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The knee does rotate, but only when it is bent. When the knee is straight, the joint locks itself against rotation by design β the medial femoral condyle is longer than the lateral, and as the knee approaches full extension it forces the tibia to externally rotate just enough to tighten the cruciate ligaments and bolt the joint shut. This is the screw-home mechanism, and it is one of the most elegant safety features in human anatomy.
If you try to rotate a straight knee, you are not rotating the knee. You are tearing the things that hold the knee together.
𦡠The Screw-Home Mechanism
When the knee is flexed past about twenty degrees, the screw-home unlocks, the cruciates slacken, and rotation becomes available β roughly forty-five degrees of external rotation and thirty degrees of internal rotation at ninety degrees of flexion. Below ninety, the soft tissues start to tension again. The window of meaningful rotation is therefore from about thirty to one hundred and ten degrees of flexion. Train rotation there. Never anywhere else. The full Tech Support piece walks through the assessment, the protocols, and the cues that need to be retired.
π Listen to the Joint
The cue “open your knee” applied to a straight leg is, mechanically, the cue “tear your medial collateral ligament slowly over six months.” Replace it. The cue you actually want is rotate the femur at the hip β and keep the foot honest.
The knee is honest. It tells you exactly what it can do β when it is bent. Listen to it then.
β MJH