Originally Posted by
OBoile
IIRC, the whole idea of "VMO activation" has generally been discounted, particularly as a cause of patellofemoral pain. IIRC (again) it's been shown that it's pretty much impossible to activate the VMO without activating the rest of the quads or vice versa (and the VMO is part of the quadriceps muscle). The general thinking now is that alignment issues come from the hips.
Having said that, I had patellofemoral pain about 13 years ago and using Peterson step-ups to "activate my VMO" was what actually fixed it.
Having said that, I was really unstable at first using the leg with my bad knee and these really exposed it. So maybe it was a hip issue and these fixed it by accident.
I don't know about discounted. It seems in the age of the net everything is proved and disproved by someone. My diagnosis and treatment was by a Physiotherapist and was successful so...? Perhaps your hip problem was caused by your VMO, fix one, fix the other? I do believe the body is a system and we tend to adapt well until it goes out of sync. Another imbalance issue I developed over the years was very strong pectoralis muscles from doing lots of pushups to the point of developing forward rounded shoulders and thoracic outlet syndrome (a narrowing of the brachial plexus). I could do 100 pushups at the drop of a hat but couldn't do 5 chin ups. I had to back off the pushups and focus on stretching and extension exercises like rowing to regain balance.
Again, I would say, see a pro as the exact cause and treatment of an issue can't be done over the net. I did forget to add that along with the exercises I did a course of electrical intramuscular stimulation (EIMS) in my VMO - that was a trip! Nothing like watching your knee area jump around like a frog getting a cattle prod.