Gracilis can also become stressed if you have flat feet. Your knee becomes internally rotated in a valgus fashion, which puts torque on the medial lateral ligaments of the knee (inside of the knee) which then puts stress on the muscle above (gracilis). Took me bloody ages to find out this was causing my knee pain.wo beaware it's not just from getting pulled into abduction on impact that your gracilis can become inflamed! Check what's below at the feet! You probably have weak tibialis anterior and posterior!
Thanks for your post. I think I just figured what I've had for the last 8 years. This bloody gracilis muscle has been overlooked by physiotherapists who tell me to just strengthen my VMO for my knee pain and tracking issues. I also have flat feet! What exercises did you do to overcome it? I also notice that tibialis mobilization helps remove back pain that I've had for years. Thanks.
Holy cow. For months, maybe even a year I thought I was having meniscus issues. I'm now realizing I've been having intermittent spasm in Gracilis. Took a long time to figure this out but it makes sense since the excruciating pain could suddenly completely vanish and return hours or minutes later. Drove me crazy for a while but I'm very happy today just knowing it's not a meniscus issue, whew! About a week ago I think I cause myself even more trouble with it by over stretching during a run. I was starting to think I was done for, but this old dog may have a few miles in him yet !
Stanley, I don't actually stretch adductors/gacilis the way shown in the vid. My preferred way is with a 6" foam stretching ball. I straddle over a chair with the ball on the seat of the chair and carefully grind away at those adductors from way up high in the groin attachment and all along down close to the knee. I'm 57 and the knees have been great now for the last 3 years since I watched this vid. Another thing I do for the knees and highly recommend is Asian squat. Sitting in a deep squat every day for 3/4 minutes seems to really help keep the knees in good shape. In my case I find any tightness anywhere between my naval and my knees seems to always find a way to show up as a knee discomfort. Also while I'm thinking about it any tightness in the calves also seems to show up in my knees as well.
Just want to say a huge thank you! I suffered a groin strain kickboxing 3 years ago and no rolling, stretching, massaging has ever helped. This exercise offers support to the vulnerable part of the muscle whilst allowing the tight remaining part of the muscle to stretch. The vulnerable part now has more room to repair and does not feel like a frayed elastic band anymore. Wow, can't thank you enough!
Thanks so much man. I've been suffering with knee pain right at the patellar tendon for the last year and only through trial and error did I eventually realise it was the gracilis muscle. Your exercise worked
OOOMMMMMGGGG - I have spent 3 years in and out of PT and hundreds of hours searching the internet to find this solution. I even told my PT (several of them) that I could feel a tight 'tendon' (my word) on the inside of my thigh that when I pushed on it, the pain in my knee went through the roof. Following your lead in the video, I believe i have found a solution. Thank you, Thank you, thank you!
People that drive a lot would benefit greatly from this, the repetitive motion of accelerator to brake pedal seems to cause tightness of this muscle. Great tips! It burns like heck stretching it!
Well damn all my Ortho docs and Physiotherapist i went to were saying it could be a “medial meniscal sprain” but I couldn’t feel anything while doing those workouts they suggested. I went to another PT today, and when she told me to lie sideways and put pressure on medial aspect of my thigh(my gracilis) with her elbow,,it felt like I’m gonna die, that’s when I knew what’s the actual problem,, I did wrong workouts for an year, wasted soo much money and had soo many intermittent pain coming n going episode’s, couldn’t dance to my fav songs coz I couldn’t trust my knee. Now I finally know what exercises to do. Can’t thankyou enough physiotherapist mam for diagnosing & this doc for prescribing treatment🙏
I just experienced pain to my Gracilis after a walk, this has been preceded by 2 years of pain to my Tibialis . I have flat feet and I am now 71 and all these factors may be contributing to my GRACILIS pain. I am at a loss as to what I can do. I have tried many therapies over the last few years with no success. I will try the stretch demonstrated in your video. Thank you.
Good morning James. This is Dr. Tim (WODdoc) .. where are located … city and state. Reply to my office email with the subject “RU-vid response” BIRPtherapy@gmail.com … hopefully we can figure out a way to help!
