Knee Rehabilitation Exercises
Knee Rehabilitation Exercises – 5 Important Things to Remember
1. Do What Your Health Care Professional Advises.
Everybody would like to get back to what they were able to do before they injured their knee as quickly as possible. However it can be frustrating and boring to have to stick to a structured exercise regimen given to you by your doctor for knee rehabilitation. But, it is important to remember that these knee physical therapy programs are designed to ensure that no damage is done to the knee and to assist in its healing. It is important that you listen to your doctor or physiotherapist and follow their instructions because their main interest is to get your knee rehabilitated as safely and quickly as possible.
2. Don’t Concentrate on Just One Muscle Group.
A lot of people concentrate on strengthening their quadriceps. This is the muscle at the front of the thigh. Although strengthening the quadriceps is crucial, it is equally as important not to neglect your hamstrings, the muscle group at the back of the thigh. The quadriceps and hamstrings work together, the quadriceps to straighten the leg and the hamstrings to bend the leg.
3. Start Slowly
At the start, knee rehabilitation exercises should be done using higher repetitions (reps) combined with low resistance. For instance, do 3 sets of, say, 18 reps in a pool. This way you are achieving the lower resistance and also reducing the stress on the knee joint. This is particularly valuable if you’re post-operative or have arthritis. Then, as strength in your knee increases, slowly raise the resistance level while reducing the reps to, say 3 sets of 10 or 12. Initially your knee rehabilitation routines will be simple ones but the complexity of them can be slowly increased over time. In most cases, your physical therapist can assist in creating a program for you aimed at getting you back to or near to the level of physical activity and fitness that you enjoyed prior to the injury.
4. Use the Correct Equipment
It is important that you use the correct equipment when embarking upon your knee rehabilitation to ensure complete recovery regardless of whether you are taking part in a formal rehabilitation program or an unsupervised program at home. Again your physical therapist or doctor should be able advise you on the most suitable equipment for your particular case. Don’t think that this equipment needs to be a full blown multipurpose gym. Very often all that is needed is some free weights or resistance tubing which can be very inexpensive yet highly effective and readily available from sports stores or even online. There are times, and this can depend on the injury, when more complex equipment is needed. This sort of equipment can often be found at your local gym. Once again you should seek the help and advice of your health care professional.
5. Exercise Should Be Pain-free.
An increase in knee pain or swelling of the knee usually means something is wrong and if your knee rehabilitation exercises cause either of these symptoms then you should stop and seek professional advice. These rehabilitation exercises can be tiring and difficult and the feeling of exercise burn or a bit of discomfort in the muscle is quite normal but increased pain in or swelling of the knee joint is not. Remember the purpose of the rehabilitation exercises is to strengthen and help repair the knee. Increased pain levels or swelling is a sign that the opposite could be happening.
Kerry Northey
Algerian Brahim Ferradj Begins Knee Rehabilitation
Algerian Brahim Ferradj Begins Knee Rehabilitation. The Stade Brestois striker has started physical therapy after successful surgery to fix ligament damage in his knee.
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