subject: Things You Can Do To Reduce Knee Pain Today [print this page] Knee pain is one of the most demoralizing and debilitating types of pain because it's so restrictive. Even worse, it can mess with you psychologically.
And if you don't get it under control, you may set yourself up for knee replacement-not a desirable outcome by any stretch of the imagination.
So here are some things you can do to reduce knee pain:
1. Don't sit for prolonged periods of time: The sitting position has been clearly shown to increase knee pain, especially patellar knee pain. One option here is to elevate the troublesome knee, but the best strategy is to avoid the seated position all together.
2. Wear a knee brace: Now you don't want to do this for the rest of your life, but wearing a brace until the pain goes away is a great strategy for increased comfort and security. And you can always resume using it if you have any flare ups in the future.
3. Strengthen your quadriceps: In many cases, weak quadriceps muscles are the cause of knee pain since they stabilize the knee cap. The good news here is that strengthening your quads is relatively easy. One good exercise is knee extensions with a limited range of motion.
4. Keep your hamstrings flexible: Tight hamstrings are very common in people who sit all day, and most people sit all day. Unfortunately, tight hamstrings can cause some serious issues with your knee caps. They can cause them to come out of their groove.
5. Get the best shoes you can afford: And make sure they have ample shock absorption, otherwise your knee caps will have to absorb excessive loads. If you keep your shoes until they have multiple holes in them and the soles are falling off, you are at risk.
6. Reduce your body weight as much as possible: This is one of the most powerful things you can do to provide some relief to your knees. You see, your knees are the primary weight bearing structures in your body. So any weight you lose is going to help here.
Living with painful knees is not only unnecessary, but it's very damaging to the cartilage in the joint. And once this cartilage wears away, there is no way to get it back.
