Knee pain is incredibly common. If you live long enough, you'll experience some.
Today's goal is to share with you what you can do when your knee hurts to improve the health of the knee for any knee condition.
Knee Joint Health
To enhance any joints health, we want to move through the range of motion as long as it doesn't make your pain worse. Any exercise that reduces load and moves the joint through a significant range of motion can get this done.
What's the Easy Option?
Exercise Bike or Biking
Using a bike for light movement through your range of motion can provide nutrients to the cartilage and joint surfaces. The best part is most conditions are not made worse with biking. So this is a good one to try. The other great effect is you can get aerobic exercise and maintain fitness when you may not be able to do your normal exercise or hobbies.
Should You Strengthen Your Knee?
For the most part, YES! Well, this one is more dependent on the kind of knee pain you have. In many cases, you can do modified strengthening as long as it doesn't produce sharp or intense pains. It may warrant a visit to a physical therapist or other musculoskeletal provider to help direct your exercises. However, general strengthening to the lower extremities is beneficial.
What's the Easy Option?
Pain Free or Minimal Pain Squatting
No equipment, no problem. Try standing up and sitting down at your chair. Most of the time, people can do this option to strengthen their knees. Any gain in strength is protective for knee pain. If you have access to equipment or a gym, you can try pain free exercises on leg machines to start strengthening.
Should You Stretch The Knee?
It really depends on the condition and type of knee injury and your current flexibility. Usually stretching the knee does not help the joint itself, but it can make your muscles feel better. Feel free to stretch as long as it doesn't increase your pain.
If your knee joint hurts, it is tough to get rid of quickly. But there are many options to improve how you feel and recover without long term issue. To optimize your recovery, please consult a musculoskeletal specialist like a physical therapist to get back to your life efficiently.
You definitely don't have to do anything like this.
As always, send me a message or give me a call. I'd love to answer your questions.
Jon
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