Hey, guys!

It’s Dr. David, physical therapist here.  

I’m going to cover with you today 3 tips that you can start to implement if you have knee pain.

Particularly if it’s coming from a meniscus problem or some other cartilage problem in the knee like the cartilage behind your kneecap, on the front end of your thigh bone, the femur.

Here we go.

Tip #1

Research shows that cartilage is most helped by some sort of low resistance, high repetition exercise.

Let me show you a super simple one that you can do just about anywhere.

All you need is somewhere were you can sit, where your feet dangle a little bit.

This is called tailgate swinging.

You sit somewhere where your feet can dangle and you move your legs back and forth.

You’re moving the cartilage inside your knees in a way that is not putting pressure on it and you’re causing that fluid inside the joint, the synovial fluid to move around.

That’s what gives nutrition to the joint more so than blood.

Cartilage does not have a good blood supply.

Tip # 2 (A)

Try using a bike with little to no resistance at all.

I say no resistance because we don’t want to put pressure on the knees, on the cartilage, or the meniscus and so just cruising on a stationary is sufficient.

The thing is you got to do it for about ten to 20, if you can tolerate it, 30 minutes.

The nice thing about this is it doesn’t make you bend your knee all the way where it can cause discomfort.

You’re not standing, you’re not walking so it’s not as much pressure as it is then.

It doesn’t have to be a bike like this that has the arms, the moving arms.

It could be one that has fixed arms and you just ride nice and easy.

You can also use a recumbent bike, the one that’s got a backrest.

Doing this 3 to 5 times a week for about 20 minutes is a great place to start rehabilitating the cartilage problems in your knee.

Tip #2 (B)

Try using a rowing machine instead of a bike.

It provides light resistance on the knees.

It’s not putting your full body weight like you would when you’re running and it’s high reps.

Use this 3 times a week, 20 minutes at a time, up to five times a week.

You’re going to get the benefit of moving around the fluid inside the knee, the synovial, the joint fluid which helps to nourish that cartilage which is super important for healing a meniscus problem or a cartilage problem.

You want to make sure that you keep your knees from touching or coming together.

You want them about as wide as your feet, even a little bit wider, about two fists width apart.

Grab the handle wide enough so that you’re not forcing your knees in when you come to the forward position of the rowing motion.

A lot of people make the mistake of grabbing the handle narrow.

Then when they come in like this, their knees are coming together to stay inside their arms.

Grab wide so you can keep your knees wide.

Then you just cruise. You can get a heck of a workout here which I like.

(Personally, I like this  over the bike. The bike is not wrong. You can definitely use a bike and still get the same benefit, I just like this because I feel like I get a better workout here for me. I guess it’s my long arms. )

Tip # 3

This is the secret one that a lot of people don’t really get to and they’re missing out from some tremendous benefit from this.

It doesn’t always make sense and that’s probably why they overlook it or don’t pay attention to it.

You have to get stronger glutes. (the booty muscle )

This is one of my favorite ways to get this strong.

Now, pay attention here.

This is a very commonly done exercise that is commonly done wrong.

This is a clamshell exercise.

Here’s how to do the clamshell exercise:

• You’re going to lay on your side, put your feet on top of each other
• Then pay attention to your knees. Get that top knee to stick out forward by rolling your hips forward.
• Then you’re going to lift your knee up and hold it there for about ten seconds.
• Do ten reps holding for 10 seconds each time.

What you should feel is the butt burning after awhile.

It may take two or three reps to start to burn.

You have to make sure that th top knee is sticking out forward past the bottom knee.

The biggest way that people mess this up is they roll back because it’s easier to lift the knee like that.

But then they start feeling the muscles on the front of the hip and thigh working.

That’s not going to help you out in this case. It’s NOT working the glutes, it’s working the front of the hip, the hip flexors and the quads.

You want to make sure you roll forward enough. You should feel like you’re rolling forward and you’ll get the glutes going.

It’s the muscle that’s right under your back pocket is what you want to feel.

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That wraps up our 3 tips.

Just to review them one more time.

1. Tailgate swinging, sit somewhere where your legs hang and just swing them back and forth and you can do that for five, ten, 15 minutes or you can do it all day long, as long as it’s not bothering your knees.
2. The second was some low resistance, high repetition exercise like the bike or a rowing machine and you can use an outdoor bike. That works really well too. Just be careful with the resistance. If you’re going up hills you’re going to encounter some more resistance likely.
3. The third one is getting your gluts stronger. We went over the clamshell exercise, which is just one way to get the glutes stronger. There’s an infinite amount of ways. It’s really up to your imagination or whatever you find comfortable, whatever you find that works your gluts out the most.

As always, you’re welcome to get in touch with us if you have any questions.

Our goal is to help people get off pain medications, avoid surgery and get back to an active and healthy lifestyle.

If your knee is stopping you from doing that, we’d love to talk to you and help you out.

Thanks! Have a great day.