So last week I wrote about why knee pain is so common and why knees make a lot of unwanted noises…
This week, some tips on how to limit both of the above.
To avoid, or get relief from, knee pain that happens because of a gradual wear and tear process (as I’ve just described to you), you need to be doing the right type of exercises, done in the right way, at the right time. It’s helpful to be doing routines that specifically strengthen your muscles – and add something called “control”.
And before I tell you more about what exercises to do, let me give you a little word of warning about “doing some exercise”:
I hear a lot of people talking about their painful knees in conversations with friends. Because everyone thinks they have the answers to issues like this, people are unfortunately giving each other often bad and even dangerous advice, which is usually more confusing than it needs to be and often dilutes the importance of the message that something needs to be done – like exercises or physio.
Because there’s a lot of confusion around it, I want you to know about this medical fact: there’s a big difference between exercising and doing exercises (note: I define exercising as doing something like walking for 20 minutes per day, and exercises being a steady and controlled sequence of movements designed to strengthen or make flexible a specific muscle group).
One of the big mistakes I see GPs make is telling people looking for a solution to knee pain to just ‘go and do some exercise’, as if more exercise will make the pain go away. But, as you’re about to discover, more exercise is rarely the right answer. Not when it is already painful, anyway.
You see, the BIG mistake currently being made out there in society when it comes to healthy living is to think that when knee pain gets really bad, doing exercise – such as running and even more walking – will help make your knee stronger and therefore less painful. It won’t.
In fact, exercise will often make a swollen, painful knee, even worse. The only thing you should ever consider doing is to stop exercising completely for a short period and instead, strengthen the muscles that are designed to protect and support the knee by doing specific exercises prescribed by a specialist physio.
In case you are wondering, the muscles you should be strengthening include your thigh, hamstring and lower back muscles and it pays to have your feet looked at – just to make sure they’re in the right position before you exercise too.
And don’t worry – I’m not talking about doing exercises that involve any heavy lifting of weights or sitting on machines (the latter I never advise), or anything like that. No. It’s possible to strengthen your knee muscles sufficiently just by using something as easy to get hold of as a resistance band.
What’s one of those, you might ask? Well, it’s a large elastic band that has different levels of strength (often distinguished by colour) and all you do is strap it or tie it to something heavy or firm like a couch leg, and continuously work your knee muscles against the resistance.
You could even do a few simple exercises on the bottom of the stairs in your own home, or on a step.
Paul Gough
Published Author And Leading Uk physiotherapist.
Article printed and published in the Hartlepool Mail, “Feeling Great Column” Wed 22nd April 2015.
More tips on ending knee pain, here:
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You might know Paul as an expert Columnist who writes weekly health articles for TWO of the North East's biggest daily Newspapers, The Northern Echo And The Hartlepool Mail, he is a regular Speaker at Industry Seminars around the globe and a Radio Personality, often heard on the BBC. Paul has been an expert guest on dozens of Radio shows and regularly interviewed in newspapers, magazines and trade journals all over the world, including the Guardian.
Paul’s background included working extensively in the Premier League with a Top Professional Football Team, and since quitting his job in Professional Football in 2007, his Physio Practice has become the fastest growing in the UK and biggest in the North East. So successful, that companies like BUPA, ASDA, The Vela Group And Coast & Country, repeatedly retain his Physio company's services to keep healthy their own staff and workforce. Paul Gough Physio Rooms is now a large multi-physio, multi clinic speciality practice in Darlington, Durham, Guisborough and Hartlepool.
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