So let us say you have a passion- maybe it is dancing or running or …. One day while engaged in your favorite activity your knee starts to hurt a little. You try and ignore it. Then the next time you do that activity you notice the pain a little more and you try and ignore it. Next time you really can’t stop focusing on the pain so you go get some professional help.
You are told that the muscles on the outside of your hip and those around your knee are weak so you are given exercises to strengthen those specific muscles. Now I have a question for you. I don’t expect that you have a medical background. Just use common sense. Are those muscles weak because you have not been doing enough quad sets, leg lifts and “clam shell” exercises?
My explanation for the muscle weakness is that there is likely something about the way you are doing the activity- and perhaps an even more pervasive pattern in all of your movement -that is causing both the pain and weakness when you try and do more. It involves the relationships between many of your body parts rather than an isolated muscle. Isolated muscle strengthening is generally not likely to change the pattern and result in long-term resolution of the complaint. Perhaps something like habitually having more weight on one side.
One of the many gifts I received through studying Feldenkrais and the Anat Baniel Method is the ability to discover these patterns and help my clients change them for the better.
If you would like to read more about this here is link http://www.bboyscience.com/improve-movement-by-training-movement/