Who's Zoomin' who?

A great old song from Aretha Franklin.

The feet pictured above belong to one of our cross country runners. This athlete approached me complaining of an annoying chronic right knee pain along the inferolateral patella. The past few years, when ever she gets to a certain point in her training volume/intensity it flairs up.

Looking at the overpronation in the left foot, you would think it was zoomin' the LEFT patellafemoral joint. Not the case here.

What is going on is the foot compensating for a leg length discrepancy- in this case, the left leg longer than the right. The calcaneus everting, the talus following to make the leg shorter.

I placed a full length 1/4" felt insert in her right shoe and within days the R knee pain/edema were significantly reduced. Of course more more needs to be done, ie some myofascial work on the R lateral knee structures.

Correcting the left foot overpronation could have made the pain worse.

So, be careful when deciding what to do with what you find on a movement screen. Decide what is a bonafide dysfunction, & what is a compensation.

In other words, do what Aretha does and ask, "Who's zoomin' who?