In this video, I'm going to show you how to fix inner knee
pain in seconds. Stay tuned.
Hey, everyone. Dr. Rowe coming to you from SpineCare in
St. Joseph, Michigan. In this video, we're going to go over
easy exercises that can offer both quick and long-lasting
relief for inner knee pain. This includes pains from
general muscle tightness to more severe conditions such as
meniscus injuries to pes anserine bursitis and to make
this easy, I'm going to break the video up into two separate
parts. In the first part, we're going to focus on getting quick
relief but if you're looking for more long-lasting relief,
getting rid of it for good, definitely check out that
second part. As a bonus, all of the exercises can be done at
home and you may find get quick knee pain relief even within 30
seconds. So, with that being said, let's get started and fix
inner knee pain right now for good. Let's start by getting
some quick inner knee pain relief and we're going to do
this by releasing a lot of soft tissue and muscle tightness.
This one can give relief within seconds. As a note, if you do
have some massage oil or lotion, anything that's
designed to be put on the skin, grab it and pretty much coat
everything below and above the knee. It'll make this exercise
much more comfortable but if you don't have any, no big
deal. Just go very lightly with it. So, let's start off by
focusing on an overlooked area that causes a lot of issues on
the inner or medial portion of the knee. It's called the
pes anserine. It's an area where a lot of tendons meet and when
this becomes inflamed, it can cause what is known as
pes anserine bursitis. So, to find this area and see if this
is possibly going on, if you pretty much go right below the
knee joint which is roughly about right here and start to
press on the inner part of your shin. If you start to find a
lot of tenderness over this area, maybe even sharp pain as
you press in there, it becomes more likely that that bursa is
irritated. So, here's a way to get some quick pain relief.
What I would do is go below that area kind of trace down on
your shin and go right towards the middle of your calf and
then from there what I'd like to do is just take a thumb and
do nice long strokes upward like this applying enough
pressure in there where it's going to cause a good self
massage but not causing any discomfort so keep doing this
over and over again until you finally feel that tightness or
that pain is starting to go away you can also attack the
muscle fibers at different angles so instead of going up
with it go down like this kind of like a parallel motion
but explore the whole area and turn at any spot that you feel
needs it a little bit more and I would recommend doing this
pretty much over the whole calf on both sides right here
avoiding the shinbone on pretty much all soft tissue below the
knee because everything connects right here we want to
make sure everything is nice and loose so after we are done
focusing on the pes anserine region what I like to do is
turn my attention to the inner part of the thigh right here
over the adductor muscles when these muscles get tight you can
imagine it's going to a lot of pain right here at the medial
or inner part of the knee. So, what I would do with this one
is take both thumbs right here and start to do a rolling
motion like this on the inner part of your thigh towards your
groin. Again, finding any spot that you feel is a little bit
more tight and achy and repeating over that area until
all tightness has been released. From there, what I
like to do is then focus a little bit more on the
quadriceps because a lot of tendons go through here that
attach at the knee especially the knee cap that can cause
pain right here on the inner part of the knee so again what
I'm going to do is just this nice rolling motion with my
thumbs over all of that soft tissue with this one you pretty
much want to go over the top part of your thigh right here
on the inner part again top off to the other side and then
below the knee usually what I do for the bottom part to make
it easy is just grab my fingers just like this and then repeat
just massaging this whole area another method that you can do
that's a little bit deeper than the rolling thumb like this is
a pinching motion like this. I always kind of think of it as
like pinching dough. So, at this point, what I'm doing is
just really trying to dig into those muscle fibers just a
little bit more, pinching at em, grabbing in there, and just
finding any spot that needs it just a little bit more but go
through that whole area and any spot again, feels like it needs
more tension. Keep repeating this until everything is nice
and loose. In this part, we're going to focus more on
strengthening muscles and tendons that help support the
inner knee. This one is going to be really good for not only
quick but long-lasting relief. I'm going to go over two
different exercises. Start with the first one. It's a little
bit easier and when you feel ready, progress into the second
one. This first one is called a step up. We can use a couple
different things for this one. You can use a step up board
just like this. I'll leave a link in this video's comment
section if you would like to get one but this can easily be
done at a bottom stair or step. So, let's start by just
stepping up on that board or the step just like this.
Whatever side that you're having knee pain. Let's say
it's my right side. We're going to keep that foot flat and just
simply step off and lower our other foot downward like this.
