Hey everybody it's Doctor Jo, and today
I'm going to show you some stretches and
exercises to relieve knee pain. So let's get started.
When you have knee pain the main muscles that you
want to stretch are the ones that go
around the knee joint. So that would be
your calf muscles underneath here cuz
they cross up on top your quad muscle
because it's attached to that knee cap or
patella, your hamstrings which come and
cross the other side, and your IT band on
the side which also crosses the knee. So
since all those muscles cross the joint
when they're tight, they can cause pain
in the knee. To start off we're going to
stretch the calf muscles. There's a lot
of different ways to stretch them, but I
like to use a stretch strap and when
you're stretching your calf or down at
your foot, I like to have it propped up a
little bit, or if you're on a couch or a
bed make sure your heel is off the edge
because that will just help you stretch
a little bit more. So I just kind of like
to prop it up, that's just a pool noodle,
just so you have some extra movement
there and it's not rubbing on the floor.
If you've got a stretch strap, that's
great if you don't, you can use a dog
leash, you can use a towel, or you can use
a belt, but you want it to be something
firm not one of those resistive bands.
Place it about at the ball of your foot,
and relax your foot and then pull
towards you. So you're not actively
moving it towards you, you're pulling
with that strap towards you. So just go
till you feel that stretch underneath
there. You want to feel tension, you want
to feel pressure, but you don't want it
to be painful because you're going to
hold it for 30 seconds, so if you're like
this and it hurts the whole time, you're
pulling too much so then take a little
bit of pressure off of it because you
want it to be that hurts so good not
just hurt so hurt. So after the 30
seconds, give it a little break maybe a
10 second break, and then do a total of
three of those. So just a nice pull, get
that stretch in there, you might feel it
underneath the knee, you might feel it
right here, or you might feel it all the
way through, so again holding for 30
seconds doing that three times.
While I'm sitting here what I also think
is really really good for the knee
especially if it's painful is to move
that kneecap or that patella around to
mobilize it because a lot of times this
is tight and if it's the quad muscle's
tight, and just that whole joint is tight,
that kneecap pushes down into the femur
bone and causes a lot of pain too, so
having extra movement there really helps.
So with the patella mobs, what you want
to do is just kind of grab that kneecap,
sometimes it's hard to find, people have
smaller ones people have bigger ones, but
try and just place your fingers all the
way around it, and then just start off
moving up and down. So you don't want to
push downwards while you're doing it you
just want to move it this way because
you don't want to push it into that
joint. It might be really hard to move it at
first you might feel a little bit of
grinding or some crunching noises, I even
have a little bit in mine and that's
called crepitus. As long as it's not
painful, that's pretty normal. This
feeling for some people is kind of icky,
some people have that feeling, so if you
can do it that's great, if you can't
that's okay, but I really think it helps
loosen up that whole kneecap in that
joint. You want your muscles to
be completely relaxed while you're doing
this. If you're if your quad's tight, you
can't really move that kneecap because
it pulls it tight, so make sure you're
nice and relaxed. After you go up and
down, then you're going to go side to
side. I usually just place my fingers on
the side and then push back and forth
like that, so you can see mine moves pretty
well. If you have knee pain or joint
issues, it's not going to move quite that
easily, but you want to do a firm push,
but again not painful, so if it's painful,
don't push quite as hard because the
more you stretch, the more that'll loosen
up. So just do that for about one or two
minutes, you can alternate going up and
down, side to side back, and forth. Another
great way to help relieve knee pain is to
get a knee sleeve like a compression sleeve.
The folks at For-Knees sent me their knee
sleeve, and what's great about knee
sleeves is when you put it on, there's
some compression in there.
If you have a little bit of swelling in
your knee, this helps work that swelling
out of the knee, that compression gives, I
like to call it like a little hug. It
just gives that nice compression feeling,
it makes everything feel good in there,
it helps keep stuff staying in place a
little bit, but it's not a brace where it
does all the work for the muscles, so it
just helps it out a little bit. And if
you are into alternative medicine, this
sleeve is extra special because it has
magnets in it, so it's really nice if
you're into that stuff. This is a great
sleeve to have because it has that extra
component in there and you can see that,
you know, it stays in place because it's
got a little more elastic here to keep
it in place, so that's nice. So go ahead
and lie down.
