Knee pain is a common issue, and it can be really debilitating. I see a lot of people who have knee pain that only bothered them with squatting to start, but progressively worsened to the point where they had pain with everyday activities like stairs or even at rest. There are many different sources of knee pain but the concepts below can help with all sources of knee pain.
Here are my best recommendations for anyone dealing with knee pain.
1. Stay moving!
The normal reaction is to guard and protect the injured or painful knee. While we don’t want to push through pain, it is most helpful for our healing to encourage movement. Here are a few examples that might apply to you.
If you are a runner but now your knee pain is not allowing you to run, then you could start biking or swimming for a little while instead. You can keep your cardiovascular fitness high while doing a movement that is lower impact and typically better tolerated at the knee.
Instead of avoiding the gym, work with a performance physical therapist that can help educate you on how to modify the workouts to work around your specific injury. This might mean that instead of barbell squatting to full depth, you barbell squat to a box. Or instead of doing step downs off of a box, you do a forward step up at a lower height.
The takeaway message is that there are a lot of ways to stay moving without irritating your knee pain further.
2. Use compression.
Remember the old recommendation of R.I.C.E (rest, ice, compression, elevation)? While full rest and ice are no longer recommended, both compression and elevation are both still recommended. This is more important when dealing with an acute knee injury that might have some swelling present.
You don’t need to go overboard with a big, bulky brace. Instead, pick a thin compression sleeve that will help with swelling but still allow you to move your knee. Usually, the light compression also feels pretty good on the knee and gives you some sense of security.
3. Get your quadriceps (muscles on top of your thigh) engaging and getting stronger.
The quadriceps muscle after knee pain and knee surgeries is oftentimes less active than it should be. Our brain sort of “turns down” the muscles activity (especially the inner quad muscle aka VMO). But we know that a really strong quadriceps muscle is associated with less knee pain. So, it’s important to get that muscle activating very quickly after a knee injury or when dealing with chronic knee pain.
Here are a few ways to start getting the quadriceps muscle activating, starting from super simple and knee friendly to more intermediate.
-Quad Sets
-Band Terminal Knee Extension
-Lateral Step Down
How and where to start with exercise after an injury is a part of my specialty. That leads us into the last of 4 ways to improve your knee pain.
4. Seek guidance from a performance physical therapist like me at Outshine Physical Therapy and Fitness.
Helping people in Asheville, NC get out of pain, improve how they move, and get stronger so they can prevent the issue from happening again is what I specialize in! Every person’s knee pain is different, and it deserves a specialized approach to optimize healing.
Here is what to expect when working with me at Outshine. You will reach out and we set up a free phone consult so I can learn more about you, your issues, and your goals. If we are a good fit, we set you up for your initial 1-hour evaluation visit. I make sure you have all of the information you need, and all questions answered because I value high quality and transparent care. During the initial evaluation, the goal is to determine the root cause of your issue. This helps you understand what’s going on and helps me make a recommendation for your plan of care. You see the same Doctor of Physical Therapy each visit, for the full 60 minutes. No tech or assistants at Outshine. No waiting room wait time because your time is valuable. There are many other reasons why working with me at Outshine is different. Come experience a positive healthcare experience that's different than most!
I hope this was helpful!
Sincerely,
Dr. Sieara Hinshaw
828-808-3704
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