Hey everybody, it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm going to show you ways to relieve knee pain,
including hot and cold therapy.
So let's get started.
so before we get started if you haven't already, make sure and click on the subscribe button
to help my channel grow. so a lot of you ask me all the time with lots of in injuries, should
i use hot, should i use cold when should i use it. so i wanted to talk about it a little
bit before we get started into the stretches and exercises. now there's always exceptions
to the rule, but in general i say warm therapy or hot packs to warm up the muscles before
you do your stretches and exercises. especially if you have a hard time warming up. and then
use the cold therapy afterwards to help reduce inflammation. for using a hot pack ireliev
sent me their hot and cold therapy gel packs. and so they recommend putting a towel in between
it if you're using it on your bare skin. so you can put it in the microwave for about
50 seconds to heat it up. and so these are really nice because one you can use them as
a hot and cold pack too. they're gel so they're really soft and comfortable, and three is it
comes with straps to help you really get it in place and get it comfortable. you only really
want to do heat for maybe 10 to 15 minutes. what you're trying to do is loosen up the
muscles. warm up the muscles before you go in those stretches and exercises. and what
that helps you do is it usually gets a more beneficial stretch and exercise because those
muscles are all already loosened up. if you do stretches from what we would call cold
or stiff, you're still going to get some benefit, but it's not going to be quite as much. and
so sometimes people say riding a bike to warm up, jogging in place, marching in place, that's
a great way to warm up. but if you're having a lot of knee pain, sometimes you're not going
to be able to do that. or you don't have a stationary bike to warm up. so using a heat
pack is a really nice way to do that. so after you've gotten it nice and warmed up, then you're
going to go into some stretches. you can use a stretch strap if you have one. you can use
a dog leash if you have a dog leash, or just a belt. you want to make something, get something
so you can make a loop. so the first one is going to be a calf stretch. excuse me frog
in my throat. for the calf stretch you want to have it around the ball of your foot. if
you are on something like a futon or couch, or something put your heel just a little bit
off the edge so you've got some more movement in there. if you if you don't, then you can
just take a little rolled up towel or something and put underneath and that just gives you
some more room for your heel to have movement so you'll get a better stretch. so for the
calf stretch underneath here, it comes and crosses that knee. so you really want to get
it nice and loosened up. that will help with the knee pain. relax your foot. you're doing the
movement with the strap. so you're not actively moving it towards you, you're pulling it towards
you .and you should feel that stretch again kind of in that that calf area. you might feel
a little more at the achilles. you might feel it more behind the knee. you want to hold that
stretch for about 30 seconds. and it should be comfortable, not painful. a little bit of
tension, a little bit of uncomfortableness, but no pain. so holding it for 30 seconds, relax,
and you're gonna do that a total of three times. getting that nice stretch in there try
to keep that knee straight. if you start bending the knee, you're going to stretch a different
muscle which is your soleus muscle. so if you want to stretch the calves, make sure that
knee is nice and straight and everything is relaxed. after you do that three times, then
you're going to go into a hamstring stretch. you can keep the strap in the exact same spot
and then you're just going to go lie down on your back. and then still keeping that leg
nice and straight, you're just going to start pulling up with the strap. so again you're
not lifting your leg, you want your leg to be nice and relaxed for the stretch because
that's going to help give you a nice stretch. those hamstrings underneath the leg cross
the knee joint the other way, so again you want to get these nice and stretched out. if
you start bending your knee as you come up because it's tight, then you're not going to
get a good stretch because again since they cross that joint, you want to keep this leg
straight. so even if you have to come back down a little bit, come back down to get that
nice stretch. you should might feel it a little bit higher up you might feel it down more
by the knee just depending on where it's really tight. so again holding it for 30 seconds, coming
down, give it a quick little break, and then doing that three times. so the next one is
going to be an it-band stretch. it's almost the same setup as the hamstring stretch, except
often i'll then put this leg down just to get it out of the way. so you're still coming
up and then once you start feeling just a little tension in your hamstrings, you're going
to bring it across your body. now the key here is keep this hip down. sometimes people will
roll up and go all the way, but then you're not stretching your it band, you're just then
stretching your low back. so try and keep your hip down and then just gently bring it across
your body. and you should feel that that it band, you're really stretching that tensor fasciae
latae that tfl muscle, but it band is what everybody hears about. so that's why it's called
the it band stretch. but the it band crosses the knee, comes up into that muscle belly there.
