hey everybody it's Doctor Jo and cool mr. Bear, and today I'm going to show you
some of my favorite knee pain stretches and exercises. so let's get started.
So before we get started, if you haven't already, make sure and click on the
subscribe button and be sure to make your subscription public or let me know
that your subscriber because I always try to respond to my subscribers. so
we're gonna start off lying down with the stretches. I'm on the floor. you can
do these on your bed or couch if you have a hard time getting down or off of
the floor. so I'm going to start with a quad stretch. I'm going to use a stretch
strap. you can use dog leash, a belt or even something like a jump rope if you
don't have a specific stretch strap. so I like to have a little loop around it.
that's a lot of times why dog leashes work well. you can put the loop on it
first, but I'm gonna roll over onto my tummy because I feel like this is the
easiest way to stretch your quad and not compensate. and why what I mean by
compensating is you want to have your leg and your thigh straight down like
this. so if you're lying on your tummy. if you're able to get in this position
that's the best way to do the stretch. make sure you're comfortable. so you lie
all the way down so you don't risk getting your back irritated a little. But
I'm gonna prop up just so I can see you and kind of show you what I'm doing here.
so take the strap, or the rope, or the leash, and put it around your shoulder
like this. and so you're using the strap just to pull your heel towards your
bottom. so you might only be able to get to here. that's fine, but try and keep
your leg in a straight line. so don't bring it out. don't let that leg kind of
collapse in. you want it to be right in alignment, and just get that stretch. and
then I'm feeling that stretch in my quad under there on top of the leg. so again
make sure you're relaxed. don't be uncomfortable while you're doing it. and
then hold that stretch for about thirty seconds. you can relax it just a little
bit in between stretches and then come back into that stretch. so you want to do
that a total of three times holding it for 30.
then roll back over onto your back. you wouldn't switch sides, but I'm just
gonna switch sides so you you can see it a little bit better. and now you're on
your back and you're gonna stretch out your hamstrings. so I like to keep the
other one propped up. you don't have to. you can bring it down if you want to, but
I feel like this just takes a little bit of pressure off of your back.
the loop is gonna be around your foot, and the goal is you're still you're
using the strap to pull up your leg. you're not actively lifting up your leg.
try and keep your knee straight. if your knees are bending, you're not gonna get
that full hamstring stretch. so just start pulling it up. again you want that
knee to say as straight as it can. and if you get to here and that knee starts
bending then then bring it back down because the goal to get that hamstring
stretch, because the hamstrings cross that knee joint, the knee has to be
straight and locked out. so again you're not actively lifting the leg like this,
you're pulling it up with the strap so you can get that nice passive stretch in
there. and again this is gonna be a 30 second hold getting that nice stretch in
there, bring it back down, and then come back up for that stretch. and so I'm
gonna take a second to get my smile for my thumbnail. so if you'd like to take a
picture now you can - there you go. again 30 seconds three times. so then
after you get it stretched out, you want to do some very simple gentle
strengthening exercises. so you can kind of sit up like this if you want to. you
can sit up like this if you want to, but what you want to do is just put maybe a
little rolled-up towel, this is just a cut up pool noodle, something just to
give your knee a target. all you're gonna do is just try and push that knee down
into the roll. so you're trying to activate that quad muscle. so that's what
is called a quad set. so I'm pushing down I'm not lifting up my heel. so it's not
like this. that would technically be what we would call a short arc quad. you're
keeping the heel down, and you're pushing in to get this muscle to activate. it's
an isometric exercise. you're activating the muscle, but there's not really
movement. so when you do that, squeeze down, hold it for about three to five
seconds. it doesn't have to be a super long time. you can start off with just
maybe five or ten and do that a couple of times a day. and then you can slowly
start building it up. but even though it doesn't feel like a big movement, if you
have knee pain, you haven't really been doing these stretches and exercises,
it might make you a little bit sore. so that's why I'd rather you do less and
progress if you're gonna do it then going out and doing a whole lot and then
making yourself really sore. so then the next one is still an isometric type
exercise, and this one is called a hamstring set. so now you're just gonna
bring your leg up. and again if you want to lie down doing these you can. it's
just easier for me to talk to you while I'm sitting up. so just make sure you're
comfortable doing them. this time what I'm doing is I'm taking my heel and
pushing it down into the floor, or the bed, or the couch I'm on. so I'm
gonna lift it up so you can, this is the motion that I'm doing. but since this is
an isometric exercise, I'm not moving anything any part of my leg. I'm pushing
down into the floor, and I'm activating those hamstrings. so you should feel that
under there. with isometric exercises, don't feel like you have to push a
hundred percent as hard as you can because they might feel like they're
trying to cramp up a little bit. again if you have knee pain, those hamstrings
cross that joint, those quads come to that patella there and cross that joint.
so it might make it a little bit sore. so maybe just start off with thirty to
forty percent of how much you can push, hold it for three to five seconds, relax.
do five to ten a couple times a day. if it's feeling good, then you can slowly
progress from there. so then the next set of muscles are going to be those inner
thigh muscles or the adductors ad ductors. and so an easy way to do that
with an isometric motion again because if you have knee pain, you want to start
off with gentle things where you're not making big movements that are gonna just
irritate your knee more. I've just got a ball. you can use a yoga block. you can
use anything kind of squishy. like if you've got a foam roller, you can put
that in between, or you can just kind of fold up a pillow if you don't really
have any equipment with you. but the goal is to make sure that it's not too much
wider than your hips, and not really small. so you wouldn't want to use
something like a tennis ball. you want to give yourself the ability to do some
push. so again I'm sitting up for this. it might be a little bit more comfortable
if you lie down, so whichever one is more comfortable for you. but this time you're
just pushing into the ball. so I'm squeezing in, and I'm feeling it in
that groin, those adductor muscles. some of those adductor muscles again go
all the way down to the knee and cross that knee joint. so three to five second
hold, five to ten a couple times a day. and then the last one is just taking
that strap again, or a dog Belt, dog belt? a dog leash or a belt, and just make a
loop big enough to be able to go around your legs. same thing you want the
distance to be about hip width apart. this one is not quite as important as
the ball it can be a little bit more narrow and a little bit further out, and
just kind of changing the positions. but again if you want to lie down and relax,
you can. and this time I'm pushing out. so both knees are going outwards, almost
like I'm trying to open up into a clamshell position, pushing into that
belt. now I'm getting those abductors A B the ones on the outside. those ones that
push out your glutes, your IT Band, your TfL, those kind of muscles. you're
activating those, and then again just that three to five seconds. not starting
off as hard as you can at the beginning because you might irritate some stuff,
but slowly building up to it. so there you have it. those were some of my
favorite knee pain stretches and exercises. if you'd like to help support
my channel, make sure and click on the link there, and don't forget to subscribe
by clicking down there. and remember be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better
soon.