Hey everybody, it's Doctor Jo. And today I'm gonna show you some knee stretches and exercises,
and I'm gonna do it in real time, so follow along with me. Let's get started.
So the things
that you're gonna need, a strap, or if you don't have a strap, you can use a dog leash,
if you've got some doggies like me. Or you can use a beach towel or a belt. Just something
to be able to help pull your foot in or your leg up to get that stretching. And also a
timer or you can just follow me, I'm, gonna time everything. We're gonna do the stretches
for 30 seconds, and we're gonna do 3 of each of them. So I'm gonna mainly do my left leg
when we get into the exercises, I might switch just so I don't have to turn, but make sure
you're doing the side that needs done. So the first stretch is gonna be for your calf.
So take the strap or whatever you have, and put it at the ball of your foot. So you don't
want it down low, and you don't want it up on your toes cause if you put it on your toes
it might slip off and hit you. So right about at the ball of your foot. You're gonna be
nice and relaxed, I'm gonna go ahead and start the 30 seconds, and just pull in towards you.
So where you're gonna feel this stretch is right underneath where your calf is on the
bottom of your leg. Now as you're pulling, don't feel like you have to crank on it really
hard. You just want to feel a nice tension. I call stretching like a good hurt. It doesn't
hurt, hurt, but you're kind of like oh yeah, that feels really good. Because if you're
pulling too hard, you're gonna irritate those muscle fibers and then end up having it too
sore, or damaging something. Go ahead and relax now. And usually I just say take a 5
- 10 second break. You know, let that muscle reset itself. And then go ahead and start
again. So we're gonna pull back again for another :30 seconds. And again, make sure
that you're not pulling your toe towards you. That you're doing all of the movement with
the strap. So you;re muscles are nice and relaxed. They're just sitting there, they're
enjoying the ride. Again, it should feel good. It should be one of those where, like it doesn't
hurt, but if I push a little bit more it might hurt. So you're right at that point a lot
of times when you're stretching as you go, you can feel the muscle let go a little bit.
And then you can give it that extra stretch. Go ahead and relax again. And I didn't mention
in the beginning, but I'll mention now, you never really want to stretch cold. Go ahead
and pull again. So do a quick warm-up. You know 2-3 minutes just if you can do jumping
jacks or just bringing your knees up. Getting those muscles nice and warmed up. I warmed
up before I started. It doesn't have to be much, 2 - 3 minutes, but you need to really
get those muscles loosened and warm before you start stretching and doing your exercises
cause if you go cold, you're really not gonna get as much as a benefit cause those muscles
are gonna be tight and it's gonna be really hard to stretch them out. So as long as you
get that quick warm up, it should be pretty good. Ok, so now just kind of shake that out
a little bit. And now we're gonna go in to a hamstring stretch. So still using the strap
or belt or towel, I like the straps or the dog leashes because you can kind of take that
and then put it down low cause you want this to stay on nice and tight and now you're gonna
lay down. Keep your leg as straight as you can, and start pulling it up. Go ahead and
start that 30 second timer, and bring it up as far as you comfortably can without bending
your knee. If you pull your toes up, you're gonna get a stretch in your calves as well.
But what you should really be feeling for that hamstring stretch is that stretch right
there it the back. So if you don't quite feel it, pull a little bit more or a lot of times
people say they feel it more in their calves, then relax that foot a little bit, and that
will take the calf out of it and then you can pull a little bit more. But the key is
to keep that knee pretty straight. Take that little break. Relax it a little bit. And the
reason it's important to stretch these muscles is because the hamstrings come down and cross
the knee and the calf comes up and crosses the knee so if those are nice and loose, it
helps protect that joint and not have so much pressure on it. So let's go back into a stretch
again. Cause as you can see, a lot of time when you go back and feel behind your knees,
you can feel things that feel like a little cord. There's some on this side and there's
some on the inside. Those are those hamstring tendons, and if you feel all the way down,
you can feel that they cross that knee. So when they're tight, they're pulling on that
knee joint, and causing extra pressure in there which causes pain. So by having all
those muscles nice and loose, you don't have all that stress on that joint which helps
make everything nice and loose. Alright, coming down. Again in between, only needs to be about
10 seconds, it doesn't have to be anything big, but you do want to give it a quick break
to kind of reset those muscles. And then we're gonna go into the third one now. Just again
nice and stretched. Again, if you feel like your knee is starting to bend a little bit
like that, that means you're pulling it up too much too quickly so then come back down
cause you want it to be as straight as it can be. so if that's only to here, that's
fine. If that's only to here, that's fine. But again, bring it up as much as you can
where you're going alright that's a good hurt. Hurts so good kind of feeling, but not actually
pain anywhere. I always like to keep the other knee up because then that takes some pressure
off your back. Some people put it straight out, that's ok, you can. But I like to keep
it bent so then you protect your back if you can. Alright, so then the next one is gonna
be a quad stretch. The front of the leg. So this time you're gonna roll over onto your
stomach. I'm gonna do my right side so you can see it a little bit better, but stick
to the same side that you're gonna do. Take that little loop again and put it all the
way around to where your ankle is. Take that strap, that dog leash, that belt, and put
it over your shoulder like this. So then you don't have to stress out your body. You can
just relax going forward. And then start pulling it until you feel that stretch right on the
front of your thigh area. So again, your goal is to get that heel as close to the bottom
as you can. But not pushing through pain, just getting that nice tension on it. Now
see I'm relaxed at my shoulder. Don't turn around and crank it, twist your back, make
your back uncomfortable, really try and relax. I'm propped up on my elbows. If that's uncomfortable,
just go ahead and lay down and relax. Because, again, you don't want to stretch something
out and feel good in one area and then end up irritating something else and being uncomfortable.
