Hello, i've been dancing a long time and recently graduated 5 years of dance college but my knees feel wrecked. They make a really loud clicking noise everytime i bend . To be honest even my wrists click, ankles,fingers...
I think its too late to take cod liver oil tablets. Just wondering if anyone else has same problem.
I did go to physio but he said my quads are quite muscly and my knees are holding a lot of muscle so my knee cap is pulling. Does anyone know anything else i can do ?

Thankyou
chesca x

I find it odd that a physio would say that and give you no treatment to help. Were you given any stretches or exercises to do? If not, go back and ask. And if yes, then do the stretches/exercises!

no he just said make sure i stretch out my quads after dance and running ect...he wasn't that good so will try find a new one.

Yes! Get a new physio, right away.

When your quads are tight, your hamstrings are normally loose, yes that's what we want as dancers but there is too much of a good thing. You need to have the opposing muscles working to the same sort of degree to be able to keep your pelvis held in it's correct alignment.

The quads are hip flexors, if they get too strong they will start to pull the pelvis into a posterior tilt. This will then rotate the knees inwards, and strengthen your medial Vasti, this is one of the muscles that helps track the knee cap. If this muscle becomes too strong it will pull the knee cap out of alignment and this is what your physio meant.

His job is to then give you exercises to help correct this, not to just walk away.

And it's not too late to start taking supplements to help with this but you do need to retrain the muscles to do their job properly too.

Thankyou ^ that was very helpfull .have rated you

Hallo, hope this is not too late. Just a few things.

Do your knees hurt when they click? I have knees that make this loud clunk/crack/snapping noise quite often, but they don't hurt a bit. Well, at least not when they are snapping. The most common cause of a loud, usualy non-painful click (clunk) when bending or straightening your knee is a discoid meniscus. This is a malformed piece of cartilage in your knee, the shock absorber. Not much of a problem, except that they have a higher risk of tearing during knee injuries. If your knee clicks painfully, or is painful most of the time, this could be to an injury - tear or sprain of a ligament, or even a problem with the joint surfaces.

Next, a pulling knee cap? Sounds like your physio is trying to describe subluxation - where the knee cap moves out of alignment to your leg bone when you bend or extend your knee. This isn't too common in ballet dancers because we usually work the opposite muscle - the one that keeps the knee in place. But there are so many exercises that can train that muscle - the VMO, anyway!

I'd suggest getting a second opinion - from a sports doctor or sports physio. There are definately exercises you can try to stabilise your kneecaps and ease pain. As for the cracking everywhere else? I can only say I understand I click at my fingers, wrists, knees, ankle, hips and lately my lower back at the SI joint?! I dread to think what might be happening there, but it is only abit uncomfortable so I try to ignore it :|

All the best