Why do I always have two annoying bulges on my knees? Can I straighten them?

Every time I see a female star's legs, I envy them - how can they be so long, so thin, and so straight? I look down at my own legs. Not to mention the length and thickness, there are two very annoying bulges at the knees!

It's OK when wearing pants, but once the legs are exposed, these two big lumps will make the legs look particularly crooked. It is said that "thick legs are not the point, but crooked legs are the most terrible." So what are these annoying knee lumps?

Copyright images in the gallery. Reprinting and using them may lead to copyright disputes.

In fact, it is normal to have crooked legs

Let me first tell you something that goes against common sense - normal legs are definitely not as straight as those in photos of female celebrities.

It is normal for legs to be crooked. Due to the existence of the pelvis, there is a natural angle between our thighs and calves, and this angle is called the pelvic Q angle. Generally speaking, the wider the pelvis, the larger the pelvic Q angle, and the larger the pelvic Q angle, the more "crimped" the legs will appear.

If you observe carefully, you may find that men are more likely to have straight legs than women. This is because men's pelvis is narrower than women's, and the corresponding pelvic Q angle is also smaller, which naturally makes the legs appear straighter. In general, women's pelvis is wider than men's, with a pelvic Q angle between 11 and 20 degrees, while men's pelvic Q angle is between 8 and 14 degrees, which makes women's legs, especially the knees, more likely to appear "protruding".

So what is the bulge on the inside of the knee? In fact, the answer is obvious: it is our thigh bone!

Copyright images in the gallery. Reprinting and using them may lead to copyright disputes.

This location is called the medial epicondyle of the femur, and it is part of our thigh bone. So when we reach out and touch the bulge on our knee, we always feel that it is very hard (it is a bone, how can it not be hard)! As a normal physiological structure, it should be here, and it should be so hard to support our lower body.

But at this point, some people may wonder - since everyone has this structure, why do other people's knee bulges look much smaller than mine?

On the one hand, everyone's skeleton structure is different. On the other hand, the distribution of body muscle and fat will also have a great impact on the external shape of the legs, and the distribution of muscle and fat accumulation is different for each of us.

If a woman has a large pelvic Q angle and a lot of fat accumulates in the buttocks and thighs, her legs will naturally appear to be less straight visually. However, such legs are actually normal and there is no need to worry.

As long as we are in a static and natural standing position with our shin bones perpendicular to the ground and our feet (or ankles) and knees touching each other, we are healthy.

Scientific leg training helps legs become more beautiful

Of course, if you want to pursue better visual effects on the basis of health, it is understandable. Scientific leg training can make your legs more beautiful and healthier in visual effects.

For example, strengthening the adductor muscles appropriately can make the line from the thigh root to the knee smoother, making the legs appear straighter. Well-developed adductor muscles can not only make the "knee bulge" less obvious visually, but also help the femur to be adducted in a relatively neutral position, solving the problem of false hip width.

It is not difficult to train the adductor muscles. When sitting at your workstation, you can squeeze your thighs towards the midline from time to time. In this process, you can consciously activate the adductor muscles and feel the force of the muscles . If you want a more obvious training effect, you can also clamp a yoga ball or a book between your knees and use the force to squeeze it to pieces - this is static resistance training for the adductor muscles. Anyone who has practiced it knows how exciting it is.

In addition, improving the problem of arch collapse can also make the legs "straighter". The ankle joint, knee joint, and hip joint are the key to influencing each other. If any joint is crooked, it will affect the state of other joints. The arch collapse will cause the ankle joint to be crooked. Once the ankle joint is crooked, the biological force line of the entire lower limb will be crooked. When the force line is crooked, the distribution of muscles and fat will be affected over time. Because the calf exerts force on the outside when walking, the calf will develop more and more laterally as you walk, and the leg will appear crooked.

The arch of the foot collapses, and in the long run it becomes flat feet. Copyright image, reprinting and using may cause copyright disputes

So how do you exercise your arches? It's also very simple. Just practice using your toes to do the "four rooms and one living room" exercise.

When you are at home, you can first practice pinching a towel with your toes to improve the flexibility of your toes; then curl your toes in the opposite direction to promote the contraction of the plantar fascia, and finally stand on one leg and raise your legs to exercise your core strength and reduce the pressure of the body on the arch of the foot.

Some postural defects can cause our legs to be less straight than they naturally are. Through scientific training, we can correct these postural problems and return our legs to their natural state.

But even with such training, legs rarely reach the kind of comic legs we see on the screen. When we look at the unedited photos of celebrities or Internet celebrities, we will find that most of their legs are not so perfect.

It is everyone's nature to pursue beauty, but on this road, we fall into unnecessary anxiety and even fall into a vicious circle of over-blaming ourselves. Being healthy and confident is the most beautiful.

Planning and production

This article is a work of Science Popularization China-Starry Sky Project

Produced by Science Popularization Department of Science Popularization China

Producer: China Science and Technology Press Co., Ltd., Beijing Zhongke Xinghe Culture Media Co., Ltd.

Author: Hydra popular science author

Reviewer: Ji Gang, deputy chief physician of orthopedics, the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University

Planning丨Yinuo

Editor: Yinuo

Proofread by Xu Lai and Lin Lin