Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today I'm gonna show you some stretches and exercises
for a meniscal tear. Let's get started.
When your meniscus is torn, your knee becomes unstable.
The meniscus is basically like a little suction cup in your knee. That's what I call it. And
when there becomes a tear, that suction cup doesn't hold everything together so basically
then your knee is unstable and kind of wiggling when you walk. You can't see it, but a lot
of times you can feel it. It just feels like it's gonna give out on you. So we're gonna
start off with some stretches. This first stretch is gonna be a calf stretch. You can
stretch your calf a bunch of different ways, I'm gonna show you with a strap today. You
just take, you can take a strap, you can take a belt, a dog leash works really well, or
a big beach towel if you don't have any of the others. Take the strap and put it at the
ball of your foot. You don't want it on your toes and you don't want it down low, you want
it right there at the ball of your foot so it doesn't slip off and hit you in the face.
Just relax your leg and then pull towards you to stretch that foot. And you should feel
it underneath where that calf muscle is. So just hold it for about 30 seconds and then
relax. And do that 3 times. Just pulling towards you as far as you comfortably can. You don't
want it to hurt cause your knee's gonna b a little tender while you're stretching because
that calf muscle comes and crosses over the knee. So that's kind of stretching out that
joint area so it not quite as painful on the meniscus. Then the next stretch you want to
do is a hamstring stretch. Again I have a video for a lot of hamstring stretches and
calf stretches if you want to check them out, but I'm just gonna show you the one where
you're lying down. So still keeping the strap in the same spot, you don't have to move it,
just at the ball of your foot there. And then you're gonna lie down. Bring the strap and
just pull it up towards you as far as you comfortably can. You might not be able to
get this far, but you want to keep that knee straight. So if you start bending right here,
come back down a little bit cause you want to keep it straight the whole time to stretch
out those hamstrings underneath here. And again, the hamstrings cross the other way,
so you want to keep those nice and loose so it's not pulling and putting pressure on that
injured meniscus. So again holding that for about 30 seconds. If you bring your toes up
towards you, that will give you even more of a stretch and it will stretch your calves
and your hamstrings at the same time. So 3 times for 30 seconds. And then going into
some of the exercises. You can start off with a simple quad set. The quad set is basically
when you're taking this quad muscle and squeezing it, or setting it, and that pushes the knee
downward. So sometimes people want to take a little roll to have a target. You can do
that, or just push down into the ground as hard as you can, comfortably. If you pull
up your toes, again that helps straighten out the whole leg. Hold that for about 5 seconds,
relax, and do 10 of those. So squeezing down, you should feel that muscle tighten up right
there, and then relax. Now if it's painful, don't squeeze quite as hard. You want it to
be uncomfortable, but not painful. Then the next one you can either lie down or stay sitting
up just depending on your comfort level. But you're just gonna take your heel and slide
it up towards you. So just up this way, which is a heel slide. You can take this one and
keep it slightly bent or straight down whichever one's more comfortable for you. And then come
back down. So just bring it up until you feel some tightness, stretch in the knee, not pain.
And then back down. So start off with just 10 of those and then if they become a little
bit easier, then you can work your way up to 20 or 25. Then you're gonna roll over onto
your stomach into the prone position. And keeping your leg as straight as you can, just
lift it slightly of the ground into that hip extension and then come back down. Try not
to lift your hips up off the ground, so don't roll it and kick high. It doesn't have to
go high. But just lifting off the ground and then slowly coming back down. Again start
off with about 10 of those and then work your way up from there. So the last exercise is
gonna be a clam shell exercise. It looks really easy, but if you're doing it correctly it's
actually pretty hard. Bring your knees together and pull them up slightly in this position.
The key to a clam shell is your hips should be perpendicular to the ground and the ceiling.
Straight up and down. Sometimes people roll them back a little bit, but you want to keep
them completely up and down. So if you have to lean them up against a wall to keep them
up, you can start off that way. But what you're gonna do is that top leg, just bringing it
slightly up, but again, try not to roll back. So it doesn't have to go high. Just bring
it up until you feel that stretch and then slowly come back down. Make sure you're doing
both sides. And just start off with 10 and work your way up to 20-25. Alright, there
you have it. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section. If you'd like
to check out some other videos, like the calf stretches and the hamstring stretches, go
to AskDoctorJo.com Don't forget to like us and subscribe. And remember, be safe, have
fun, and I hope you feel better soon.