Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and running Kali. She's taking a break right now
because she's got runners knee, and so we're going to show you some stretches
and exercises for runner's knee or sometimes it's called patellofemoral
pain syndrome, or even chondromalacia. So we're going to start off with some
stretches standing, then we'll be down on the ground and do some exercises, and
then we'll jump back up and do some standing exercises at the end. So let's get started.
The first stretch is going to be a
hamstring stretch. You can stretch your hamstrings a whole bunch of different
ways, but I like to do some standing up ones, especially if you're getting ready
to stretch before doing some exercises or something. You can use a chair, you can
use a stool, or if you don't have anything you can just prop your heel out
in front of you, but the most important thing is keep your back straight when
you're bending forward. You want to bend at your hips, so if I have a chair that
I'm going to prop up and stretch on, make sure you have enough balance so you
don't fall over, but if you need something to hold on to, make sure it's
close by. If you want a whole lot of balance, again you might want to just do
the ones here, but this is going to get you a little bit more stretch without
having to bend as much keep your back nice and straight keep your hips forward
and bend at your hips. So if I'm here holding this stretch, I get more of a
stretch in my hamstrings right here, but if I curl my back and come down, I'm just
getting the same stretch because those hamstrings attach back here, by
moving those hips forwards, you get even more of a stretch, so you want to hold
this stretch for about 30 seconds. If you pull your toes up towards you, that will
kind of get those calf muscles as well, and then you can get extra stretch all
the way through your leg. You can try and keep that back fairly straight, you can
put your hands on your thigh or your quad, just make sure you're not pushing
down hard, just for a little bit of balance. Come back up shake it out a
little bit. Even if you just have one side that's injured, I usualy say stretch
both sides because you want to keep them even, the other side probably has some
over compensation going on, so is probably
overused more than it should be, so it probably needs some stretching as well.
So I like to alternate back and forth to give each side of a break, but if not
just take about a 10 second break, come back up, and stretch again. So you do 30
seconds 3 times on each side. The next one is going to be a quad stretch for
the front. You can again do this standing, you can do it lying down on your stomach,
or on your side. The big thing about the quad stretch is the top part of your
thigh, you want to keep it straight down. Some people will take their legs and
stretch like this, this really isn't stretching your quad
or your thighs. You have to keep that leg downwards to get that stretch
because it attaches up here. If it's bent, it's not really getting a stretch, and if
you kick it back just a little bit, you'll get even more of a stretch, but
again try and keep your upper body straight because if I do this, again I
got a little bit here, so I'm not really stretching it out. So keep your upper
body nice and upright. Grab that heel and pull back towards. Again holding for
30 seconds, switch sides doing both sides 3 on each side. Now some people have said,
well I'm not flexible enough to grab my ankle. That's ok if you're not, take a
little belt put it around your ankle and pull it up that way, or use the chair
to get your foot there, and then you can come down and stretch that way a little
bit. So there's some ways you can compensate, and I have a quad stretching video if
you want to check that one out as well. So again 30 seconds 3 times on each side.
The next stretch is going to be for the IT band. This is really really big in
runner's knee. Those IT bands on the side can have lots of problems for
runners because they get really tight, and they start up here and they come all
the way down and cross the knee, so they can cause hip problems, they can cause
many problems, but they can cause just a lot of problems in
general. And a lot of times if it is tight, it will pull that knee cap over giving
you that runner's knee kind of pain and then that knee cap isn't tracking
properly, so a great way to stretch the IT band standing up, again you can do
this when lying down as well. Take the side you want to stretch, I'm going to
start on this side because you want something to hold on to a nice sturdy
chair, you can do it against the wall, but you want the side you want to stretch
should be closest to the wall or the chair, put the foot behind you behind the
other foot crossing it over, and then take that hip and push it over towards
the wall or the chair. So you should feel a stretch right through there.
Some people don't feel a big stretch like this, so you can change the way you
place your foot which will help stretch a little more. Some people get more of a
stretch as they go back a little bit more, and some people get more of a
stretch as they come over a little bit more, so this might be a lot if you're
really tight and haven't stretched in a while, just make sure your knees are not
going to straight over, you know, over your toes, that you're kind of going down so
you're not irritating something else while you stretch. So again taking that
foot, crossing it, pushing it over, holding for 30 seconds doing that three times.
You can switch back and forth, to give each side a break. Let's go down on the floor
and do some exercises. Well okay, so now let's do our exercises lying down. Go
ahead and roll on to your side, with the side that you want to exercise up on
top. For this one, you want to straighten out your leg, you want to keep your hips
perpendicular to the floor, so not rolled forward, not rolled back. Really concentrate
on keeping them up and down. Pull your toes up towards you, and point your toes
downwards. So when you lift up, you're going to lead with your heel and you're
going to go slightly backwards because you want this to be in a straight line, so
you're not coming up this way, which is what people tend to want to do, you're
going to come up and back. So lots of things to remember.
