Dear Jason,

My quest for lower body complexity, ignited by a strange feeling in my right knee during pistol squats, has taken me in the last few months in exploring the restrictions in my lower body. Daily dorsiflexion work has opened up my ankles a lot, although it’s still a developing process, and a regular practice of the shrimp squat (instead of pistols, for now) has made my knees feel more pliable. Yet I still feel my right leg, the leg whose knee had been acting sassy, being more restricted than the other. I’ve always had slightly bowed legs (genu varum), with externally rotated tibias, but the practice seems to have corrected the left one mostly; the right one lags behind. I think this is what might be causing the slower progress in that leg, aka less capacity to access the developing dorsiflexion and load the knee during squats, because to compensate the ext rotated tibia, the hip slightly activates internally and therefore the movement is not so smooth. I made certain of this by doing simple single knee bends in front of a mirror and focusing on sensations: on the left leg there is no hip activation and the weight goes over the middle toes, on the right I feel a small hip compensation and the weight more on the inside of the foot.

I have filmed a video that I will upload below, doing knee bends first with the more efficient left leg and then with the restricted right—showing the difference in tibial ER below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/DaL1uos4aEQ?si=MW4Rl3xCQJtwloyt

My question for you or anyone on the platform who has experience with this is, how can I repattern the tibia-hip rotation for more efficient movement? Given that it kind of corrected itself on the other leg I do believe there might be more of a pattern issue than anatomical blockage.

My propositions so far were to include some basic tibia IR-ER rotations in priority (10-15 reps per leg) as well as single knee over toe bends in front of a wall, with the knee touching the wall each rep, focusing on driving the knee more over the mid foot without feeling the hip activating. Any other suggestions?

Hopefully this helps many others with my same problem.

Dear Massi,

As I have not personally nor with others worked specifically on this form of imbalance, I'll be general in my input - continue to make it your personal project of investigation & ongoing work, without losing the ability to zoom out to the bird's-eye view. Which is: there is still an entire cosmos of movement-complexity to explore beyond capacity-development in the context of unilateral squats. So, if it may not be the time to push forward with those objectives, you can continue to let them "simmer" without aggravating the knee, and expand the lower-body complexity practice instead LATERALLY.

It sounds like the path of enquiry you are taking is a good one - you have questions, are investigating, and finding some answers whose relevance or not will be determined through the practice & ongoing work. To support this, it might also be valuable engage with specialists in the areas of postural-restoration/structural-integration (e.g. Alexander technique, Rolfing...) to gain further information. Again, it's a personal project and the findings may be able to help others as you move forward.

Keep enquiring, and practicing. The greater complexity you add to your practice, the greater the opportunity for your body to "re-organise" ITSELF, just as you have experienced on your other knee. We have the power to transform our very identities - who we believe ourselves to be - through the practice, and this is a very practical example. You are ALWAYS in process, always BECOMING.

Let the unfolding continue! Feel free to keep sharing your observations, findings, and your journey. And may it always be a fruitful one.

J