What stretches are good for knee pain?
When most people talk about their knee pain, they’re usually experiencing a sharp pain right across the top of their knee cap or they feel like their pain is just underneath and sitting right inside of the knee cap. A lot of the time you may notice this knee pain after doing daily repetitive actions such as walking, running, and climbing up and down the stairs.
In the inner thigh, there are four big muscles that make up your quadriceps muscle. Whenever those muscles become really tight, they like to pull on the tendons that attach to your knee cap. This can cause your kneecap to get pulled slightly out of place and cause the sharp discomfort that you’re feeling in your knee cap. The following stretches can be used to help decrease the knee pain you are experiencing.
How do you stretch out your knee?
- For the first stretch, stand with your feet facing forward. You can stand facing a wall if you need to put a hand out for balance. You will start by bending your right leg back towards your butt, and then with your right hand grab the top of your foot and gently pull your foot further in that direction. You will feel stretching in your quad muscles. Hold and then release, then repeat with the left leg.
- The second stretch will require a foam roller. By using a foam roller with this stretch it will help target the outer and the inner side of your thigh muscles, as well as the big muscle on the front of your thigh. You’re going to kneel on the ground and place the foam roller in front of your legs. You’re then going to lean over it and using your arms to roll your body over the foam roller to where it sits right above your knee caps. Once there, you’re going to bend and then straighten your knee, feeling it work on the muscle right above your kneecap. Then roll your leg to the outside, and bend and straighten your knee. Your knee should be bending so that your leg when bent is tilted slightly to the side. Roll to the other side and repeat.
These two simple stretches should help relieve the knee pain that you’re experiencing, as well as loosen up any tight quads that you might have. If you liked this post, please leave a comment down below and feel free to share it with someone you think it might help.
To watch Dr. Kara demonstrate the exercises you can watch the entire video here