Best Exercises for Your Knee Recovery when Knee pain can be incredibly debilitating, making it hard to do even simple activities like walking up the stairs. Whether it’s due to an injury, arthritis, or general wear and tear, it’s essential to recover your knee strength and mobility. Fortunately, a few simple and practical exercises can help you recover and heal better.
In this article, we’ll cover the five best exercises for your knee recovery, including squatting, leg lifts, hamstring stretches, and more. Each exercise is designed to relieve and reduce pain while strengthening the muscles around your knee. By following these steps, you’ll be well on your way to a healthier knee and a better quality of life.
What Causes Knee Pain?
Various factors, including arthritis, weak muscles, and overuse injuries, can cause knee pain. Even many patients with obesity come to weight loss clinics and can have knee problems. The most common causes of knee pain include:
- Arthritis – If you suffer from arthritis in your knees, you’ll likely experience pain and stiffness while moving around.
- Sprains or strains – If you’ve recently injured your knee, you may have sprained or strained the muscles around your knee, which can cause pain and swelling.
- Tight or weak muscles – If the muscles around your knee are either too tight or too weak, they may not be able to properly support the knee joint, which can put extra stress on the knee and lead to pain.
- Inflammation – Knee injuries or infections can cause swelling in and around your knee joint, making it hard to move around and pressure the knee.
Squatting
Squatting is an excellent exercise for knee recovery and prevention since it targets multiple leg areas. It can also be done with various weights, making it a versatile addition to your workout. Squatting can help improve knee health by strengthening the muscles around the knee, improving balance, and reducing inflammation.
It can also help improve posture by strengthening and toning the lower back muscles. Squatting can be done a few times weekly as part of a regular workout or rehabilitation program. You can also try using an exercise band to make the exercise easier or an exercise ball to increase the difficulty.
If you’re recovering from an injury, getting advice from a physical therapist on the best ways to squat is a good idea. Different variations can be used depending on your injury, and a professional can help you choose the best one.
Leg Lifts
If you’re recovering from an injury, leg lifts may seem like an odd choice for the best exercises for your knee recovery, but they can be accommodating. Leg lifts help strengthen the quadriceps muscles, which are often the cause of knee pain.
Leg lifts are one of the best exercises for your knee recovery if you have patellar tendonitis (also known as a runner’s knee). In many cases, these exercises can help reduce pain and inflammation while also helping you regain strength and knee mobility.
Depending on the severity of your knee issues, you may want to start with a seated position or laying-on-the-floor leg lift. As your knee recovers, you can increase the difficulty of the exercise.
Hamstring Stretches
Hamstring stretches are often used to loosen stiff or tight muscles. But they’re also one of the best exercises for knee recovery because they can reduce pain and inflammation. As part of a knee recovery program, hamstring stretches should be performed after each leg lift session.
If your knee is particularly painful, you may also want to do these after each squatting session. Hamstring stretches can be done in multiple different ways. Doing these according to what feels best for your knee is best.
Depending on your knee, you may want to try a seated hamstring stretch or a lying hamstring stretch. When you do the lying hamstring stretch, put a towel under your leg to help increase the stretch in your hamstring.
Side Lying Leg Raises
Side-lying leg raises are another excellent exercise for knee recovery. Like leg lifts, they help strengthen the quadriceps muscles, often the source of knee pain. They can also help strengthen the hamstrings, which play an essential role in knee health, and the calves, which are often neglected but can make or break your knee health.
By working the quadriceps and hamstrings, side lying leg raises also help improve knee range of motion, which is essential when recovering from knee injuries. By following this exercise, you can also help prevent future knee injuries. Side-lying leg raises are best done at the end of a knee recovery workout. You can do them using a bench, a chair, or even the wall.
Calf Raises
Calf raises are another excellent exercise for knee recovery. They can help strengthen the muscles around your knee, improving the knee’s range of motion and reducing knee pain. Calf raises can also help prevent future knee injuries. They’re accommodating for runners since they help improve the knee range of motion, which is essential for runners.
Calf raises can be done a few times weekly as part of a regular workout or a knee recovery program. They can be done using a step, a stair, or a box. They can also be done using a workout machine if you have access to one. There are a few different variations of calf raises depending on your knee issues. If you’re recovering from an injury, getting advice from a physical therapist on the best ways to perform these exercises is a good idea.
Wall Sits
Wall sits are an effective exercise that helps with knee recovery because it engages and strengthens the muscles of the legs, hips, and gluteal muscles. But since it’s done while you’re sitting with your back against the wall, it’s also a great way to strengthen the core muscles! You can do this as part of a regular workout or a knee recovery program.
Wall sits can be done at the end of a workout or as part of a warm-up before knee-intensive exercises like squats or leg lifts. Since they can be done with very little equipment or space, they’re a great addition to any workout routine. You can do these at the end of your workout or as a warm-up before knee-intensive exercises like squats or leg lifts.
Conclusion
Knee pain can be incredibly debilitating, making it hard to do even simple activities like walking up the stairs. Fortunately, there are a few simple and effective exercises that can help you recover and heal better. These exercises are designed to relieve and reduce pain while strengthening the muscles around your knee. By following these steps, you’ll be well on your way to a healthier knee and a better quality of life.
Author Laura Watson
Published by International Pain Foundation, iPain Blog, Team iPain
