oh yeah yeah I know, go Gamecocks! hey everybody it's doctor Jo and my twin
Kali. we're sporting the Gamecocks today. today
we're gonna show you my top seven moderate knee pain exercises. so let's get started.
So these exercises are at the moderate level. they're still not high level yet, but if
you feel like these are too much, I have a beginner level as well, so make sure
and check that one out first and then come back to this one. so we're gonna
start off lying down and this is just going to be a bridge. I really like
bridges. they're great for the knees. they're great for the hips, and they're
great for the back. so it's kind of a total package. when you're doing a
bridge, you want your knees propped up in a good comfortable position. and when
you come up, you're almost coming up one segment at a time of your back. but you
don't really have to stop at each one, but instead of just coming straight up
and down, you really want to go smooth and control kind of bringing up one
segment at a time and just getting into about a straight line. you don't want to
end up arching your back, but you don't want to be sagging down here either. if
you can't get quite to here, you might not be ready for these exercises yet. and
then just kind of slowly come back down rolling as well. so bridging should be
nice slow and controlled. you should feel like kind of in your glutes back here
and your hamstrings as well which cross at that knee. so this is great
strengthening exercise and just start off with 10 to 15 you can do a couple
sets of those and then a couple of the throughout the day. so several throughout
the day and again if you really want to come down slowly to make sure that
you're getting that smooth motion. so the next one is going to be a clam shell
exercise. clam shells are a little bit harder than they look just because
sometimes people don't do them correctly. I'm gonna kind of prop up my head just
so I can see you, but you really want to be comfortable. you want to lie your head
all the way down. you don't want to end up straining your neck a little bit. your
hips should be perpendicular to the floor straight up and down. a lot of
times when people go into the clam shell, they'll roll their hips back, so then
you're not quite getting the exercise that you want because you should feel it
up here. and even though these are quote "knee exercises" the glute medius has a
a lot to do with how your knee functions so you want that to be strong as well. so
your hips stay in this position the whole time. you're gonna bring your knees
up and your feet want to kind of be in alignment with the rest of your body
with your knees coming out. your feet are going to stay together and then you're
going to just lift that top knee up. but again just go until you feel comfortable
because if I go any higher then I'm going to want to roll back and you don't
want to roll back. so you're just lifting it up to about
right there and then nice and slow coming back down. so again these are a
little harder than they look like. they are usually you can get to three or four
and you're like oh well this is pretty easy, but once you get past that they get
a little bit more difficult. so again just start off with 10 or 15 a couple
sets of those a couple times throughout the day. if that gets easy, then you can
add a resistive band or an ankle weight on your thigh area to add some more
resistance to that. so then the next one even though we're counting it as one
exercise it's really going to be four put together and we just call this the
four-way hip lying down. so to start off with you're going to do hip flexion. so I
like to prop up the opposite side so if I'm working my left side I'm just going
to prop up and right because it gives me a target you want to keep your legs
straight and by keeping it straight to help lock out the knee. if you pull your
toes up towards you that's going to help lock it out and then you're just going
to bring it up almost even to the other side. it doesn't have to be exact, but you
don't want to kick it all the way up and you don't want to just like bring it up
to here. if you can't do that, you might not be quite ready for you. come about
even to the other side and then nice and slowly coming back down. you're really
controlling it. don't let gravity just drop it back down. so again that is going
to be about a 10 to 15 reps just until you get used to it a couple times
throughout the day and you can start bumping it up as those become easy. so
then the next one is a hip abduction and I'm going to turn towards you but you
want the leg that you want to work to be on top. so now it would be my right side
so with this one you can leave your bottom leg a little bit if you want to
just for comfort, but you want your hips in your top leg to be pretty much in
a straight line. so you don't want your leg coming
forwards, and the key to this one is to really help get the muscles on the outer
part of the leg that go down and cross that knee joint. you want to pull your
toes up and lead with your heel and when I say lead with my heel, I mean coming
up like this, not coming up like this. so when you come up, you're gonna lead with
your heel, and you're actually gonna go slightly behind you and that's really
gonna help activate those glutes. so when I come up, I'm going up this way. I'm not
just coming up forward like this because then I'm not I'm using my hip flexors
more than the outside. and I'm not coming up with my toes because then again
that's working the front of my leg and side this side so pulling your toes up
leading with your heel, going back behind you trying to keep that leg as as
straight as you can. so again 10 to 15 of those a couple
times throughout the day. then you're gonna roll over onto your stomach and
you're gonna do a hip extension. so again these are called hip exercises, but
all these muscles cross that knee so they're really important to do as well
to get that strengthening in the knee. so with this one you still want to keep
that leg straight. sometimes if you are lying on your bed or your couch where
you can hang your leg off or your toes off of it it makes it a little bit
easier, but I'm just gonna prop it up like that because still pulling up my
toes helps lock out my leg. now when you're lying on your stomach, you want to
keep your hips on the floor so it's not bringing it up like this, but it's really
just bringing it up about right here. so it's not gonna be high, you don't
have to kick it up high, but you don't want to roll to get that leg up either.
