Anyone have tips on building the VMO. Biking and running have developed outside quad and lower legs, but my vmo is pathetic and i think it is contributing to my patellar tracking problems. I guess we all have genetic predispostions, but any help would be appreciated especially from those who experienced same problem.
1/4 Squats - Squat down no more than 40 degrees and come up to complete knee lockout. As you get to the top tighten your quads and feel your VMO contract. Can be done w/ or w/o weight.
TKE’s (terminal knee extensions)- Put a pillow or rolled up towel under your knee so it’s bent about 30 degrees. Straighten your knee and contract your quad fully. Can be done w/ or w/o ankle weight.
Planks- Body straight supporting your weight through your toes and elbows. Keep your body straight and don’t bend your knees. This will work your VMO, although you can tighten your quads extra hard to work them a lot more too.
Wall Sits w/ knee extension- Perform a wall sit and alternate extending your legs so that your knee is completely straight. Hold your leg out for 5 seconds and then switch. Point your toe if you aren’t flexable. Can be done w/ or w/o ankle weights.
That should be a good start…
A lot of standard exercises can be tweaked to accentuate work on the VMO.
Generally speaking, if you externally (Laterally or point toes to the outside) rotate your leg, emphasis is placed upon the VMO.
For instance, do a seated straight leg raise with your foot pointed directly towards the ceiling. Now do one with your foot pointed outwards…the latter accentuates the VMO.
You can apply that to a few others as well.
Best of luck,
J
Why don’t you find out for sure if the medial quad is part of your tracking problem? This will help decide if you need to strengthen the area or not.
If indeed it is a problem, it is very difficult to isolate the VMO in strength training. You will be strengthening all quads equally with almost all exercise, despite ‘trying’ to focus on VMO firing. There is one study showing that using muscle stim on the VMO can selectively strengthen it.
I suggest not wasting your time unless you can get professionally assessed and see if VMO is indeed a culprit.
thanks for all feedback, who best to tell if vmo is the culprit a md or pt and what tests might tell? visual inspection will clearly point out development of other muscles v vmo.
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One exercise I have seen to isolate the vmo is to stand on a step and, step down under control, just touch your heel to the lower step and then go back up under control. This will isolate the vmo of the leg that stay on the upper step, at least according to matt fitzgerald in his last book.
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A home test that you can do is pretty simply an overhead squat. Go down to a position with your thighs parallel to the floor. If your knees turn out or really WANT to turn out, then that suggests that your medial thigh is underactive relative to the lateral thigh. At least that’s wat the guys at the NASM would say.
K-MD… regarding #2, I think that would indicate that the adductors aren’t doing their job. And I think that’s rare, as I read/hear a whole lot more about weak glute med and abductors (and their relationship with weak/bad backs).
I’m skeptical that VMO strengthening = better tracking. Just because it’s stronger doesn’t mean it woudld hold it’s own against the other muscles any better for the millions of “reps” we do. Maybe motor skills/firing training would help?
Anyone have tips on building the VMO. Biking and running have developed outside quad and lower legs, but my vmo is pathetic and i think it is contributing to my patellar tracking problems. I guess we all have genetic predispostions, but any help would be appreciated especially from those who experienced same problem.
any exercise with knee lock out, best done with you feet on the ground.
Well, the guys at the NASM who wrote the protocol seem to think they all run together. Underactive adductors are part of a more general underactive medial side of your thigh and hip and overactive lateral side. Though in truth, they would go into further testing to better isolate what is going on. The overhead squat is the first look.
As for tracking and vmo strengthening, I THINK and am willing to be proven wrong that the idea of rehab type exercises is first to get the muscle active again. So a vmo exercise would be less about getting fibers stronger and more about getting the neuromuscular control of that muscle active again. Then you do a ore integrated exercise where the muscle fires in proper timing an proportion and you are on your way to awesome.
I personally haven’t had to deal with it much thankfully, that’s why I wanted to make the point that I was conveying info straight from other sources.
Well now you ask a loaded question, and I may not be the person to ask as I don’t really subscribe to the weak VMO theory.
See in practice there are a million and one theories of “injury mechanism”, that are not founded in research. They are put together and even published in textbooks but use anecdotal and clinical evidence to try to explain injuries.
Practitioners (chiros, physios, PT’s etc) cling to these mechanisms and use them to explain most knee pain. In this particular theory, a inhibited (read: not weak) VMO fails to stabilize the patella. The patella then tracks laterally and causes lateral knee pain as the lateral patella irritates the lateral joint capsule, and all structures laterally.
So fact or theory? How to test it out. Problem lies in the testing, when activating the quads, can you measure the speed at which the VMO turns on? You can try however fibers in the VMO are slowtwitch (see the plug) where the rest of the quads are fast, so thats not a great measure. Does the injury mechanism match your signs? etc etc…there are so many variables, thats why its a loaded question.
Knee pain in endurance athletes (in my professional opinion) is usually due to poor foot mechanics/shoe choice, or faulty or imbalanced hip mechanics. So to really find out why the knee pain, you really need to examine the kinetic chain from the big toe to the low back.
Hope that helps,
Martin
ps, just because its a small muscle does not mean it cant get the job done,
Oh boy!
Spending your time training the VMO is just like switching chairs on the titanic
Please explain this further.
The “VMO” is perpendicular in orientation to the line of action you speak of.
Dr. EMG will best tell you if your “VMO” is sleeping
Show me the data. P4 drag numbers or VMO specific exercises, we need proof.
Nice one qboss!
“I’m skeptical that VMO strengthening = better tracking.”
Especially if one has a bayonet sign
.
My understanding is usually the main goal in “VMO strengthening” is to increase the ratio of VMO:VL pull on the patella. This can be done relatively quickly and effectively. And like qboss said, EMG is one of the best ways (or probably just most researched) to do this. Whether or not this will prevent/fix problems is individual and only one piece to the puzzle. The OP could have many different things leading to knee pain.
“Knee pain in endurance athletes (in my professional opinion) is usually due to poor foot mechanics/shoe choice, or faulty or imbalanced hip mechanics.”
Knee pain in endurance athletes (in my professional opinion) is usually due improper training progression. But we know little about the OP’s situation. So, I’d suggest going to see a professional!
Hey,
Firstly, I don’t think you get a “professional” opinion as by your bio are a student (I take this back with many apologies if you are doing a PhD in biomechanics though)
Secondly, please tell us how you ‘quickly and effectively’ increase the ratio of pull, as this I need to know.
Thanks
Hey,
Firstly, I don’t think you get a “professional” opinion as by your bio are a student (I take this back with many apologies if you are doing a PhD in biomechanics though)
Secondly, please tell us how you ‘quickly and effectively’ increase the ratio of pull, as this I need to know.
Thanks
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=1323342
" Conclusions:
The statistical analysis of our results suggests that hip position during EMG biofeedback training has no effect on the VMO:VL ratio. However, because subjects were able to significantly increase their VMO:VL ratio in 5 days regardless of hip position, EMG biofeedback can be recommended for the facilitation of VMO muscular recruitment."
Oh, and just for the record and not to be mean, but how much rehabilitation course work do Chiropractors get?
Just curious… what is your academic background? I find discussions like this truly fascinating but have no idea where to go to learn about this. Biomechanics? Exercise Physiology? Something else?