Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo. I've been getting a lot of questions about knee pain.
Knee pain is actually probably the second most common thing that we see next to back
pain. And that simply because you can get that OA in there. And when I say OA I don't
mean old age. It actually stands for Osteoarthritis. And you can even start getting that as early
as 25 to 30 years old. So when you start feeling some aching in your bones and your joints and
your knee, these are some stretches you can do to kind of work it out a little bit. And
remember, once you stretch you need to strengthen. Already let's get started with some of the
stretches. The first thing I'm gonna have you do is I'm gonna have you straighten
out your leg. We're gonna work out the joint a little bit, get some movement in there and
get it loosened up. So we're gonna bring out our trusty belt, or dog leash if you have
one, I usually take off my shoes for this one casue it's gonna help you slide a little
bit. If you need a towel underneath you can do that, doing it in bed seems to help a lot
because it's a little more slick on your sheets so you'll get a little more movement.
I'm gonna have you put the belt around your foot, anywhere that's comfortable, and your
gonna bring your knee up. If you need a little help, a little over pressure stretch, that's
what the belt is for. So you're just gonna kind of slide it up, get a good bend in there.
And just a little pause with this one, maybe just a 5 to 10 second pause, and then you're
gonna come back down. But the movement in the join is what's gonna loosen it up, so
you wanna do this continuously. A little pause at the top, maybe you can go a little further
the next time, and then come back down. So you wanna do that about 8 or 10 times, really
getting that joint moving. And then stretching it as far as you can, and coming back down.
Now we're going to move the kneecap around a little bit. This is your patella, they might
call it a patella, you might say "say what?", but it's basically your knee cap on top.
The key to moving around your kneecap is that your leg has to be relaxed. If you're squeezing
your muscles tight, that's pushing it down into your joint and it's not gonna move,
so you really want your leg to be relaxed, you can kind of hit it a little bit that helps
those muscles relax a little bit. And all you're gonna do is your just gonna start
moving it back and forth, side to side. That's the first one. The first couple times it might
be hard, it's not knowing what's going on, so your muscles are tightening up a little
bit, you can push pretty hard, getting that movement in there. Go side to side a little
bit, and you can go front to back a little bit. You're just moving it back and forth.
If you have some osteoarthritis in there you might feel a little bit of crunching going
on. That's ok. That's what we call crepitus, and that's just that arthritis in there.
You keep moving it as much as you can. This importance of this is the patella is connected
to your quadricep tendon up here, and your patellar tendon down there. Those, if they're
tight, push that kneecap down and you're not gonna get as much bend in your knee. So
the key here is to get that kneecap moving, and then you'll have more room to bend that
knee if it's feeling really tight. Back and forth. Up and Down. Ok. So now we're
just gonna do some stretches of the muscles. You've got the joint loosened up a little
bit, no we're gonna stretch out those muscles a little bit. I'm gonna have you bring back
out your belt, and we're gonna this time put it around the balls of our feet. So not
your toes, but just below your toes, right on the ball there, and you're gonna keep
your leg straight. This is gonna stretch out our calf muscle underneath. The calf actually,
those tendons kind of cross the knee so you really wanna get those stretched out. You're
gonna relax your foot, and you're gonna pull it towards you as much as you can. Now
if your knee starts bending a little bit, then you're pulling too hard and your changing
the muscle your stretching. So you want that leg to be straight. And you're gonna pull.
And of course this is a stretch so you wanna hold if for 30 seconds and you wanna do it
three times each. Ok. Just relax. And then pull it again. The next one is a hamstring
stretch. The hamstring has many different ways that you can stretch it, so I'm just
gonna show you one, but we do have a video of hamstring stretches, a bunch of different
ways, so if this one doesn't feel comfortable for you, or it hurts too much, go check out
hamstring stretching and you can pick out the one that's best suited for you. Because
it doesn't really matter, they're all stretching the hamstring, so if you like one
better than the other, you can do that one. But what you're gonna do, is your gonna
bring the opposite leg up. And you're gonna keep your leg straight. The key here is you
don't want to curl your back. If you're culing your back trying to touch your toes,
you're not really stretching your hamstrings because your hamstrings are connected to your
pelvis. So you really need to move your pelvis when you're going. You wanna keep your back
straight, and just lean forward. I'm getting more of a stretch in my hamstrings here, than
when I'm bending down to here. So remember you wanna keep your back straight, and you
wanna bend at your pelvis. And this stretch, 30 seconds, three times each. Ok. Now the
last one I'm gonna have you do is I'm gonna have you turn over onto your stomach
and we're gonna stretch out your quad muscle. Alright? So where we go. I'm gonna have
you take your belt again and make a little loop in it. Your gonna put the loop around
your foot right here, and you're gonna tighten it up. And so what you gonna do is your gonna
bring it around your shoulder, this is the key, and your gonna pull on that strap until
you feel a good stretch on the front thigh part of your leg where that quadriceps muscle
is. Now most people aren't gonna be able to touch their bottom like this, so you might
be right here. That's fine. You want that stretch to be a good tension stretch, you
want pressure, but remember you don't want it to be painful. So you're gonna pull and
your gonna hold it for 30 seconds, three time each. Alright, so there you have it those
are your knee stretches. And that's to help out with that OA, not old age, but osteoarthritis.
So if you like those stretches, please click the "like" button and leave us a comment.
And if you'd like to see some more exercise videos or some educational videos, please
check me out at AskDoctorJo.com and remember: Be Safe. Have Fun. And I hope you feel better
soon!