Continuing with my further exploration of knee pain, I would like to share a few simple exercises to reduce pain.There are many reasons for pain like a sports injury, a fall, arthritis, infections or any genetic disease. Focusing on knee arthritic pain the most common types of arthritis found in India are osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid arthritis, gouty arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and infection arthritis described in descending order of its occurrence in India.
As stated above osteoarthritis is one of the major cause of knee pain and joint replacement in India. So why all of sudden the cases have increased or a number of people need a knee replacement or why is it not getting cured even there's so much advancement in the field of medicine. The answer lies in our lifestyle and our eating habits, there is more of junk food and less of exercise. We have changed from walking to a sitting species.
So if you want to prevent yourself from getting into this circle of pain, medicines and the surgeons' knife then start with an active lifestyle. To help you out I have listed a few exercises which can be done easily at home and you can take reference from google or YouTube for further explanation or can always revert back.
Though these can be done by a majority of patients it's always better to have physiotherapy consult:
1) Knee press: This is the most simple and effective exercise. Whenever I see a case of knee pain this is the first exercise that I recommend to my patients.You need a towel roll of the width of your fist. In sitting keep it below your knee, the gap when you put your knee straight on the floor and press the knee on a towel - hold for 10 counts and then relax. Continue with 10 repetitions.
2) Single leg raises: Raise your leg up to 30 degrees and bring back.
3) Leg Sideways: Lie on one side and bend the leg below. Take the above leg upwards and bring it down.
4) Knee Bending: Bend your knee and hip and bring back to starting point.
5) Prone Knee Bending: Lie on stomach and bend the knee and bring to starting position.
6) Leg rotations: Rotate your legs inwards and outwards together while on the back.
7) TFL Stretching: While on back bend your one knee and cross over the other knee, tuck the ankle below the opposite knee. Now rotate the bent knee towards the floor.
8) Quads Strengthening: While sitting on a high chair or table lift the leg from the knee and bring back to resting position. Take care not to bend from the back and apply force from your back. The upper muscles of the thigh need to be worked on.
9) Glutes Strengthening: Bend both the knees and lift your back up, hold for 10 counts and bring your back to starting position.
10) VMO Strengthening: Lie on back and place a roll or a bolster below your knee and lift the knee, hold for 10 counts and bring back to starting position. Care should be taken not to lift the thighs and work should be done only on knee
Note: The number of repetitions should be 10, in case you are not able to complete 10 repetitions you can start with a minimum number of repetitions possible and gradually progress to 10.