MUD Mired in time...

In this segment of “stance phase” of the knee angle graph there is a wobble zone. Here we come to grips with an unsung but vital reality. Knee flexion is not about the KNEE flexing – it is passively the thing being bent – from afar. So what flexes the knee? 1. knee ‘flexor’ muscles are not ‘flexor’ in normal walking. 2. Quadriceps relative weakness (not holding back the landing force that we found to be so dynamically driven by body momentum). 3. The knee can hyper-extend if the tibia is held back. A resisting ankle joint with parents stressing to get those heels down can destroy the knee by a slamming knee extension of compression (on landing). There is a different kind (extension in tension/distraction) which is not damaging. Discuss this later. 4. Hip flexors [initiating thigh swing which has no terminology at all in anything you read] with the foot planted are responsible for everything between the first orange arrow and toe off [green to blue]. This is dampened or increased by 1, 2, & 3 above. So, what are the actual knee flexors in normal gait? The hip flexors. Psoas /Iliacus -not even in the ‘leg’. MUD! We do NOT swing our leg. We swing the thigh . With the toe grounded, the flexing thigh bends the knee and lifts the heel. We don't need a saxophone mnemonic for swing anymore. FUNCTIONAL SWING begins between the two up pointing orange arrows illustrated above – [creepy music goes here] - Welcome to the WOBBLE ZONE!