The next one is a hamstring stretch and
again there's a lot of ways to stretch
your hamstrings, and you can check out my
hamstring video if you want a different
way, but the one that I like the best is
again using a stretch strap, so using the
dog leash, a belt, a long towel, but
something that's nice and firm. Take the
loop, put it around your foot here. You
can go a little bit lower for this one
because this is stretching the hamstring
and not necessarily your calves. You want
to relax your leg, you're not actively
lifting your leg up, you're using the
strap to lift the leg up because it's a
stretch so you want those muscles to be
as relaxed as possible, so just start
pulling it up, try and keep that knee
straight. It might be hard if it hurts,
but you want to keep it as straight as
you can because that's going to help
stretch those hamstrings. If you can only
go to here, that's fine get that stretch
where you need it, you don't want it to
be painful, you want that tension to be
in there where you're feeling a good
stretch, but no pain. The further you come
up, the more you'll feel the stretch but
if your knee starts to bend as you come
up, take it back down. You want to keep
that knee as straight as you can. If you
want to stretch your calves while you're
stretching your hamstrings, you can pull
your toes up, and that will stretch the
whole leg, but if you want to focus on
those hamstrings just relax that whole
leg and then hold that stretch for 30
seconds, come back down, give it about a
10-second break, and then come back up. So
do three of those hamstring stretches
for thirty seconds. The next one is an IT
band stretch. The one on the side, and so
again there are several ways to stretch
the IT band, but I like the strap because
it's easy and if you've already got the
strap on your foot you can just continue
to stretch and not have to really change
anything. I like to put this one down
because you're going to come up kind of
into that hamstring stretch,
but don't go quite as high, you don't
want to start feeling a big stretch, and
then drop it across your body until you
feel that stretch on the side. Some
people will feel it in the butt area, but
that's because the IT band kind of comes
all the way up into that hip, so you'll
feel that stretch, and the lower you go
the more stress you feel. If it's more in
the back, try coming forward again
bringing it up just a little bit more
and then come over again, and you might
feel it all the way down in the knee,
anywhere here or up in that hip area or
all at one time. If it's really
tight, you'll feel that a lot, so
again holding that for thirty seconds,
coming down, taking a break, and doing
three of those. So come up first, and then
across your body, and just let that hang
for that stretch. And then the last
stretch is going to be for your quad
muscle. Again there's a couple different
ways you can do it, you can stretch on
your side you can stretch on your
stomach,
I like stretching on my stomach because
then it holds your quad in place because
you want it to be a pretty straight line
position. So this time, I like if you have
a loop on your strap to put it all the
way around your leg down at your heel,
and then take this or the strap before
you, turn over, and bring it up high
because what you're going to do is when
you turn over, you're going to have it
around you like this. Again just relax
that leg, and start bending at your knee,
and then pull it up towards your bottom
as far as you comfortably can. So again
you might be here, and you'll feel that
stretch, but the closer you can get to
your bottom, the better it will stretch,
but again don't don't force it don't go so
hard that you can barely hold it for
five seconds, you want to hold that
stretch for about thirty seconds, and
then relax it, and then do that three
times. Come in all the way up and holding
that stretch. After you do those
stretches, if you want to strengthen your
hamstrings you stay in the same
positions, and then this time it's the
active movement, so you're strengthening
the hamstrings. So not the quads but
you're kind of doing the same movement,
so when it's active, you're strengthening
the hamstrings, and you're just bringing
it up now as far as you can and slowly
coming back down. If you have a lot of
knee pain, I would start off not with any
resistance or any weights, but if you can
do 20-25 of these, and that slow
controlled motion, not fast, but nice and
controlled little push on the end there,
then you can add a 1 pound ankle weight
and work your way up from there. The last
exercises are going to be standing up.
For calf strengthening you can do a
simple exercise of just going up on your
toes or a heel raise. If you're a little
bit off balance, make sure you hold onto
something like a sturdy chair or
countertop, and then just lift up on your
toes, whoa!, and come back down. A little
bit slower than that, so coming up and
then nice and slow coming back down, so
again if you feel like you're popping
it back down, make sure that you're
holding on to something, and then nice
and slow coming back down. Just start off
with ten of those, if it feels okay then
the next time, do two sets of ten, and
then work your way up to two sets of 15
or 20. And then the last one is going to
be for the quads and the hamstrings, and
it's a simple squat. Squats work great
for the legs, knees, hips, all that to keep
it nice and strong. Again if you feel a
little off-balance, or if your knees are
really bothering you, make sure you put a
chair behind you, and use the chair so if
you get down then you can't come back up
you can just sit down into the chair, and
you can also use it as a target, but then
as you get
stronger, you can take that chair away
and use nothing behind you, but make sure
that you start off with that so you have
support. You want your feet to be about
shoulder width apart, and you want your
toes pointing forwards. Make sure you
bend at your hips and your knees, and
keep those knees behind your toes, so
it's not going forward like that because
that's putting a lot of pressure on your
knees, if you have knee pain that's going
to hurt. Make sure you stick that booty
back behind you, keep your back straight,
and bend at your hip so you're coming
back this way, and coming back up. If you
want to use your arms as a balancer, you
can. Coming back up. You don't have to go
super deep to start off with, you can do
a little mini squat, come back up, but if
you have that chair behind you, use it as
a target. If you don't feel your butt
tapping onto that chair, you're probably
going too far forward. If you can't see
your toes, then you're probably going too
far forward, so make sure you can see
your toes as you go down. Your weight is
even on your feet, so even on the front
and the back, they're not shifted forward
or shifted back on your heels, so just
nice and smooth down and up. So again
just start off with 10 of those, and same
thing, work your way up from there.
Those were your stretches and exercises
for how to relieve knee pain. If you're
interested in purchasing the For-Knees
compression sleeve, you can click up here,
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safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better
soon.