If knee pain is keeping you from being as active as you want, then you’re in a similar situation to many of the patients we see at Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine. You may find that simple things like getting out of a chair and walking up and down stairs are painful. Or you might be avoiding running, playing sports or working out at the gym because your knee hurts. Fortunately, one of the things our physical therapists specialize in is helping people to stop knee pain.
Even though your knee hurts, targeted exercise is one of the best ways to stop knee pain. This is because knee pain is often caused by specific muscles in the hips and thighs being tight or weak.
The good news is there are simple exercises you can do to stop knee pain and live your best life again.
Quad Foam Rolling
Your quad muscles are located on the front and outside of you thigh. These muscles often get tight in response to overuse or weakness. Foam rolling can help to loosen these muscles and make them less painful to use when you do strengthening exercises.
Target the rolling to the most tender areas of the muscle. Use your arms to help control the amount of pressure through the quad muscles. You should apply enough pressure so that it feels sore, but it shouldn’t be excruciating.
Roll back and forth over the affected area for 1-2 minutes once a day.
Squats
You might think squats are bad for your knees. They are actually a great way to build strength in the hip and thigh muscles when done correctly.
Start by pushing your butt back as you lower down. Keep your weight over the center of your foot and your butt behind your feet. If your butt drifts over your feet, you won’t get the work at your hips and it will put more stress on your knees.
Your knees should not collapse in either. As you can see in the video, your knees should stay lined up with the center of your foot.
Start with 2 sets of 10 reps and hold for 5 seconds at the bottom. Do these every other day. Try to work up to 3 sets of 15 reps. You should feel this mainly in your butt and thighs.
Side Step Down
The goal of this exercise is to control the position of your hips and your knee. Your hips and pelvis should stay parallel to each other.
The knee of your foot that is on the step should stay lined up with the middle of that same foot. Start easier by using a lower step or a curb and progress to a higher step as it gets easier.
Start with 2 sets of 10 every other day. As it gets easier, increase the number of reps and then the height of the step.
None of the exercises above should make your knees hurt more. If you’ve tried these and you’re still hurting, we can help you!
At Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine, our physical therapists are experts at treating knee pain and will develop a plan to help you stop it.
Call us at 703-299-3111, or click here and a member of our team will schedule you an appointment with one of our expert physical therapists.
What happens if you don’t try have a plan to stop your knee pain?
- You avoid going up and down stairs because your knee hurts
- You’re not able to play with your kids because it hurts your knees
- You stop working out to avoid pain, leading to other diseases and injuries
But WITH a plan to stop knee pain you can live the life you want again.
The exercises above are a great way to get started. They don’t require a ton of time and are pretty easy to do correctly.
But if you want an expert to listen to your unique problems and guide you to success, a Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine physical therapist will create a plan specifically for you.
You’ll feel confident that you have the knowledge and ability to stop knee pain and do all the things you want.
Call us at 703-299-3111, or click here to schedule your appointment and start your path to healing.
Working to keep you living your best life,
The Solutions Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine Team
