Alleviating Knee Pain For A Better Quality Of Life
One question I get on a fairly regular basis as a longtime Austin personal trainer and gym owner is how to go about alleviating knee pain. The truth is that it can be something as simple as performing a basic quadricep stretch, or it can be as complicated as a complete knee replacement operation. What you need to do to alleviate the pain depends mostly upon what the problem is.
Alleviating knee pain can be done a multitude of ways. If you have any amount of inflammation from a residual injury, a lot of orthopedic doctors will want to administer a cortical steroid shot. This is not always a great idea, as that tends to weaken the connective tissue. IE: The tendons and ligaments. The risk entailed is a potential connective tissue tear later on down the road, which will disconnect the muscle from the bone. Obviously, this creates any number of additional issues. As a longtime personal trainer in Austin, TX, I can assure you that I have spent many hours rehabilitating professional football player’s knees from such injuries and issues. It’s not necessarily a bad idea therapeutically, but ensuring you have the proper orthopedist is essential in order to avoid the potential issues.
A great number of people complain of knee pain because of a structurally weakened joint. There could be macro tears in either meniscus, or it could be something as basic as a tight vastus medialis which is prohibiting full range of motion during exercise, and is thus resulting in an atrophying of the quadriceps.
If there is no evidence of structural damage to the knee, alleviating knee pain can be approached holistically, albeit, carefully. Certain stretches can be very helpful in alleviating knee pain. The classic standing quad stretch is the quintessential go to stretch because when done properly, it will effectively hit all 4 muscles, and should be a staple of every trainees regimen, whether they are working on alleviating knee pain, or simply preventing it down the road. Hamstring and iliotibial stretches are also very important to implement in order to keep the knees pain free by tracking properly.
In some cases, alleviating knee pain may be simply a matter of doing some body work, such as myofacial release techniques. While unpleasant, it’s very effective at releasing tightened muscles which in the case of the quads, can lead to a incorrect tracking of the patella, which leads to knee pain. Other times, there may be an underlying orthopedic issue such as a tear in the MCL, for example. In these cases, the severity of the tear will dictate the appropriate treatment. Sometimes arthroscopic surgery is recommended, and other times, in less severe instances, simple stretching followed by a strengthening regimen is in order. Heat and anti inflammatory drugs may make you feel better, but they aren’t doing much to rectify anything.
Alleviating knee pain can be as simple as becoming more active so you don’t lose your ambulatory abilities, or may be as simple as incorporating a few stretches into your day. If it’s more of a serious issue, such a sports injury that is severe, a visit to the doctor is a smart idea in order to get an MRI so you know what you’re dealing with. This way, no matter what route you take to repair the problem, you will at least know for sure what the problem is and take the speculation out of the equation.
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Andy
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