hey everybody it's doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you ways to relieve
knee pain. so let's get started. so before we get started if you haven't already
so before we get started, if you haven't already,
make sure and click on the subscribe button because it helps grow my channel
so I can continue to make videos for everybody. so let's start off, I'm gonna
start off on the floor. you can do these on a couch or bed if you have a hard
time getting on the floor, but we're just going to stretch out some of the muscles
around the knee, and one of the big ones is the hamstring muscles. so I've got a
stretch strap here. you can use a belt, you can use a dog leash, it doesn't have
to be anything fancy, a $1.00 jump rope, but just something solid to get you to be
able to pull up your leg. so when I'm stretching my hamstrings on the floor, I
like to prop up the other side. this just takes some pressure off of my lower back
area but some people like to put their leg down. that's fine. you can do that if
you want to. the key with a hamstring stretch is make sure you keep your legs
straight the whole time. you're using the strap to pull your leg up, so you're not
lifting your leg up, you're pulling with the strap to bring your leg up. but the
knee needs to say straight. if it's not straight, if it starts bending like this,
then that's probably not what it is not good because then the hamstrings aren't
getting a full stretch since they cross that knee joint, so you really want to
stretch them out. so even if you have to come back down lower, if this is as far
as you can go, that's fine. if you can go up a little bit higher that's great, but
as soon as you feel that knee starting to try to bend, then come back down just
a little bit so you can keep it straight. you can also pull your toes a little bit
that'll help stretch out your calf muscles some, but since this is a full
stretch, you want to hold it for 30 seconds. so really getting that nice
stretch in there and then slowly come back down.
when you're stretching, you want to do three sets of thirty seconds on each
side. I usually do each side even if just one side is bothering you, if you have
time. so the next one is going to be a quad stretch in the front, so I'm going
to switch legs just because we're gonna roll over on our stomachs, and so that
this is going to be closest to you so you can see it. so you want your
strap to hopefully be something long enough that if you flip over you can
bring it around your shoulder like this because you want to be comfortable. you
don't want to have to be reaching back for something shorter even though you
can. you can leave it on your foot or you can bring it around to your ankle area.
so whatever is more comfortable for you. also if you're on your tummy, you can put
a little pillow underneath your stomach if your back is uncomfortable, but make
sure you're lying down so you don't end up messing up your back or making it
sore. so you can kind of prop up this way, or you know all the way down if it's
more comfortable. so this time I like to bring it around my shoulder like this so
I can just pull, but you want to try and bring that heel as close to your bottom
as you comfortably can. but you should be feeling that stretch in that quad. so
again this is a full stretch. you're gonna hold it for 30 seconds, come back
down and give yourself a little bit of break, and then come back into the
stretch like that. so again it shouldn't be painful, it should just be tension.
maybe slightly uncomfortable, but it shouldn't be painful. so three times 30
seconds on each side. and then we're gonna come back over here, put that strap
on the foot again and then lie back down on our backs. and so this time
we're gonna do an IT band stretch. so I would bring this leg down this time
because you're gonna bring it across your body.
it's kind of the same as the hamstring stretch, you're coming up you're keeping
that leg straight, but you don't have to come up as high as you comfortably can.
some people get a better stretch if they're lower and go over, some people
get a better stretch if they're a little bit higher and go over, but the key is
keep this hip down. so if you need to put your hand on it that's fine, and then
come over into the stretch here. so it's not rolling up and this is coming up,
you're not getting that IT band, so try and keep the pelvis the hip down and get
that stretch. and you might even feel it down here in the knee. you might feel it
up in the hip because it comes all the way down and crosses that knee. that's
why it's kind of important to get that one stretch out as well. so again same
thing for the full stretch thirty seconds three times.
so another great way to relieve knee pain is using a tens EMS or PMS unit. and
so a TENS unit just stands for transcutaneous electrical nerve
stimulation, and it's like whoa what's that.
and that's basically it's just kind of working the surface nerve so it's
helping to calm down the pain. in theory it just it kind of cancels out the pain
pathway going to your brain. that's not exactly what happens, but it really is
you'll feel that vibration instead of the pain. so a lot of times if you have
maybe weak muscles that can cause a knee pain, or if you're just having general
pain and you want to kind of calm down that knee pain, you can do that as well.
so the unit I'm going to use today is the Auvon dual channel tens massager.
