Overcoming Knee Pain in North Portland

Knee pain in North Portland is a very common complaint among people of all ages. It arises due to a variety of reasons, some of them being:-

1. Knee injury: You can experience knee pain if you’ve had knee injury which caused damage to any of the tendons, ligaments, or fluid filled sacs surrounding the knee.
2. Arthritis: You can experience knee pain if you have osteoarthritis, septic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout or pseudogout.
3. Mechanical issues: Knee pain is a side effect of loose body (a degenerated piece of bone or cartilage stuck in the knee joint), foot or hip pain ( you put pressure on your knee to take it off of the aching joint),iliotibial band syndrome ( the iliotibial band gets super tight), or a dislocated kneecap.
4. Lack of muscle flexibility: hence, putting your knee at a disadvantage when tested.
5. Excess weight: when the body weight is increased, the pressure on the knee joint which makes it more susceptible to knee pain
6. Jobs or sports: sports with running, jumping or jobs such as construction or farming which put excess pressure on the knee make it susceptible to knee pain.
7. Previous knee injury: having a previous knee injury makes it likely to have another knee injury again, especially when still recovering making it vulnerable to knee pain.

There aren’t many solutions to knee pain other than medications, surgeries (for the more serious ones). They both are invasive and could have side effects.

But you could, also, practice healthcare at home!

Exercises or therapy to help reduce pain flare ups and overtime heal the knee, if the cause is not one requiring surgeries.

Kind of like home physical therapy. Like what?

The following exercises should help with knee pain recovery.

• Stretching exercises: Stretching elongates your muscles and bones helping you be more flexible with a higher range of motion.
  • Heel and calf stretch
  • Quadriceps stretch
  • Hamstring stretch

• Strengthening exercises: These exercises make your knees stronger, thereby, increasing durability while easing the pain of your knee.
  • Hamstring curls
  • Leg extensions
  • Half squats
  • Calf raises
  • Straight leg raises
  • Side leg raises
  • Prone leg raises

• Other casual exercises: These are exercises which can be easily incorporated as a hobby or as a part of your health regime.
  • Walking
  • Stationary cycling
  • Swimming
  • Tai chi
  • Water aerobics
  • yoga

Why should you choose to follow exercises at home instead of the other options?

• It is more sustainable: medications won’t keep you going for long while exercising would strengthen the knees so that they don’t hurt but, also, endure for a lot longer.
• It is non-invasive: while surgeries are necessary for chronic pain and a few cases where exercising is not possible, it is better to go for the non invasive exercising which would prevent time loss from recovery and won’t the possibility of an infection in the future.
• It is cost effective: Surgeries are very expensive and so are the medicines, physiotherapists, etc. These are exercises you can do at the comfort of your home without spending much for anything more than a yoga mat and chairs.

Do consult with your doctors or physicians before trying these exercises and take precautions to do them all slowly and correctly with supports and precautions, like a chair behind you while you squat or maybe a hand on the wall or chair while doing standing exercises.

Do these and watch in relief as your knee pain fades away.

Happy healing!