Hips perpendicular, heel leading going back, keeping that leg straight
as you can. So nice and controlled, coming up and slowly back down. You can start off are off
again with just 10 to 15 of these. Make sure you're relaxing your head so you're not
stressing your neck, and then working your way up. If you get to 20-25 and that's
easy, then you can add a small ankle weight to your foot, but again make sure,
perpendicular, heel up and back. Make sure you're doing both sides again. After you
do that, you're going to pull both knees up and just place one on top of each
other. Put your feet together as well and then you're going to do a clamshell
motion. Same thing with the clam shells, you want those hips to be perpendicular
to the floor. Lots of times with this one, people want to roll their hips back when
they come up, but then you're not working those muscle you're just using that roll
to bring the knee up, so keeping it straight here and just lifting that top
knee, but keep your feet together. So you're just opening up like a clamshell,
it doesn't have to be high, people tend to want to go high, but then again they
roll their hips, so keeping those hips there and just lifting that knee up off
the other one. Again just starting off with 10 to 15 if 20-25 to come really
easy, you can put a band around your thighs or you can just put a little
ankle weight around the top side and then do those with some weights. After
you do those, then you're going to roll onto your back, put your leg straight out,
keep that leg locked out, keep that knee as straight as you can, pull your toes up.
I like to have the other side bent just to take some pressure off of your
lower back. Some people keep it straight that's fine,
and then just lift it up about even to the other side. So you don't want to kick
that leg up high, you just want to keep it about there and then slowly come back
down. So same thing just working 10-15. If they get really easy when you
get higher, then you can put a little ankle weight around your ankle and then
go from there. And then the last one lying down is then rolling over onto your
stomach. So the big one here is again keeping your legs straight and not
rolling your hip when you come up with that leg. So pull your toes up, keep
everything locked out. If the knee bends a little bit that's ok, but you want to
try to keep it straight and you don't have to kick high, so it's just a little
kick right there, and then slowly coming back down. So if you try to kick high,
people tend to roll with your hip, so again just a little kick and then nice
and slow coming back down. So same thing with those starting off with 10 to 15. If
they get super easy the you can add ankle weights. So these final
exercises standing up are a little bit harder, so you might not want to do these
the first couple times, you might want to master the ones that are down on the
ground or on the floor, that are a little more doable when you're having a lot of
pain. This is after you've really gotten rid of that pain, you're really starting
to get that strengthening back. So the next one is going to be squats with a
ball squeeze, and what the ball squeeze does is it helps activate that VMO, that
inner quad, inner thigh muscle, and that has a lot to do with the tracking of
that kneecap or patella as well because this is the one that pulls it back into
place. So if it's weak, or not working properly, then that kneecap or that
patella tends to go over to the side and not track properly, and sometimes you'll
feel popping and clicking or grinding, and that's just because it's not going
smoothly up and down that muscle's weak, and so it's going over to the side. So
take a ball, it doesn't have to be a basketball, it can be anything just so
you have something in between your knees and you're squeezing it. The key is to do
the squeeze the whole time, so if you feel like the ball is dropping, you're
probably really not squeezing that much. With a squat if you need to hold on to
something, make sure you've got a chair or something sturdy to hold on to. If
your balance is a little off, maybe put the chair behind you so if you
start to squat and you can't get back up, you can just sit down in a chair.
Squeezing in, making sure that those muscles are engaged, and then sticking
your booty back as you go down so your knees aren't going in front of your toes.
So it's not this motion, those knees go way in front of my toes, it's going back
and squeezing at the same time. Try and keep your back straight, get those hips
back, bring the chest forward just a little bit to keep you balanced, and try
and keep your weight equal on your feet, so not all the way back on the heels, not
all the way on your toes. Your heels should never come up, toes should never come up,
squeezing down, and coming back up. So probably just starting off with five or
ten of these depending on how tired you get, or if you're still having a
little bit of pain. The last exercise is going to be with steps, so this last
exercise make sure you don't have a big step until you're ready to work on that.
So if you need to just have like a curb or something that's only two inches or
so, start off with that and then you can start working your way higher. Also if
you have some steps at home that's really nice cause there's usually a rail
that you can hold on to for balance because again you want to have correct
technique, so if you have to hold on a little bit to have the good technique,
that's fine. This is going to be a sidestep up. With the sidestep ups, you
want to make sure you're coming down and back just a little bit when you step
back down. For me I like to tell people just to leave the foot up on the step, so
if I want to work my left leg, my left foot stays up on that step the whole
time. You don't have to come back up and down if you don't want to, but the key is
to go controlled and slow. If you go slow that makes those muscles work, so I
always tell people do the count of three going up and do a count of three going
down. So it's going to be one two three, and then watch my foot coming down is
going down and back one two three. And the reason I like to do that is because
sometimes if you come straight down, see how that knee goes way in front of
those toes? Again you don't want that because that puts a lot of pressure on
the knee, so if you step back just a little bit, that takes that pressure off
of the knee. So again back down 1 2 3 up 1 2 3 down 1 2 3. So if you're just coming up
and coming back down, you're just using momentum and you're not really using
those muscles. If you get to that and you can master that and do 15 or 20 with no
problems, no wiggling, if you have steps that have to like this then you can come
up to the other one so you're getting more of a wider step, and you're having
to go higher as well. So same thing 1 2 3. If you need to touch a little bit for
balance, that's fine, and then down 1 2 3. So again you might want to start off with just a
little bit of those, and work your way up from there. So there you have it, those
are your stretches and exercises for runner's knee. You feel better now? If you have
any questions, leave them in the comments section. Don't forget to support us on
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down here. And remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.