In the Modern lifestyle, we find ever increasing incidences of knee pain, hip pain and associated problems.

These are most often attributed to lifestyle issues, low calcium and osteoporosis, and very often dismissed as one of the age-related issues.

This is just a lazy diagnosis and often very far from true!

In order to understand the problem, we need to focus on the legs – thighs and calves – which are the foundation of good health and longevity.

What do we mean by good thigh and calf health? Quite naturally, it would mean strength and firmness.

But most people approach it the wrong way, relating to more troubles than benefits.

For good health, thighs and calves must be correctly aligned. But what is correct alignment?

If the muscle alignment is correct, then, while standing straight with knees pushed back, the thighs must be turned slightly inwards towards each other while the calves slightly outwards away from each other.

Signs of Incorrect alignment - Some simple ways of noticing incorrect alignment -

Check your natural walk:

Do you walk with feet and toes turned outwards?
Is foot pressure during your walk, towards the outer foot sole?
Is the pressure disproportionately towards either the front or back of the feet as opposed to a balanced foot weight?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then your knees need help.

Similarly, while standing, do you feel your knees to be slightly bent or then pushed back naturally? If your natural standing position is a bent knee position, your knees are being exposed to needless stress.

If you figured that your alignment is off as per the above indicators, you need to start working on your legs asap. The results will be marvelous eventually; better parameters all around – heart health, freedom from physical pains specially related to back issues, healthy prostrate and gynae health and many more seemingly unrelated issues.

But the immediate benefit will be on Knee and Hip health.

In fact, it can arguably be said that the knee is not meant for inherent load to be placed on it – it is the incorrect alignment that places burden on the knee resulting in knee issues.

If the alignment is correct, one will most likely live the entire life without any incidence of knee or hip pain, leave alone the need for any kind of therapy or interventional procedures.

The Solution

Active Solution: Yoga offers the best solution for Alignment correction. While other forms of exercise and workouts may work on working up leg strength, they make the mistake of placing the “cart before the horse”. This ends up actually harming the knees rather than freeing them up. Leg strength must be preceded by correcting the muscle alignment and not right away.

Search out yoga experts who specialize in understanding and correcting body alignment issues.

Passive Solution: For those with prolonged distortion due to lifestyle, old-age OR those unable to actively immerse into Yoga straightaway, it is recommended that they use thigh and hip support belts that focus on passive restoration of thigh alignment.

At HealthAndYoga we provide the Hip Protection Belt with a pioneering design that works on correcting these issues by working on the core issue of thigh muscle alignment.

Wholesale options also available for orthopedics and therapists.