Feel Better Knees: Anatomy and Loads
Move Your DNA with Katy Bowman
Nutritious Movement
4.8 • 686 Ratings
🗓️ 11 February 2026
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Biomechanist Katy Bowman and biologist Dr. Jeannette Loram explore the prevalence and underlying causes of knee issues, from popping and noisy knees to everyday pain and osteoarthritis. The knee is not just a simple hinge, and Katy explains its anatomy using a helpful “cube” model that includes bones, ligaments, cartilage, and the meniscus. Together, they clarify the difference between osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis and examine how movement patterns influence the forces and loads placed across the knee joint. Katy and Jeannette share practical strategies for changing knee loading through gait retraining, along with tools to improve muscle strength, stability, and proprioception to help protect ligaments and cartilage. They also discuss why women tend to experience more knee problems due to hormonal and biomechanical factors, and why prehab and post-surgery exercise training play a critical role in achieving better outcomes after knee surgery.
Enhanced Show Notes and Full Transcript
00:00 Introduction: The prevalence of knee issues and arthritis
02:00 Why movement and position matter for knee health
04:08 Sponsors: The Dynamic Collective
05:58 The knee as a “cube,” not just a hinge
10:58 Ligaments vs muscles: Why ligaments are seat belts, not brakes
14:20 Cartilage and the knee meniscus: Function and damage
18:00 Changing movement patterns for knee pain: Gait retraining
24:21 Noisy knees explained
26:22 Knee instability: Strength, proprioception, and hypermobility
33:07 Listener question: Why do women have more knee issues? Hormones and Q-angle
46:40 Prehab and post-surgery knee care
Links & Resources Mentioned:
The Pelvic List
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, move your DNA listeners. Who would like new knees for spring? Not literally new knees, |
| 0:07.5 | of course, but knees that feel like new. If your knees ache, you know how much it can slow you |
| 0:13.5 | down. We rely on them for almost everything, walking, standing, hiking, yoga, I mean, |
| 0:19.8 | even just getting up and down out of a chair. |
| 0:22.6 | Knee rehabilitation programs tend to focus on the upper leg. So it would be like the soas, hip flexors, |
| 0:29.8 | quads. There's so many leg lifts when you're trying to fix your knees. And these can help, |
| 0:35.0 | but there's more going on than the upper thigh when it comes to knee issues. |
| 0:39.9 | There's the mechanics of the bottom half of the knee. |
| 0:43.4 | There's a lot of moving parts to the knee, and half of them sit below the thigh in what we |
| 0:49.1 | in biomechanics call the shank. |
| 0:51.7 | So the shank is above the ankle and below the knee. And it's a whole world that |
| 0:57.3 | you can explore when you're trying to troubleshoot or build up stronger knees. In March, I'm going to |
| 1:02.8 | be teaching a two-hour online movement workshop through the Omega Institute called New Knees for Spring. |
| 1:10.3 | You're going to see how your feet, |
| 1:12.3 | calves, and shins shape knee alignment and comfort. You'll learn simple, reliable ways to balance |
| 1:18.3 | your knees from the ground up. Learn to ease tension in the kneecap for yoga, hiking, |
| 1:24.0 | and walking, and just everyday life. If walking downhill or downstairs isn't working for you, |
| 1:30.3 | we're going to be dealing with this specifically. And we'll also explore lower leg exercises |
| 1:35.2 | that improve general mobility, stability, and strength. By the end of class, you're going to have |
| 1:40.4 | a bunch of exercises that will help you put a little spring back into your step and a fresh understanding of how to move in a way that keeps your knees strong and happy for years to come. |
| 1:50.9 | Find out more on my website, nutritiousmovement.com slash live dash events. |
| 1:57.4 | Now to the show. |
... |
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