oh hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and running Remy, and today I'm going to show you my
seven best knee pain exercises for beginners. so let's show them how it works.
so these exercises for beginners are gonna be pretty simple, maybe what we would call
acute exercises in therapy. so you're not able to do a whole lot of movement yet,
but you just want to start activating the muscles and getting them moving. so
the first one is gonna be what we call a quad set. and so basically you're just
trying to squeeze the muscle without any movement or some people call them
isometric exercises. so I'm using just a little foam roll underneath my knee. you
can roll up a towel, just to give yourself a target. you don't have to use
anything, but I always feel like if you have something underneath it's easier to
push into. and so all you do with a quad set is just kind of what it sounds like
is you're setting that quad or squeezing this quad muscle. you want to keep your
heel down. so it's not coming up like this, it's keeping that heel down and
just almost trying to squish that knee into the roll by squeezing that quad
muscle. so I'm trying to straighten out that knee as much as I can. while I'm
squeezing I'm gonna hold that for about three to five seconds and then relax. so
that's just starting to activate those muscles, but not making a big movement
where it would be painful. so again just squeezing down three to
five seconds. you can do 10 to 15 reps repetitions of each maybe one or two
sets a couple times a day just to kind of get that moving and get it going. so
then the next one is going to be a hamstring set .so that's the muscles
underneath there, and so it's going to be the same kind of concept where I'm
activating those muscles, but I'm not actually moving the muscles. so this time
you want to have your your knee kind of bent up and have your heel on the floor,
and so really what I'm doing is I'm pushing the heel down into the floor or
the mat there to activate my hamstrings here. so you're activating those muscles,
but you're not really moving it so it's not getting that sometimes painful
movement that you might have if you're early on in your injury or early on
after our surgery. so again I'm just pushing down squeezing those muscles for
about 3 to 5 seconds, doing 10 to 15 of those couple sets a couple times a day.
so then we're gonna go into the going out, which is abduction. and the way I
like to do that in an isometric way is just take a belt now you want something
solid, so not a resistive band. this is something where you don't want them to
move because it's an isometric exercise. and just put it just above your knee on
your thigh area. you can do it sitting up, but I find that it's a little bit easier
to do lying down. it's a little more comfortable for people. so you want your
knees to be about hip-width apart so a little bit of space in between and then
this time you're just pushing out into that belt. now again you're holding it
for that three to five seconds when you're first doing all of these
exercises, and you're activating those muscles in pushing you might only want
to do about 25 to 30 percent of how hard you can think you can push because even
though you're not doing big movements, you're activating those muscles that
maybe you haven't worked in a while. they haven't done what they were supposed to
in a while. so don't start out pushing as hard as you can a hundred percent just
just push out you don't want to feel pain but you want to feel a little bit
of tension. you want to feel those muscles activating and they relax that 3
to 5 seconds, again you know 10 to 15 a couple sets of
those a couple of times a day depending on what your injury is and if your
doctor or therapist has cleared you for those exercises. so then the next one is
just going to be the opposite so you're squeezing in for those adductor muscles.
and so now you're just gonna take a ball. if you don't have a ball like a
basketball, a soccer ball, volleyball, you can fold up a pillow, but you still want
to have your knees and about hip width apart. they can go a little closer and a
little further out, but you don't want it to be like a tennis ball or something,
you want to have some space in between so you're kind of in that neutral
position. and then this time you're just squeezing inward. sometimes people feel
this a little bit more because those adductor muscles don't get worked as
much as they should, so just again start off with a little bit, don't go too crazy
25, thirty percent holding it that three to
five seconds, ten to fifteen, a couple times a day. so once you get those
working then we're going to start putting a little bit of movement into it
and I'm gonna sit up in a chair to show you that. so now that we've exercised
some of the muscles around the knee, the quad, the hamstrings, the IT band area and
the adductors, those all help strengthen the knees. so now we're going to get some
movement to strengthen them even more. the calves also come up and cross that
knee so now you're just going to come up with a heel raise and then down and
bring up your toes so you're just going to alternate back and forth. again this
is for beginners or maybe the acute part of your injury, so we're not putting a
whole lot of weight to it, but we're just starting to get things moving. almost
pumping the ankle to get blood flowing in the circulation in the legs and this
also works those calves as well. they come up and cross that knee, so again ten
to fifteen couple sides, a couple times a day. then the next one is going to be
what we call a seated hip flexion. and even though it's for the hip flexors,
those hip flexors have a lot to do with our knees. so it's really important to do
these as well. the important part is when you're sitting it's good to use a chair
with a backrest so you can keep yourself upright, but if you don't have the
backrest, if you're sitting on something and they're not supported, try not
to lean back when you're lifting your leg. you really want to use the muscles
to bring that knee straight up. so you're just coming up like this and even though
it looks like a simple movement, and I like to alternate back and forth, if you
have an injury or you've had a surgery or maybe you just haven't worked these
muscles in a while, this is gonna work those hip flexor muscles and again that
really helps with the knee. and as you can see when I bring it up I get some
motion work in my knee as well. so again 10 to 15 of those. if it gets really
easier doing 20-25 with no problems, you can put an ankle weight around your
ankles to get a little bit more resistance to it .and then so the last
one is just going to be then what we call a long arc quad. and so now all
you're doing, some people will call this knee extension, is bringing up your leg
and squeezing, again this is going back to working that quad muscle. I
like to pull my toes up at the end. that just gives me an extra contraction of
that quad muscle. you don't have to it also stretches your calf when you come
up, but I also feel like that just helps get some motion in your knee as well
especially if it's stiff and tight. but this is a really good one as well to
strengthen those muscles because now you're getting movement with the quad. the
first exercise we did was kind of an isometrics, and now we're getting some
movement with it, and so you can alternate back and forth if you want. two
of these, or if you want to do them all on one side and then switch and do the
other side. but even if you just have knee pain on one side, I'd really work
both sides because most likely the other side has been compensating. and you want
to keep that one nice and strong and don't let it get angry on you too. so
those were your seven best knee pain exercises for beginners. if you'd like to
help support my channel, make sure and click on the link up there, and don't
forget to subscribe, where Remy? yeah down there mm-hmm. and
remember be safe (don't forget your shoes), have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.