7 Days to Better Knees

If back pain or sciatica is part of your picture, start with 7 Days to a Better Back. The back program includes testing of the hip-knee-foot chain — so it often addresses contributing factors to your knee pain at the same time.

If hip pain is your primary complaint, the hip program is the right starting point. Hip mechanics drive how the knee loads with every step — fixing the hip often resolves downstream knee pain without a second program.

If knee pain is your most limiting problem, start here. This program tests the entire lower-limb chain, including the hip and foot contributors. One program at a time is the right approach.

Start here. The 11-point assessment tests foot mechanics — flat feet and arch collapse are among the key factors that load the knee the wrong way. Addressing the knee often resolves downstream foot and ankle pain, because the same chain is at work.

If foot pain persists after completing this program, Rick has targeted programs for those areas built on the same framework. No starting over — just a sharper focus on what remains.

Physical therapy treats the site of the pain. This program addresses why that site is under enough stress to cause pain in the first place. Most people who have done previous therapies find something genuinely new here — because this program is testing the hip, foot, popliteus, and rotation patterns that nobody else has been looking for.

You may have significant arthritis. But what is making that arthritic knee painful is often your biomechanics — how your knee is being loaded with every step. I have helped many people put off a knee replacement for years, and sometimes indefinitely, by addressing the rotational forces that were driving the degeneration.

And even if you do end up having surgery, fixing your mechanics before or after will improve your outcome. If you do not fix the rotational pattern, the same forces will keep working on the new joint.

Many people have meniscus tears with no pain at all. One peer-reviewed study (Englund et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2008) found meniscus tears in 61% of asymptomatic knees on MRI. What may be making your meniscus tear painful is the rotational compression — which may also be what caused the tear in the first place.

If your knee is loading the wrong way every step, surgically repairing the meniscus will not change the loading. The same forces that tore it once will continue working on the repair. Fixing your function changes the mechanics — which often changes the pain, regardless of what shows up on the MRI.

Yes — many of Rick's most successful patients came to him after surgery that did not resolve their pain. Surgery addresses structural damage. It does not address the movement patterns that caused the damage. Those patterns are still there after surgery — and they will keep working on the repaired structures just as they worked on the originals.

If you have had recent knee surgery, check with your surgeon before beginning any exercise program.

Yes. The 11-point assessment identifies what is happening regardless of where you feel the pain. Medial pain, lateral pain, patellar pain, posterior knee pain — they each have specific patterns the assessment is designed to detect. The location of the pain is a clue, not the diagnosis.

They probably are strong. Squats and lunges build strength in the gym. They do not resolve a popliteus in spasm. They do not retrain how your hip muscles fire when you walk. And they do not address the rotational forces arriving at your knee from a flat foot or a hip that is not doing its job. Strength at the gym and mechanics during walking are two entirely different things.

The habit and taping recommendations take no extra time — they ask you to do your normal things differently, in a way that reduces the load on your knee every hour of every day.

The exercises typically involve up to 5 movements that take about 1 to 2 minutes each. Once a day is fine — but 3 to 5 times a day in the first week gets faster results. Most people see a significant change when they do.

Yes. The program runs in any web browser on any device — phone, tablet, or computer. No downloads, no apps, no accounts to create. If you can watch a YouTube video, you can use this program.

YouTube videos give everyone the same exercises — because they are based on the site that hurts, not on why that site hurts. This program gives you the assessment first, then builds your plan around what it finds.

The difference is the same as the difference between a prescription and a pharmacy shelf. One is for you. The other is for everyone.

For most people who complete the assessment and follow their plan consistently, it works. But if you give it 7 days and do not feel this approach is genuinely different from anything you have tried before — email support@rickolderman.com for a full refund. No questions asked.