Case Summary  |  Hamstrings Effect Your Knees!?!?

A few months ago, I embarked on a regular exercise program. This program was overseen by a professional personal trainer and wasnt what I would consider over doing it in any way. It consisted of cardio 20 to 30 mintues a day 4 to 6 days out of the week and upper and lower body strength training 4 days out of the week. Everything was going along fine until my knees began hurting. At first I just ignored the pain and pushed on through my lunges as well as my cardio. The pain began getting worse...it almost felt the way shin splints feel but underneath my knee caps. When I would rub them, I would become aware of how they didnt hurt to the touch so then massaging them didnt feel any better.
The pain was finally so bad that I could no longer do my work outs anymore and I was forced to rest my knees as much as possible. After about a month, my knees began to feel better and in my discussion with my trainer, it turns out that by me skipping my stretching which i was supposed to do before meeting up at the gym, had been causing my hamstrings to tighten too much and pull up on the knees causing more strain on them. I carefully took my training back up with stretching this time and so far, so good. It seems to have done the trick. Who would have thought that by not stretching your hamstrings you could be hurting your knees!