and what's really neat about this one is it has twenty-four different modes .and
so you can use one channel with two electrodes, or two channels with four
electrodes. I'm just going to use two today to kind of show you what's going
on. but what I really like about this unit is it actually shows you the modes
that are the tens, the modes that are the PMS or the EMS, and then the modes that
are the massage. because sometimes with some units it just has pictures and it
doesn't tell you which one it is. so it's nice to actually know which ones you're
doing. so when you're using the electrodes, you really want your pain to
be in between the electrodes. so if I'm using just two like I'm going to. let's
say my quad here is really tender and painful. so I'm just going to put maybe
one here and then cross it right here. so if my pain is here in the middle, I want
that channel to go back and forth. if I had four, then I would put the other two
here so it would be like a cross. you don't really want to put electrodes on
the pain, you want the pain to be in the middle. so the current goes back and
forth. so then here if I'm just going to do the tens where I just want some pain
control, now on this side I'm going to start putting the intensity in there. now
if you've never had a TENS unit or a EMS PMS unit before, sometimes the first
thing is a little bit like "whoa, oh my," but it will kind of ramp up and
down depending on what mode is on. so I usually tell people you don't
necessarily have to have a specific one. they'll say, you know do I need this for
this or this for that. you don't it's for pain control. so it's really just which
one feels best for you. some kind of nicely ramped up and down. some almost
feel like it's tapping you. some feels like the the massages and stuff. if you
get a slight contraction really quickly and then it goes away that's okay, but
for tens you don't want that solid contraction the whole time. that would be
something more for like the electrical muscle stimulation. so this is also just
a nice way to relieve that pain. you can also do exercises with a tens unit on. so
I'm going to go ahead and take this off. if you're interested in purchasing the
Auvon, you can click on the link up there. so now we're going to go into some
exercises that will help with knee pain. one of my favorite is because it's not a
big movement it's an isometric movement is a quad set. so with a quad set,
sometimes people don't use anything underneath their knee, but I like to put
a little roll. it can be this is just a cut out piece of pool noodle. it can be a
folded up towel, but it just gives you a little bit of a target. and what you're
trying to do is activate this quad muscle, but not you're not not making a
big movement that might be uncomfortable. the key is to keep your heel down. so
it's not when you're squeezing your foots coming up, you want to keep that
heel down. but you want to push that knee into the roll or the towel to activate
that quad muscle as much as you can. if you pull up your toes, sometimes that
helps, but make sure you're keeping that heel down on the floor and just hold it
for about three to five seconds and then relax. so if you have some knee pain, if
you have an injury you might not see that contraction, but that's the goal.
you're trying to see a contraction in that quad muscle there. so again three to
five seconds, maybe you just start off with five to ten a couple times a day
and slowly work your way up because you don't want to do too much. even if it
doesn't seem like you're doing a lot, you're really contracting those muscles.
so then the next one is going to be a hamstring set. so it's the same idea
where you're activating that muscle, but you're not moving it. so it's a nice
to start getting the muscles exercise, but not making a big movement that might
be uncomfortable. so this time with your heel, you're basically just pushing your
heel into the floor. so that's activating my hamstrings underneath. so what you
want to be doing is this you're pulling it in, but the floor is stopping you. so
you're pulling in that way, and sometimes with hamstring muscles they like to try
and cramp up a little bit, so don't really try and do as hard as you can for
either one of the isometrics. you just start off with maybe 20 to 30 percent of
all you can activate, and that that will just start getting enough to contract it.
if you don't have any cramps, then you can start pushing a little bit harder
later on, but that three to five second hold, maybe five to ten a couple times a
day. and then finally if all those feel good then you can go into something like
a bridge, which is moving the knee, getting the hamstrings and the gluts and
everything putting some movement into the strengthening. bridges are one of my
favorite because it works the knee, the hamstring, to the gluts, and your lower
back. so it's kind of a combination workout. you're just gonna prop both
knees up, put your feet about hip width apart. it doesn't matter too much but you
don't want your knees to be completely together, and then you're just gonna kind
of roll your spine up. so almost one segment at a time, but you don't have to
stop at each segment. so you're just kind of rolling up really pushing your knees
forward. that's the goal that you're trying to do. and then nice and slow
rolling it back down. so it's not a quick movement. you don't have to sit here and
pause at the top (little hair right there) but you want to hold it just
enough to get those muscles activated and then roll back down. so again with
these just maybe starting off with five to ten and working your way up. because
again sometimes those hamstrings want to cramp up a little bit. if you want to
take the hamstrings a little bit out of it, you can move on your feet a little
bit closer to your heels. but you really, the goal is to get this high, but if you
can only get to about here, that's okay. that's a little bit of a modification,
you can slowly work your way up. so if you're interested in purchasing the
Auvon dual channel tense massager, make sure and click on the link up there,
and don't forget to subscribe by clicking down there. and remember be safe,
have fun, I hope you feel better soon.