Kinda mimicking going downstairs. The key with this
exercise though is we want to have it nice and stable. So,
when we go down, we don't want our knee buckling in or out. We
want it in line with our toes. It's all about building and
more importantly, stability to take stress off those muscles
and tendons and hopefully get some good pain relief. So, you
want to do this one nice and slowly for about 10 to 15
repetitions and also this should not cause pain. All of
these movements should be pain free. So, don't progress into
the next one until this is a pain-free motion but once you
feel ready like this is not challenging enough, what you
can start to do at that point is use weights, something like
a dumbbell a kettlebell, even a milk jug. Just put it against
your chest just like this and then repeat. You're going to
notice that it challenges the muscles a little bit more and
you're going to gain some more strength but I like to do this
for roughly 10 to 15 repetitions and if it feels
like you have a little bit more energy, you can always throw in
another set or two. So, to make this one even more challenging
and engage more muscles, this is what you can do. Instead of
keeping this back foot flat during this exercise, as you
lower the foot down, lift your heel up like this and place all
of your body weight onto the ball of your foot. You're going
to notice that the calf muscles really engage with this one. I
feel a lot on the back of my knee also. So, give that one a
try when you are ready. To take this one to the next level,
what we can do instead of going straight ahead like this is go
off to our side. We call this a lateral step up. This one is
going to engage those muscles on the inner part of our thigh
even more. So, with this one again, we want to keep our knee
nice and straight and we're just going to step off to the
side. Again, the side that has pain is going to be on that
board and then, you're just going to step up just like
this. Give this one a try for about 10 to 15 repetitions.
Just nice and slow. You can also use weights with this one
to make it more challenging. If you want to take this one to
the next level, what we can do is engage the glute medius just
a little bit more. The glute medius is a big stabilizer of
the hip and the pelvis so if we can take stress off of this
area likewise it will help our knee so as you do this exercise
let's step down on this bottom foot right here we're going to
raise our toes upward as much as we can put all of our body
weight onto our heel and now step up you're going to feel
that glute off to the side of the hip really start to engage
so go through all of these motions and progress into em
when you feel ready. So, let's build off that first exercise
by doing one that's a little bit more challenging. The great
part about this one is it's going to help both lengthen and
more importantly strengthen muscles and soft tissues around
that inner knee. I call this one the all in one. We just
need something like a sturdy chair preferably one without
wheels but you can also use something like a desk or a
wall. Let's start with very good upright posture. That
means just having your back nice and straight and you're
going to put the painful side towards the chair or the wall.
So, in this case, would be my left side. To get into
position, we're going to start by placing all of our body
weight onto the painful side's heel. So, again, this is my
left side. I'm then going to tighten my core muscles. It's
kind of like taking my belly button towards my spine to help
support the spine and then, we're going to squeeze the
glutes during this exercise. So, I'm going to start off by
just placing the other side's legs straight out in front of
me like this, toes pointed forward. What I want to do with
the painful side knee is slightly bended and making sure
with this one to keep it in line with my toes. So, make
sure it doesn't buckle out or in. Another thing too is as we
start to squat into this position, make sure not to go
to the point of pain. Stop right before that. Through
repetitions, what you're going to notice is you get more
pain-free range of motion to be able to do this exercise. So,
definitely don't build into pain but the movement is very
straightforward. We're just going to slightly squat
downward taking bottom down and slightly away to the point
where we can touch our foot towards the floor. Treat this
like a clock. So, let's start straight ahead at noon. On the
next repetition, we're going to go to one o'clock. We're
going to work our way towards three o'clock and then go all
the way back as much as you can. When you can't go any
further, work your way back to three o'clock and then all the
way to noon. The great part about this exercise is it's
going to help identify certain positions and movements that
need it little bit more. So, let's say as I do this at three
o'clock, I just have a lot of tightness or just feels really
weak. At that point, that's your weak link and you want to
throw more repetitions in. I like to roughly do this about
five to 10 times at that point but you're welcome to throw in
as many sets as you like but just really focus on the spots
that need it just a little bit more. So, to lengthen the
muscles after the strengthening exercise, we're going to do
what is known as a side lunge. This one can be done throughout
the day anytime that you need quick pain relief. Very very
easy. What I'm going to do is start with a little bit of a
wide stance little bit more than hip width and I'm going to
put my hands together kind of like a prayer position and then
put them towards my chest. Again, let's tighten our core
muscles, squeeze our glutes. With this one where you're
going to do is whatever side that you're having pain. So
let's say it's my left side. You're just going to step
towards the other side and then lunge into it with your body
weight. Keep this foot as flat as possible. The more that you
go over, the more that you're going to feel a deep stretch in
the inner part of your thigh. This one really helps hit the
adductor muscles and you're going to feel it right there on
the inner part of your knee. You want to hold this
comfortably for 20 to 30 seconds, then you're just
going to come back up like this and relax and then repeat this
one three to five times and with each repetition, try to
build into it just a little bit more. If the exercises help,
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