I am generally a pretty laid back guy and I am open to the many differences in the world. However, I do have a few pet peeves and one of them is going to addressed today. I cannot stand watching athletes whose knees come together during squats and whose heels kick out to the side when they run. Forces do not get transferred well into the ground but there sure do get transferred into the knees and hips (not good!).  Look at the following pictures and see if any of them describe you.

Squinting patella             Knee valgus (they cave in)    Heels kick out (look closely at heels)

If your patellas squint together, it means your femur, or thigh bones are internally rotated.   This is the opposite of when you see people with bow legs who look like they were born riding a horse. The thighs are moving into internal rotation because certain muscles are not activating properly or certain muscles are tight.  Tight muscles that need to be released of adhesions and lengthened include ITB and TFL, adductors, pectineus, gluteus medius (anterior fibers) and gluteus minimus) and also muscles that pronate the foot including the peroneal longus and brevis.  Weak muscles include the obliques (usually the opposite side of the knee that is caving in, or both if they both do) gluteus medius on the same side of the knee that caves in, the illiopsoas (hip flexor), and the muscles that support the arch of the foot including the posterior tibialis and the deep foot flexors.  When running at top speed and the thigh comes up internally rotated, this can occur because the TFL is tight (flexes the hip and internally rotates the femur) in order to compensate for weak hip flexors and/or  because at foot strike the knee caves inwards which forces that movement pattern. The following soft tissue work done every day or every other day will help.  Just google image the body parts below and you should have a good idea about how to get after them.

Foam roll or use a softball or baseball to release the following:

IT band

TFL –(baseball or softball is best)

Adductors

Pectineus

VMO

Peroneals (use baseball)

Calves- (gastronemius and soleus)-