- All right, Bob.
We're talking about meniscus cartilage in your knee.
If you think you have a torn meniscus
or it's already confirmed,
we're gonna show you some exercises.
And regardless if you're gonna have surgery or not,
these exercises - These are the ones.
you're definitely gonna want to do 'em.
They're basic strengthening
- As pain allows.
- Exactly right.
We'll go into detail shortly.
♪ Bob and Brad ♪
♪ the two most famous physical therapist on the internet. ♪
- Okay, we thought we'd show you a little idea
of the anatomy of meniscus.
So here is the knee joint and the quadriceps are here.
The tibia's here and the joints bending.
Now the meniscus is inside the joint.
If you take - Cartilage.
- Yep. It's a cartilage, exactly right.
There's two different types of cartilage.
That's one of 'em.
And it helps stabilize the joint.
I'm gonna pull the kneecap up out of the way like this
and we're gonna bend the knee.
And you see this right here represents the meniscus.
This blue spot here is the A C L ligament.
The meniscus is here.
If your meniscus is pulled away
from the tibia like this, that would be a problem.
This black line here would represent
where maybe you might have a tear.
Sometimes a tear folds over
and then that can cause a knee to lock.
- Lock up or not be able to extend at all.
- Yep, so you don't get full extension.
And that's a problem where you can't bend it.
Sometimes a little piece of meniscus will actually
come off and they call it a floater.
It'll float around in there and it's okay sometimes.
And then that little piece of meniscus
gets caught, hurts, - Toward the bad area.
- Yep. - It hurts.
So one way or another, these exercises are to keep
and maintain range of motion and
- And strength.
- And strengthen the muscles around.
Ah, we don't need that anymore.
Okay. This first one is for flexion.
To make sure you have full range of motion.
Bob's gonna demonstrate in a seated position like this
long seated, and I show in a chair.
So he's holding his knee, he's sliding the heel up.
You can do this in bed on the floor
and you notice he's pulling right below the knee.
You can change the position of your hands
to up closer or down here, whatever it takes to make it flex
and gain full range of motion with less pain.
- Probably 10 times.
- 10 repetitions is good.
If you get sharp pain when you're doing this
don't push through it.
You need to back off.
- Do it throughout today.
- Yep. And just work it throughout the day.
Exactly right.
All right.
Okay. In the seated position, it's simple.
Assuming things are going fairly well with it
just lean back, scoot your bottom out
on the edge of the chair and pull in here, up here.
And work your way down.
- Again, as pain allows.
- Yep. And if it is sharp pain, do not do it.
Just back off on it and come back later.
Now, if you're doing it, like we mentioned before,
the heel will actually kind of not want to slide
in your bed or the sofa.
So if you have something slippery, we're using a knee glide
and it's one of the beauties of a knee glide.
The thing about this, if you do have a torn knee
a meniscus, and you're gonna have surgery
the knee glide will come in handy.
(inaudible)
After surgery as well.
So it works out very well.
Compliments and,
- and the structure will look really off.
- Yep. So, yep.
This is use a belt
or whatever you have around to assist with your arms.
All right?
Okay. The next exercise is a strengthening exercise
for the quadriceps.
One of the main muscles that support the knee.
Okay. Bob's gonna show you here.
- Fold.
- Fold the pillow underneath.
- Underneath the knee. - Squish.
There we go.
Squeeze down.
- Hold for 10 seconds.
Yep.
(counting quickly)
Count it out slowly, as you know.
You know do 'em right?
You wanna have good quality exercises.
10 is a good number for this.
Wouldn't you say Bob?
- Right, I love it.
- Yep. So you see, and he is trying to keep the heel down.
You don't let the foot come way up high.
We're really trying to like that.
That would be a long arc quad.
We're trying to do quad sets in a different manner.
So this is nice.
And the, the pillow underneath there really
provides excellent resistance.
It's soft.
It feels good.
It's good for an injured knee.
- 10 reps.
Okay. Another strengthening exercise.
A little different than last time because we
wanna make sure you get full extension of your knee.
So Bob's straightening his leg out.
If your knee does not go straight
you can do what Bob is doing.
Take the crux of your hand above the kneecap
and push down and just work on straightening it.
Once you get it straight, then lift up
and do a straight leg raise
because it's a straight leg and you're raising it.
That was very ingenious name.
- Hey, there you go.
- 10 of these is good as well.
If the knee does not get fully straight
after you stretch it a few times, don't worry about it.
Do your straight leg raisers and then later in the day
when you come after it again
stretch it out again with the hand and then do these.
- Very good.
- Wow. Bob, is there another one?
- No, that's it.
- It's pretty simple, thats working.
- Top three.
- Yep. Bend, flex and extend, strengthen.
- You have to be ready for surgery.
- That that's right.
Surgery prehab is very important.
- Yep.
(upbeat music begins)