So make sure that your body is in a good position while you're stretching. So let's go into
the second one. Nice pull. See I like these straps a lot cause they have the loops in
between. So sometimes you can just grab in between there. Sometimes it takes a way from
you having to grab hard on your fingers. If your fingers are uncomfortable, you can just
take the loop and do a little pull. But again, you're relaxed, you're not trying to bring
that heel actively to your bottom, your just relaxed and letting the strap do all the work.
Just nice and relaxed. If you've got a book, I guess you could read a book if you wanted
to. Alright. Come back down. We've got one more of those. Just a little pause in between.
Shake it out if you need to. And then come on back up. So again, talking about why it's
important to stretch that quad muscle. The quad muscle and tendon comes down and connects
to the kneecap. So it's the same thing, if that muscle is tight, it pulls on that kneecap
and if the kneecap isn't tracking properly, then that joint is going to cause a lot of
pain. So having that quad muscle nice and loose, really helps take away some of that
pain in the joint. A lot of times if people try and move their kneecap and it doesn't
move, that usually means that your quad muscle and tendon are tight. Alright. Now you've
got those muscles nice and loosened up, so now you're gonna go into some exercises. Don't
really need the timer for that. I always like to start off with just doing 10 of each. You
don't have to do a lot, you're just getting the movement in your hips, you knees, your
whole leg. And you want it to be, again, comfortable. Eventually you'll get to the point where your
last 2 are very very challenging, but if this is the first time you're doing it, you don't
want to do that. You just want to start getting everything moving and be comfortable. So taking
that leg, putting it straight out, again. Now you're gonna actively pull your toes up,
not with the strap, but actively. And that helps lock out the knee. You want your knee
to be as straight as possible. The other knee is bent up so you can use it kind of as a
target cause you don't want to bring the leg much higher than where this one is. Otherwise
then you kind of take the exercise out of it. So just nice and slow come up to about
where it's even, keep that leg nice and straight, and slowly come back down. So that's 1. 2.
So see I'm doing kind of a smooth motion. Not really super fast. If you're going fast,
that's using momentum, and taking the exercise out of it. But I'm not really relaxing at
the bottom, I'm keeping those muscles tight the whole time. Let's do 2 more. And then
nice and controlled, come back down and relax. If you have to take a break in between, that's
fine. You can do that, but if you can, keep those muscles tight throughout the whole 10
exercises. Now turn over onto your side. Take the top leg, you can either prop it up behind,
or you can prop it up in the front. Whatever's more comfortable for you. It's just kind of
a balancer. The leg that's on the ground is the one that's you're working. So, again,
kind of pull the toes up, to help lock out your leg. Keeping it nice and straight. And
this time, you're just gonna come up off the ground. I like putting it behind, I feel like
I have a better view of my leg to make sure it's straight. Cause you want to be in a very
straight line. And you don;t have to bring it up high, Just lifting it, controlled up
off the ground. Again, that's 3. And making sure that it's controlled the whole time.
Up and down. Don't feel like you have to take it up this high cause then you're gonna have
to modify things and move and use other muscles, and this one's using that inner thigh right
there. So you should feel it right there. Let's do one more. Now I'm gonna keep on moving,
but I'm gonna change sides, don't change sides, I'm just doing it so you can see the exercises.
So now you're gonna roll over onto your stomach. So I'm gonna switch sides, again you stay
with the same side. Still keeping that leg as straight as you can, sometimes your knee's
gonna bend a little bit for this one, but if you can, pull those toes up and keep it
nice and straight. And then just again, lift a little bit off the ground. Don't feel like
you have to crank that up cause then you;re gonna pull your back a little bit and then
you might be sore in your back. So just up and down. Nice and controlled. Doesn't have
to be big, doesn't have to be fast. As long as you're controlling those movements. Squeeze
those butt muscles if you can. That helps activate those glute muscles. And just 2 more
and then coming all the way down. And then the last one, again you would be turning all
the way around, is gonna be the top leg exercising. Some people like to just kind of bend up the
bottom leg, whatever's comfortable for you, but again, you want your body to be in a straight
line. If you're leg's coming forward, you're changing the muscles you're using and you
want to use these outer muscles, you're glute med, your IT Band, your tensor fasciae latae,
all those muscles up in here. And so again keeping the foot nice and straight, pulling
up those toes. Almost leading with your heel, so it's not going this way, it's going up
this way. But make sure you're keeping it in a straight line, or even slightly behind
you so when you kick, go back just a little bit. Keep that knee straight. Keep the leg
nice and straight, nice and controlled throughout the whole movement. You should feel a little
burn through here, maybe even a little bit in your bottom. If you squeeze those glute
muscles, that will help activate everything. And then nice and slow and smooth. One more
of those. And then you're done. So it's as easy as that, just some simple stretches,
some simple exercises to keep those muscles all around that knee nice and loose, nice
and strong. There you have it. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments
section. If you'd like to check out some other videos, go to AskDoctorJo.com And remember,
be safe (keep those joints nice and strong), have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.