squats while I squeeze a ball between my knees. I’ve heard I shouldn’t do this exercises but I don’t know why, help!
Ed: Kudos for working with a trainer. I’m not a fan of this exercise because of the ball squeeze in between the knees. My thoughts on this: we tend to overuse our adductors anyway, especially in the presence of glute weakness. So we are feeding in to a dysfunctional movement pattern since it is well established that a valgus force at the knee is a risk factor for knee injury.
Think of strengthening as re-enforcing a movement pattern in to the nervous system so that when you squat in daily life, yours knees will track correctly, and not “inwards”. Let me know if you have any questions, thanks
~ Ed Deboo, PT
Physical Therapy, Bellingham, WA