Genu Recurvatum

Uses

How it works

Risks & contraindications

Highlighted claims

• Genu recurvatum is defined by excessive knee hyperextension in which the joint is pushed backward into an end-range extension position. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education
• A muscle held in a tonically active end-range state is poorly positioned to generate useful dynamic force, which explains why genu recurvatum can look like poor quadriceps function without being simple weakness. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education
• Teaching individuals to squat with knees moving forward improves gastrocnemius excursion and helps shift them away from the hyperextended knee position. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education
• Maintaining heel contact when rising from the bottom of a squat teaches controlled knee extension and prevents uncontrolled snapping into hyperextension. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education
• In genu recurvatum, the quadriceps are proposed to be overactive as tonic postural stabilizers rather than simply weak or inactive. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education
• Plantarflexion from the gastrocnemius and soleus contributes to knee hyperextension by shortening the distal muscle complex and allowing greater length proximally. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education
• Chronic end-range knee hyperextension may produce capsular and tissue adaptations that make the pattern more persistent. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education
• Hamstring emphasis is used in treatment partly because hamstring activity may reciprocally inhibit the quadriceps and reduce excessive calf contribution, though this is presented as a theoretical model rather than a proven mechanism. — Genu Recurvatum, Elderly Power Training, and PT Education