Can shiatsu help my knee pain?

Poor suffering knees, I encounter a variety of issues, but interestingly, it's seldom the knee's fault! Knees serve as the crucial link between ankles and hips, involving your back muscles, calves, hip flexors, hamstrings, and the inflexible IT band. For women, there's also the pelvic floor and groin muscles, not to mention the bottom clenchers; all these factors impact your knees. This month, my blog is titled Can Shiatsu help my knee pain? I will explore some of the ways your knees become painful when the knee joint itself isn't the cause.

Let me begin by sharing about my knees. I experienced knee pain daily from the age of 5 or 6, consistently being told throughout school that it was due to growing pains. However, in my 20s, when I was fully grown, the knee pain was so severe that no one could help me, not even the cranial osteopath. Although he effectively addressed issues with my back, neck, pelvis, and more, he couldn't make progress with my knees :(

Their condition was so severe that I would wake up at night knowing the weather had changed. They were unbearably painful, and I couldn't move them without using my hands. I relied on non-steroidal anti-inflammatories because I was advised they were preferable to painkillers. Now, I'm uncertain about the harm I've caused to my ligaments and tendons, as well as the potential loss of calcium absorption in my bones due to this. I couldn't sit in a cinema or theater for two hours, and sitting down was difficult; I would reach a point and then collapse. I felt defined by my knees and what I was able to do.

Then I signed up to take my shiatsu course, and we had to kneel all day - this was my worst nightmare!

Quickly though I could kneel, and the lifelong pains went, I can't even tell you when, only that whilst learning shiatsu within next to no time I didn't have knee issues anymore, they dissappeared. All those reasons I'd had from experts that teenage accidents had led to my knee problems, that I probably had early onset arthritis, or I'd just have to live with it. What a load of rubbish they were all talking. I was once even told I had grumbling appenditicitis, referring pain down my hip; when I told this to another Dr he said there was no such thing! You can see why my faith in conventional medicine is scant. Doctors don't really know they're not muscular s​keletal specialists and don't understand the stress your ​knees come under from any imbalances throughout your body. I put up with ​knee pain as a daily normality for nearly 30 years until I learned how to resolve pain with un​known origin.

Thank heavens for Shiatsu, how did it help me relieve my knee pain and just what is going on with your knees?

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What can cause knee pain if it's not the knee?

Below are some common issues I've seen in clinic that lead to knee pain in my clients. When the pain isn't due to missing cartilage or a tear/physical damage, you can leave your treatment with reduced or no pain.

I've also listed the issues I experienced; as you can see, it was a combination, so only a holistic approach could effectively address and resolve my knee problems:

Pelvis out of alignment

You're walking around with one leg longer than the other, or you may feel it as shorter. I definitely have had this many times. You may feel this as back or pelvis pain, or may not and it refers directly to the nerve coming out around the knee. If you find yourself standing on one leg with the other stuck out to the side but still on the floor that is a sign that your pelvis is out. Also if you're fond of crossing your legs, also a sign of a wonkly pelvis. For women especially a misaligned pelvis can cause a host of urogenital issues. It's worth having a shiatsu if you have incontinence too.

Weak muscles especially the front of the thigh

I had this too! If you can't sit down without dropping into your seat you may have weak, tight or impaired thigh muscles or hip flexors. Specific exercises and releasing and rebalancing with shiatsu can get all of this back on track. Can you stand against a wall and slide down in a controlled manner? To the point of sitting against the wall? This is a good indication of the strength of your thigh muscles. I also found that tennis improved any knee pain niggles I was getting in the winter (when playing less tennis) as the randomness of playing, along with springing around strengthened the cross-muscles.

Exercise like running and biking only strengthens muscles at the front and back of the legs, you'll need to think about types of exercise that create twisting actions to ensure all thigh/groin muscles get a work out. Maybe dancing around you kitchen?

Tight muscles on the sides or the groin

These tight, tense muscles can refer pain to the opposite side of the knee, usually presenting below the knee. Muscles insert across bones for stability and connection, and will insert into the tibia (below the knee). When a muscle is tight it puts the tension onto the tendon and this is pretty painful.