so you might feel a little bit more at the hip, you might feel it more at the knee, just
whatever is most comfortable for you. so again 30 seconds coming back down doing that three
times. so then you're going to go over into a quad stretch. this is rolling over onto your
tummy. i like to take the strap and then kind of bring it around to the ankle and then once
you roll over onto your tummy you're going to take the strap and just kind of put it
around your shoulder. you can kind of bring up your your leg a little bit um, and then
just get into a comfortable position. now i'm propping up on my elbows just so i can see
you a little bit better, but make sure you're comfortable .so if you need to lie all the
way down so you're not stressing out your back or your neck, that's fine just make sure
you're comfortable. and then gently start pulling until you feel tension. now in your quad which
is the front of your leg or your thigh or your front thigh area, so you know you might
only be able to get to here if you have knee pain. that's fine. just go again go to where
there's tension. go to where it's a little uncomfortable, but hold that stretch for 30
seconds, come back down. you don't have to go all the way back down if you don't want to, but
just get that tension off of it. give it a little break, and then come back up for a total
of three times for 30 seconds. so once you get all those main muscle groups that kind
of cross the knee stretched out, then you're going to go into some exercises. we're just
going to do some gentle exercises, mostly isometric exercises today, so one of the big muscles
that decides to shut down when you have knee pain is your quad muscle. so a nice easy way
to get it started moving get a little bit of strengthening in it, just get it to activate
again, is a quad set. and set just is kind of a isometric version of you're activating
the muscle, but you're not really moving it which might cause pain. so i usually like to
use a little target this is just a little pool noodle, but you can roll up a towel. you
don't have to go out and get anything, and you don't even have to put anything underneath.
i like to put something underneath because i feel like it gives me a target. so with a
quad set ,your heel is going to be down the whole time. so it's not lifting up like that,
that's a different exercise. you're keeping that heel down and you're just pushing that
knee down into the roll. so this quad muscle is activating. now if you have knee pain, it
might not be activating very much. it might be just kind of in guarding mode so the goal
is to see that contraction. if you can once you go down you push into that roll or that
towel, try and hold it for about three to five seconds, and then relax. you can start off with
just five to ten, you know again if you're having pain you don't want to go overboard
with this, but eventually you can work your way up to 10 to 15 a couple sets, a couple times
a day. just depending on what your injury is, what your pain level is, and what your goals
are. so three to five seconds holding and then relax. so the next one is going to be a hamstring
set which is the muscles underneath. and so same kind of concept where you're activating
the muscles, but you're not really moving the muscles where it might cause pain. so with
a hamstring set ,you can do it lying all the way down. you can do it kind of sitting up
like me. you can also do it in a chair as well. but what you're doing this is the motion i'm
lifting my leg up.you don't have to do this i'm pulling in because that's what activates
the hamstrings is when you're pulling your heel back behind you. so instead of pulling
it, i'm pushing down and in. so this is what i'm doing, but the couch or the floor or wherever
i am is stopping me from doing it. but when i push my heel kind of down and in, those hamstring
muscles are going to activate. so same thing just maybe a three to five second hold. if
you haven't done these before, hamstrings are notorious for cramping, so i would just start
off with a little push maybe 25 to 30 percent, and then kind of work your way up from there.
but again holding it for that three to five seconds, five to ten working your way up a
couple times a day. and so the last one is going to be bridging. and so bridging is one
of my favorite exercises, but it's great for knee pain because not only are you getting
movement in there, but you're working your hamstrings, and you're working your glutes.
and your glutes have a lot to do with strengthening your knees as well. even though they're not
connected, but the hamstrings are. so with a bridge, when you're coming up imagine kind
of going up one segment at a time. you don't have to stop at each one, but you're kind of
driving those knees away from you towards the wall, away that's what you're doing. you're
coming up really activating those muscles. so you're not just pushing straight up with
your heels, you're rolling forward until you can get into a pretty straight line. you might
not be able to get all the way up there, you might only be able to get here, but the goal
is to eventually try and get in a pretty straight line, and then roll back down. so it's a slow
controlled movement. it's not just going up and down, but really trying to control it really
activate those muscles, get that squeeze in the glutes at the end, and then nice and slow
coming back down. so again depending on your pain level, just start off with five to ten
a set or two, and then kind of work your way up from there a couple times a day. so after
you get all that done, i've worked my knee, i've stretched it out, it's it's a little warm,
it's a little irritated because i've been doing stuff, and it's already injured. so if
i have a little bit of inflammation, or just to calm it back down. then that's when i would
use the the cold therapy. so it's the same concept. you only really want to do cold therapy
for about 10 to 15 minutes, and it's really important for that because a lot of times
when you're using ice or cold therapy, if you leave it on for a long period of time, your
body almost ends up going into protection mode because it thinks maybe hypothermia is
going on and actually starts warming back up the area. so really 10 to 15 minutes is
kind of the ideal time when you're using something like a cold pack. so i'm going to use the slightly
smaller one here, and so to freeze it you want to freeze it up to an hour but it's the same
kind of concept. iReliev has a nice strap, so you can get some compression on there too.
so you're not just sitting it on there, you really want to make sure that it's nice and
solid in there, just to kind of calm everything back down and relax it back down. slow everything
back down and help that healing process. so again you can see here i want to kind of show
you this one and then the bigger one here, and then they also have a little bit smaller
one for maybe um you know the wrist the elbow the smaller areas. so if you're interested
in purchasing these, 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, and i hope you feel better soon.