The knee is a joint made up of your thighbone (femur), kneecap (patella), tibia (shinbone), and multiple muscles, tendons, and ligaments. Your knees are a vital part for daily movement. They allow you to carry your body weight, walk, squat and stand. This sounds easy unless you are plagued by knee pain.
Causes of knee pain
Knee pain is a common complaint that affects approximately 25% of adults. This pain can limit your mobility and affect your quality of life. Knee pain can be caused by a variety of conditions including:
- Injuries — Knee injuries can include but aren’t limited to: ruptured ligaments, torn cartilage, fractures of the bones in the joint, bursitis or patellar tendinitis. These injuries can be caused by accidents or overuse.
- Medical conditions — Knee pain can be caused by medical conditions such as osteoarthritis (the leading cause of knee pain), infections, gout or rheumatoid arthritis.
- Mechanical problems — Sometimes parts of the body don’t work together as they’re supposed to or an issue affecting a different body part can cause pain in your knee. Such mechanical issues can include a dislocated kneecap, iliotibial band syndrome, or pain in your hip or foot.
An issue that can arise in young adults and athletes is patellofemoral pain syndrome. This is caused by pain between the kneecap and thighbone due to the kneecap moving improperly. This condition can also develop in older people due to kneecap arthritis.
Symptoms of knee pain
Knee pain can range from irritating to debilitating. Since the knees bear a great deal of stress from daily movement, it can be easy to notice when something is amiss. Knee pain can present in ways such as:
- Popping, cracking, or grinding sounds when you bend or straighten your knee.
- Muscle spasms in and around your knee.
- Pain radiating from your knee to your hip, shin, ankles, calf or thigh.
- An inability to fully extend or put weight on your leg.
- Swelling, redness or warmth in your knee.
You should seek medical attention immediately if you cannot bear weight on your knee, you see any deformities in your knee, you have intense swelling, or you are experiencing severe pain after an injury.
Physical therapy exercises can help your knee
If you’ve been referred to a physical therapist, they can help you learn exercises or treatments that may help your knee pain. Physical therapy can help strengthen the muscles around your knee to help it become more stable. It can also help improve your flexibility and balance.
In addition to aquatic therapy, your physical therapist may use manual therapy techniques such as soft tissue mobilization and joint mobilization. They may also show you exercises they will assist you with in the clinic and ones you can do at home to help continue to build your strength and mobility. Those exercises may include:
- Heel and calf stretch — This stretch targets lower leg muscles, particularly the calf muscle.
- Standing hip hinge — Bending at the waist and using your glute muscles and hamstring muscles affect how your energy flows through your knees during movement. This exercise helps strengthen the glutes and hamstrings.
- Single leg raises — This exercise helps work and strengthen your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and glutes. It helps strengthen your knees when you do low raises from the ground.
- Half squat — This exercise helps strengthen your front and back thigh muscles as well as your glutes. It is a less intense stretch than a full squat and shouldn’t cause you any pain when performing the stretch.
- Knee straighteners — As you straighten and bend your knee, you will move and stretch your knees and hips. This exercise is completed from a seated chair position.
Stretching your knees can help reduce the pain and tightness you are experiencing. By doing this, it can improve your daily quality of life, which can allow you to return to normal activities. However, if you begin to experience new or worsening pain when completing these exercises, inform or contact your physical therapist for further guidance.
Border Therapy Services can help you with your knee pain
Living with knee pain can be uncomfortable and something you shouldn’t have to do longer than necessary. Our Border Therapy Services clinics are happy to offer a free consultation. From there, one of our certified physical therapists can create an individualized treatment designed to help you find relief from your knee pain. This treatment regimen may include work in the clinic and at home in order to best provide you ways that can improve your strength and mobility.
Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.