You'll know if your groin muscles are tight as you won't be able to sit cross-legged. Think about yoga stretches or here's the Liver Makkaho - enjoy! :)

Shortened hip flexors from sitting

I had this too! As soon as I started to learn to kneel we were doing an exercise called the Spleen Makko ho, I could only partially lean back at first, (but anything is better than nothing) slowly you start to stretch out these tight muscles running through the pelvis; they control you standing/sitting. I went for additional hip flexor release and studied this, and so I know how powerful it is to release these muscles are and that they are the cause of a majority of knee problems. My hip flexors had been tight all my life, as soon as I knew how to gently stretch them a majority of the knee pain went away.

Don't do this stretch if you feel a pinching in your back, seek shiatsu first to resolve the pelvis/lower back issue first.

Sciatica (trapped branch of the sciatic nerve referring down)

A thick bundle of nerves run through the small holes in the sacrum, the moment there is anything out of place, one or more branches of this nerve catch, sending shooting pain down the back middle of the leg or the side and can pop out around the knee. Very much like pelvic misalignment, the sacrum can sit twisted into the pelvis, Guess what? I had this issue too! Cranial osteopathy and shiatsu both can resolve this, you may prefer one to the other; of course I've had both!

Trapped cold

This is where the knee joint has trapped cold in it, but it can be temporary if you get a shiatsu and get it released. Most people know about trapped heat, it's called inflammation and normally happens with a bash or an accident, but people don't register trapped cold. It's not as complex as a frozen shoulder and it can be resolved quickly.

To avoid happening in the colder months, wear another layer, ie leggings under jeans or wear an extra layer like a soft tubigrip over your knee if it's susceptible to catching a cold. It tends to be if you've had a previous accident and the knee is weak. Joints are points on the body that are susceptible to catching cold as they are cooling points (not covered in muscle). A trapped chill can be very painful, but easily removed.

Compensation for a problem on the other side

This is why a body needs to be treated holistically. A knee specialist within the NHS is only good if you have a tear, fracture or require a replacement. If scans don't show up anything wrong with your knee, this is actually good! Yes there's a problem but it doesn't require an operation to repair, it requires some holistic physical therapy.

If you feel pain with no discernible cause you may likely have an issue on the other side of your body that is causing a compensation or stress on this knee. It can be any of the issues above, pelvis, sciatica, tight muscles; all need to be looked at during your shiatsu appointment as a lot of the time you have referred pain from an issue that has no pain at all.

Compensation pain is one of the biggest factors in why people come for a shiatsu; nothing else has worked.

Listening to how the body moves or doesn't, whilst the client is in pain tells a practitioner what's going on and where. Usually I will find somewhere that is cold, weak, not moving or the client says ahh, that eases my pain over here. Wokring holistically means the whole body is treated and this is why its so effective in helping mystery pain where the cause can't be found initially.

Tight, injured, weak, ankle

So far I've talked about pain referring down from the pelvis, back,hips, groin, but what about pain referring up from an ankle injury. The ankle can become locked, or be sitting out of position, it could be the ankle on the other side, it doesn't matter which it is as shiatsu will find it. If you come in not walking properly, you will be stiff and unaware of the cause. If you can go out walking a whole lot better , with your ankles feeling looser and more able, then your knees will feel the relief and you'll understand what is causing and be able to prevent from happening again.

You may have weak ligaments which mean you turn your ankles a lot, so without realising it you can hold tension in your knees and ankles to try and protect from injury. This can make for more problems, you definitely need shiatsu to help maintain the health of your musculoskeletal structure.

Worse with the weather (including the heat)

It's not only old farmers that get this, I used to get this too! The only time I've had my old knee pain was around 4 summers ago, it was quite a warm summer but we had rain every afternoon. It created a condition called damp heat, and my right knee felt full, it couldn't bend.

If this sounds familiar then your energetics need some support as fluids aren't flowing in and out of the knee joint. Stuff has got stuck! A full knee doesn't bend without pain and is a very different feeling to an empty, cold and weak knee which feels better for massage and warm. A full knee needs help to release the excess fluid. stretching the whole leg helps, especially the stretch that I showed you above (Spleen Makko Ho), but this maybe too painful to do yourself and so with gentle support a shiatsu can do this for you.

This isn't a knee problem in the traditional sense but it is a problem that is affecting your knees. Shiatsu is a godsend for this, if you're experiencing the pain anywhere near the levels of what I used to have then its excrutiating but gentle stretching and acu point opening can really turn this around. I think it was this that ultimately resolved my knee pain issues when any other types of physical therapy hadn't.