you really want to work those hip extensor muscles coming up and then nice
and slowly coming back down. so again 10 to 15 a couple times day. if you get to
20-25 and they're easy, then you can add an ankle weight onto it. so then we're
going back again to the left side you would just be rolling all the way around.
so now we're gonna do adduction, ad, so with this one, the leg you want to work
is gonna be on the floor. you can either prop your foot up behind it, or you can
prop your foot in front of it. I'm gonna go behind just so you can see my leg and
again you make sure you're comfortable make sure you're relaxing your neck that
not up like me, but again pulling up those toes to kind of lock it out and
this time you're just bringing it up this way. so again this one's not going
to be a big motion either, but you want to try and keep that leg straight and
you want to try and pull it straight up to work those inner thigh muscles or
those adductor muscles. so once you get all of those worked around, now we're
going to go back into the bridging but we're gonna make the bridging a little
bit harder. so while I get the band's the loop band around my legs, I want to thank
some people on my wall of thanks. so thank you to Woody and Daisy,
Steve S. Nimish S. and Holly A. And if you want to find out how to get on my wall
thanks and support my channel make sure and click on the description below. so
with this time with the bridges, you're gonna use a band. so you're activating
not only your glues down here, but you're working the muscles on the side as well.
so you're making these muscles work together. so this is a little bit harder,
I'd start off with a really light band nothing too crazy, but the goal is to
keep your knees about the same width apart. so when you come up into the
bridge, this time the band is gonna want to squeeze your knees together, but you
want to keep them out. so some people will do this as they come up their knees
will come together, but you really want to keep them out and keep that equal
distance apart the whole time. so when I'm coming up into that bridge, my knees
are still just as far apart as they are when I'm coming back down. so again you
just want to do about 10 or 15 of those and then you can do those a couple times
a day. so the next exercise is just gonna be a sit to stand. so this is kind of the
pre step to a full squat, but you still want to do all the same techniques, but
you're actually going down into a sit instead of just squatting down. so you
want your feet about shoulder width apart. you can do it slightly further
apart than that and your toes are going forward. when you go down into the
sitting position, you really want to stick your booty back when you bend.
you don't want your knees coming in front of your toes, so you're really
coming down almost trying to find that chair when you're sitting down and then
coming back up. so really try and control it coming down,
and then control it coming back up as well. so again this isn't quite a squat
yet. you're actually going all the way down and sitting and almost resetting
yourself and then coming back up. so this one might be a little bit more difficult,
maybe just start off with five to ten and see how you feel and if they feel ok
then you can progress from there. so then the next one is just gonna be heel toe
raises. so I like to hold on to something to start off with. if you've got a little
bit of balance issues make sure you've got a countertop or sturdy chair or even
the wall to hold on to, but same kind of thing, you're gonna have your feet about
shoulder width apart. and then you're just going to come up on your toes
raising your heels, and then slowly come down. that's the key and then bring your
toes up. so I'm not, when I bring my toes up, I'm not sticking my booty out, I'm
lifting those toes up working the front shin area, the anterior tibialis, and then
coming back up on my heels. so just nice slow controlled motion and then if that
becomes easier, then you can kind of stop holding on and then working your way up
from there. but make sure you hold on to start off with. and so then the last one
is just a single leg stance. so you're working on balance a little bit and
again it's not directly working on the knee, but balance has a lot to do with
our ankles, knees, and our hips, so you really get a good benefit getting
exercises for the knee when you're doing balance exercises. so it's just like it
sounds, it's a single leg stance. again maybe have something to hold on to to
start off with. you can start off with two hands, maybe then one hand, just a
finger, and then nothing at all. but maybe we start off with just 10 to 15 seconds,
and you can see I'm moving around a little bit and that's okay. and then make
sure you're switching sides. so again you don't have to go crazy with
it, that 10 to 15 seconds but then you can work your way up to 30 seconds and
then a minute if all of that becomes easy. so there you have it. those were my
top seven moderate knee pain exercises. if you like to help support my channel,
make sure and click on the link up there. and don't forget to subscribe
yeah down there. and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.