Recently, I have seen an upswing in knee injuries — or knee pain, at the very least. 

Whenever I have a client with chronic pain or an injury, the first thing I do is a squat assessment and a gait analysis.These assessments allow me to look for imbalances in the body. The key is to recognize the imbalance, then strenthen or stretch properly to correct the imbalnce and restore normal funtion and range of motion to the joints and muscles.

In almost all cases, when it come to knee pain, people are not training their inner thighs and not stretching their I.T. Bands(Iliotobial Band).

If your a regular weightlifter or runner, the I.T. Band gets stronger and shortens in length. The hip joint then can tighten as the IT Band pulls form its origin (the hip). This can also shorten the miniscus.

As this occurs, the leg starts to pull the knee to the outside because we haven't strengthened the inner thigh enough to balance the strength and tightness of the I.T. band and miniscus. This becomes  a classic example of "runners knee."

Here are a few tips to add to your training to avoid runners knee.

• Strengthen your inner thighs. Try performing squats with legs wide and feet pointing outward (holding weight in your hands for more resistance). Or, kneel on a stability ball and squeeze with your inner thighs (like riding a horse).

• Use a foam roller to roll out the I.T. Band. Or, stand aginst the wall and hold your foot in both hands — then, with the knee bent at 90 degrees, lift your foot in front of you, and hold the stretch for about 40 seconds. Repeat three times.

• Anchor a band at knee-height, then place the other end around your knee. Place that foot behind you so your in a split-stance, with the back heel off the floor and knee bent. Then extend the knee pushing the heel to the floor. Repeat for three sets, 15 reps each.

Follow these tips and you should be able to keep your knees healthy.

Sometimes we forget about the five elements of fitness:

• muscular strength
• muscular endurance
• healthy body mass index (BMI)
• cardio respiratory fitness
• flexibility

We need to have all of these to truly be counted as fit.

On weight lifting days, occasionaly use a bit less weight and go for rep count: three to five sets of 20 reps. Or if your doing three sets in five minutes, go for six sets in the same five minutes. This is a great way to overcome plateaus and work on muscular endurance.

For muscular strength, advanced lifters can pick 10 body parts for one workout. Lift as weight as you can safely for a one set, 4-rep failure. Do this three times a week for one week and you'll be surprised how much strength you can gain.

Weight training is important because it aids in bone density and gives up better connective tissue strength. The other benefit is that with extra muscle comes a better BMI.

Good BMI keeps us risk-free from certain diseases, such as high blood pressure and type-2 dabetes.

Hopefully everyone knows that cardio fitness is what helps keep the heart healthy. It also keeps our resting heart rate down so we don't over-tax our heart. With a strong heart, blood flows freely and keeps the rest of the body healthy.

Many people entirely forget about flexibility. (When was the last time you stretched?) By stretching, we keep our connective tissue pliable and our muscles long. This is important so the joints and muscles in the body have a free range of motion — and this keeps us injury-free.