Knee wants to collapse

In TCM terms this is a weakness/ a deficiency, something is missing. It'll probably go hand in hand with some tight muscles elsewhere, and your knee is getting to the point of weakness (maybe not pain yet). It just wants to give up easily, it feels tired. A shiatsu that looks at your whole pelvis, hip and legs will resolve the imbalance that is creating this weak feeling. Don't ignore it as will turn into pain and at some point there will be a physical degradation in joint, bone or the supportive ligament structure (ligaments link bones!). Once you have physical degradation you may require an operation. This can be totally avoided with preventative therapy.

If you have mystery knee pain there is some complexity involved

I'll give you a recent example, more than a year on from my bad ankle break on the left side I noticed climbing the stairs was getting more difficult for my right knee, it felt weak. I ignored it until weak turned to pain. I questioned why my old knee pain had come back, what was I doing differently?

The answer was that I hadn't been kneeling for over a year, but was that it? I tried to kneel and it felt very very tight on the right side, where I had the knee pain; so there was a connection. What I hadn't examined and therefore not resolved was that walking heavily on my right side had created increasingly tight gluteal muscles all through the right hip region. One session to release and my knee pain resolved itself AND I walked better on the broken left ankle; going downstairs became normal. Even with this imbalance there was no back pain, it only appeared as a knee weakness, it felt like it wanted to buckle when I put weight on it.

The over compensation of the right side for a year or more had not only taken its toll on my right knee it was also feeding back into my original left ankle injury. If I hadn't interceded I think I would have been in agony.. I let it go until I got to the point of pain, so I don't always practise what I preach :)

Find knee pain relief with a qualified shiatsu practitioner

Hopefully today has given you a flavour of why knee pain can be mysterious, but also how it can be resolved. If you've had tests with the hospital and they aren't showing up anything is wrong; this is good!

Hope that it doesn't appear severe enough to show on a scan; let it be a matter of misaligned muscles, which can be treated, allowing you to leave the treatment without knee pain.

Since finding shiatsu 20 years ago I've only had bad knees for a handful of days, sometimes when the weather is extreme and other times when muscles in the hip are getting too tight. Shiatsu and/ or Makko ho stretches helps with both. I'm also a fan of sauna and swimming to help release tight fascia too.

If you're not ready to stretch on your own or are unsure which exercises would be beneficial, consider scheduling a shiatsu session where I can address this during your treatment. Even if you visit only once a month, I aim to support you in the interim. Engaging in daily activities can promote healthy knees, hips, and backs, ensuring your entire body remains balanced and leading to optimal vitality. Pain can be exhausting, so let's work together to alleviate it!

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If you'd like to try the whole set of Makko Ho stretches to relieve tight muscles all over the body , follow this video. Makko ho stretches energise the meridians, you don't need to force or stretch against tight muscles, just breathe and release and see how far you can go.

Can shiatsu help my knee pain?

Shiatsu uses finger tips, thumbs and gentle palming on the acupressure points of your body to work wonders on how you’re feeling! It is the oldest form of massage in the world; a forerunner of acupuncture.

Using 5000 year old Chinese medicine theory that your energy is blocked,bespoke pressure is applied;flowing down your body, your limbs, your neck and shoulders to release stuck energy known as Chi.

Chi is your life force, and more physically your blood, lymph fluid and the waterways of your body. When you feel you’re tense or stressed your muscles tighten and the pathways within become constricted; stopping your body working properly.

If you feel overwhelmed, anxious, have tension, pain, even IBS, nausea or just feeling ‘unwell’, this can all be due to your Chi being stuck and building up pressure; like a dam. On the other side the lack of flow is also causing its own issues; you may feel cold, stiff or have low energy and moods swings.

A fully clothed Shiatsu session relieves you of a lot of the feelings and problems you came in with. Releasing muscle tension allows your mind and body to calmly rebalance; it’s a wonderful sensation!

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About Andrea at Shiatsu Bodyworks Cheltenham

Andrea is a qualified zen shiatsu and Chinese medicine practitioner with over 20 years immersed in holistic therapies and the energetics of mind and body. Based in Cheltenham, UK she offers in house clinic and online sessions to help people and dogs with midlife health issues. As well as shiatsu she may incorporate Bach flower remedies and pharmacognosy using essential oils. She is a menopause specialist too, you can find out more at cotswoldmenopause.co.uk

Shiatsu: Gentle bodywork to make your body work better!