Kneeling - whether it's during housework, weeding the garden, during a mass or an engagement - seems to be a trivial activity and in some situations it is even obvious. Meanwhile, kneeling down, or even falling to your knees suddenly, can have unpleasant he alth consequences. So how do you kneel so as not to get injured?
Kneelingmany people associate only with the mass in the church. Meanwhile, we kneel as often as we do everyday activities. Some people clean in this position, others knelt and tie their shoes, others kneel, weeding plants in their backyard garden for hours.
Regardless of the reason for which we are kneeling, it is worth remembering that this is not a physiological position, and prolonged kneeling or kneeling in an inappropriate way can significantly affect your he alth.
Kneeling: how to kneel and kneel he althily?
Experts warn that kneeling can overload the knee area - especially if it is prolonged and often repetitive. Usually, short-term overloads, such as washing floors on the knees, do not have serious consequences. Nevertheless, if we have to kneel, it is better to do it on both knees so that the weight of the body is distributed evenly, which avoids unfavorable position of the hips or spine. On the other hand, knee overload may occur as a result of prolonged kneeling, e.g. during ceremonies.
The position in which we kneel is also important. It is best to keep the right angle of the knee bend. Chronic deep flexion (and, for example, buttock support on your feet) is not a good position for your knees. This setting puts too much pressure on the posterior horns of the lateral and medial menisci, which can cause chronic damage and overload of these structures.
Lek. Karolina Stępień, a specialist in orthopedics and traumatology of the musculoskeletal system from the Carolina Medical Center, explains that this is a problem noted in the scientific literature in the context of Asian cultures, where there is much more such damage, because people spend a lot of time in this position.
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Kneeling: how to protect your knees from overload?
People who have to kneel for a long time can protect their knees. How? - If we do work on our knees that we do every daywe do not practice, it is worth protecting the knees by putting a shock absorber (pad) - says the drug. Karolina Stępień. - Sometimes we consult patients who undertake one-time, long-term activity on their knees, e.g. weeding in the garden or repairs at home, which leads to pressure and inflammation in the area of the subcutaneous tissue and Hoffa's body: it is a kind of fat "pillow" located in the front knees.
Kneeling: why better not to get down on your knees?
The expert warns against sudden falling to your knees, e.g. during an engagement.
- Rapid falling on your knees is dangerous and can even break the kneecap, warns the drug. Karolina Stępień. - Sometimes the consequences of such an injury - falling on the knees on a hard surface or hitting the area - are not associated with consequences immediately after the event, except for local swelling and bruising.
In some cases, the energy of the impact accumulates in the cartilage inside the knee and a strong mechanical stress in this delicate structure may reveal its detachment only years after the injury.
Kneeling: who shouldn't kneel?
It is also worth knowing that not everyone can kneel. As the drug explains. Karolina Stępień, kneeling is not recommended for people who have undergone treatments directly in the front part of the knee, e.g. in the area of the tibia tuberosity. However, the obstacle is usually not a previous knee arthroplasty.