Hey there, my boyfriend seems to be having anterior knee pain on the inside where the fold is when you bend your knee and has also been having what we thought was sartorius muscle pain. This video helped me a lot once I googled anatomy of the rectus femoris and figured that his legs, which have been swollen and feel like loose hanging muscle, but still very dense, dont have sartorius pain at all, but it's his gracilis muscle. I trained in Emergency Medical Services and never even heard of the gracilis. I guess I'm just wondering if you could give some more advice as to what he should do as he cant just quit his manual labor job. Can he sports tape it like you did in the video with 50% tension while hes at work? Would that cut off the circulation if left on too long? Will tens machine help? And what should he say to the doctor so the doctor will actually take a look (instead of *overlooking it)? P.S. side note- he has had back surgery- an L5 S1 spinal fusion and a fake disc if this has anything at all to do with his muscle strains and he has a multitude of post surgical problems like sciatica, disc moving out of place, and now this anterior medial knee pain and all these muscle strains. Thanks in advance for any advice you provide me with.
I have a gracilis injury from Kung Fu, whilst in recovery it become incredibly tight. This video is helping me bring life back into it (painful) but worth it, its getting directly into the muscle, thanks man.!!
@Jonny Lee this stretch does help me but what I find the most helpful was strengthening my adductors,it takes a couple of weeks but finally getting the grailis to calm down. I had crazy painful knee pain from it,took two months off work from it,i thought it was a meniscus tear.
This is definitely what I need it’s affecting my ability to walk the pain that I’m receiving on the inside of my knee , it here another way I can stretch this as my other knee I wouldn’t be able to apply pressure to do it this way pls help 🙏
started getting horrible craps in the Gracilis .. thought it was my motocross riding been doing for so many years.. Its the knees that were the problem
Hi and thank you for your video! I have been stretching out my gracilis for years and it's still tight. Any suggestions? I think I might have hurt it dancing (jazz) like 15 years ago. Or it could be my hips are off?
Hey just for the sake of stretching, this looks great. Two questions about it: 1. I believe I have hip impingement. I found this out when I took muay thai and it literally felt like when I did a round house kick with my knee being from around just below being in line with my pelvis and up, the ball of my femur was rubbing against the bone on top of it in my pelvis. Thing is, I don't know what kind of impingement I have so I don't know which stretches to use. Could the stretch you showed us here help with any of the different kinds of hip impingement? 2. I _also_ have Pes Ansaries bursitis in both knees as well (I'm in rough shape, lol) and I want to get back into functioning shape again. Can this stretch also help with that? Either way, have a great one and you've got yourself one more subscriber.
When i did this i would feel muscle tension on my outside hip (it felt good). So i didnt feel tension on my inside thigh. Any insights into why this is and what i could do?
I know that distance running may not be your forte, but I am a distance runner (30-50 miles per week) who strained my groin trying to lift. I used to lift regularly but the volume I run has gotten in the way so my legs were not used to it. In your experience, have you been able to train through this type of injury? Or is a break recommend? Pain is not induced while running but rather, when medially turning my leg in.
It took me a month of icing & heating in addition to rolling a tennis ball (lacrosse ball is better) along the gracillis and satorious muscle to massage it. I continued training as normal as far as running goes- but dropped lower body weight training and went back to body weight exercise. I just made sure to warm up well, stretch afterwards when running & avoid sharp turns. I'd say it's mostly subsided. Hope this helps & best of luck to you! :)
Hi Thanks for the video!. I have sculiosis, anterior tilt and have always had very tight, protruding tendons in the growing area when I stretch. If I try to do a Chinese split, it will hurt there and behind the knees. This looks like would help me. Any advise?
I too have been attempting to correct a anterior pelvic tilt, and what i am thinking is a gracilis or inner thigh issue closer to the knee(long ago severe ankle issue working its way up leg). Ive spent a lot of time working on these issues. Without spending to much time typing, I want express that the more i build the glutes and stretch the front muscles of the quad area(and into the hip). The better my leg/knee has reacted and my hips have improved(not fixed yet)... There are many really good videos here on youtube, I would advise checking out This channel. ru-vid.com .........Most of the videos on youtube are similar and good, but this guy brings some deeper ideas and ideas you tend to not find on other videos. One thing that he said that stuck with me, is that to really fix a posture issue life IPT, you must start working on 3 corrections at once( think, walking with shoulders back, correctly moving the thoracic, while holding the head and the hips in a correct position). If you have found something that is working for you, please share.
looking forward to trying this. one question tho - with the elastic... doesn't your femoral artery run through there... is it actually ok to wrap it? i'm doing these exercises without the band cos i just don't feel comfortable squishing an artery
I very much hoping this exercise would help me.I have a good feeling.!! I am in sharp pain 2 months. I walk with stick. Dr. s had know idea what is happening with me. I not going back to them , they just guessing.
this area is extremely sore for me, for years but it gets worse with exercises.. these movements hurt, not sure what is going on. The same with other deep hip stretches like frog position etc, if someone recognizes this and got tips lemme know
