These Moves May Help Ease Your Knee Pain

If you have arthritis in the knees, you know how it can affect your life. Not being able to move around comfortably can significantly impact your quality of life. But guess what? Inactivity is not the answer.

Activity, although it may be hard to muster up the motivation and dig through the initial pain, will help far more than staying sedentary. Further, it might work better than surgery and other invasive therapies. Activity is also likely to outperform the effects of popular supplements for joint pain like glucosamine and chondroitin.

Exercise and activity can aid knee pain by increasing strength and flexibility in the tissue surrounding the joint. This ultimately relieves pressure on the joint to promote improved mobility and less pain. Of course, getting up to take the first step can be a huge hurdle—the natural instinct is to avoid pain—but in a relatively short time, you can likely begin to experience benefits.

Low-impact activities like walking, swimming, and aquatic exercise may work best, but there are also some movements you can perform at home to promote strength and mobility while limiting the pain from knee arthritis.

Mini Squats

• Stand straight, holding the back of a chair with both hands. Position your feet so they are shoulder-width apart, with your toes facing straight forward or slightly pointed outward.
• Slowly bend your knees and lower your body a few inches.
• As you descend, keep your feet flat on the floor and try not to extend your knees past your toes.
• Hold for six seconds before returning to the starting position. Tighten your butt as you straighten up.

Quad Stretch

• Stand up straight behind a chair and hold the back with both hands.
• Take a step back with one foot, keeping knees bent and feet flat on the ground.
• Tuck your butt under your hips until you feel a stretch in the hip and thigh of your back leg.
• Hold for 10 seconds and repeat with the other leg.

Knee Extension

• Sit in a sturdy chair with a resistance band looped around both legs, just above the ankles.
• Plant one foot firmly on the floor and straighten the other leg forward.
• Hold for six seconds and then repeat with the other leg.

Hamstring Curl

• Sit in a sturdy chair with a resistance band looped around both legs, just above the ankles.
• With one foot firmly planted on the ground, bend at the knee and pull the other leg back, under the chair.
• Hold for six seconds and repeat with the other leg.

When using exercise and activity to help control knee pain, it’s important to listen to your body. At first, you may not be able to do more than a few repetitions or walk for a few minutes. But as you get stronger, you’ll be able to do more and more. The key to progression, and the benefits of exercise, is consistency.

Also read:

• 16 best exercises to overcome arthritic knee problems
• Essential oils for knee pain relief
• Osteoarthritis knee pain relief at home: Easy tips and natural remedies
• Knee pain at night, causes and home remedies