Health Articles

Knee Pain Exercise to Relieve Pain in the Knee

July 17, 2009 by Steve Butler · Leave a Comment

Exercise plays an important role in relieving pain, particularly chronic pain and pain from conditions such as arthritis. If you feel discomfort, swelling or increasing pain when you are doing aerobic, strengthening or stretching exercises, it is a sign that you are putting too much stress on your knee joints. In these cases, it is always better to seek advice from a healthcare specialist regarding the specific knee pain exercise routines that you can follow without any possibility of damage to surrounding tissues and muscles.

Regular exercise is important for you whatever your age. Knee pain exercise protects your joints, maintains bone density and improves the general posture. An exercise regimen to reduce knee pain also maintains and improves the health, strength and integrity of your musculo-skeletal system. Strength training workouts, aerobics, walking, skipping and yoga are some of the exercises generally safe for people who would like to reduce knee pain through exercise.

Warming up before a knee pain exercise routine prepares your body and its joints for the stress involved in the exercise activity. A cooling down period after the exercise is also equally important. It lets your heart rate and breathing return to pre-exercise levels and also helps in reducing the stress felt at the joints.

Here is a knee pain exercise routine that is very effective in reducing pain that you feel in the knee joints:

• Sit on the edge of your bed and cross your legs at the ankles.
• Straighten your legs from the knees, lifting your feet off the floor.
• Push your top leg downwards and your bottom leg upwards. You should now feel the muscles at the front of your thighs contract.
• Change the legs over.

If possible perform this exercise five times and repeat twice a day for best results. This exercise helps to strengthen the muscles that move and support the affected knee joint.

Simple stretching exercises increase the range of movement in your knee joints and increase flexibility. Please remember to carry out the knee pain exercise in a slow and controlled manner to avoid the possibility of ligament injury.

You have to set realistic goals; i.e. ideally you should aim to do thirty minutes of strengthening exercises on most days. Your physiotherapist or medical practitioner may advice you on your knee pain exercise limits depending on your overall fitness and the severity of the pain in your knee joints.