Are you suffering with knee stiffness? Are you looking for some simple exercises to help with your knee stiffness problem?

I’m going to cover with you today four simple exercises that you can do to get some instant relief to your knee stiffness problem. Before we go into the exercises, I just want to let you know that if these exercises at any point hurt you, make sure to modify them, do them in a way that is less than tense. And if it continues to hurt you, even after you have modified them, then it might be a sign that your knee problem is more severe than you think. In that case, I highly recommend you go seek expert help. Please get help right away, and don’t let your knee problem get any worse so that you can avoid surgery, injections, and having to rely on pain medications.

Let’s get into the four exercises that can help reduce your knee stiffness.

One of the most common times that people get knee stiffness is when they first get up in the morning and they are about to take their first steps. Or if they have been sitting for a while, for example in a car, at home, or after the movies, and things like that, where they try to get up and take the first few steps.

#1 Tailgate Swings

Now, this won’t fit every scenario, but as best as you can try to do this exercise, I call it tailgate swings. You would need to find somewhere to sit, where your feet will dangle a bit. For example, a chair that you can raise. Get comfortable on the surface that you’re sitting on. And what you’re going to do is just move your legs back and forth. Nice and easy. For two or three minutes. You can do more if you want and if it doesn’t hurt.

As long as this type of movement isn’t bothering your knees. It’s safe to do virtually as much as you want. What this does is it helps the fluid within your knees to circulate and get into all the little edges, and crevices within the knee joint so that it can nourish the tissues, the cartilage, the ligaments, all the other surfaces on the inside of the knee joint.

#2 Knee Flexion Holds

Once you have done that for a little bit, then you can move into the next exercise which is the knee flexion holds. Once you are sitting up again, find a surface where your foot now contacts the ground. With your own leg muscles, I want you to bend your knee as far as it will go. You may not be able to get that far back and that’s okay. What you want to do then is use your muscles in the back of your thigh, to activating them to further bend your knees. You want to use your muscles within your thigh to help your knee go as far as you can, and then work the muscles in that position.

Hold it for about 10 seconds, and then relax. This shouldn’t hurt. If your knee is hurting as you do this, it is likely too aggressive. It should just feel like a gentle stretch, usually on the front of the thigh and the front of the knee, and the muscles in the back of your leg will be working. That’s supposed to happen.

#3 Straightening Out Your Knee

Do these 10 times. So, bend your knee, give it a little assist, but then use those hamstring muscles to hold it in place. Just make sure it goes as far back as it can. After you have done that 10 times, move on to the next exercise which is working on straightening out your knee. What we will do for this one is, put stretch your leg out, you can do this on the floor, or even in bed, as long as you can lay out your leg, so it is supported. If your knee doesn’t straighten out all the way because it’s so stiff, that’s okay. Get to the position that you feel comfortable, without stretching it.

Once you are in that position, what I want you to do is fire your thigh muscles. Squeeze the muscle to straighten out your leg, and then just on the end of your thigh, push down. Make sure you don’t push on the kneecap, push on the muscle, and very lightly hold it down for 10 seconds. At the same time your thigh muscles should be working. After you hold it for about 10 seconds, I want you to bring the leg up to a comfortable position and do it again, you are going to do these 10 times.

So, squeeze the thigh muscle, push the knee down to straighten out all the way and then give it a little assist. This shouldn’t hurt. It should just feel like a stretch and like the muscles are working. The stretch is typically felt on the backside of the knee, and the thigh on the lower leg.

Some people will start getting numbness, tingling effects down into their foot. That’s not good. If it goes anywhere in your leg or your foot, that could be a sign of some nerve problem, maybe sciatica. So just don’t push your leg that far if you are getting that kind of problem. And if you have that numbness and tingling type of problem along with this, please go get help because that is likely a severe situation or it’s about to become a severe situation.

#4 Knee Twists

The last exercise is knee twists. This one won’t involve any pauses, you are going to move repetitively, and we are going to do 30 reps. What you are going to do is position your knee about negative degree, and your foot should be in contact with the floor. Then what you are going to do is turn your foot all the way in, and then turn your foot all the way out. You do this for about a minute, if you don’t like to count reps. Pay attention to how you are moving your leg, you don’t want to have any movement at your hip or have your knee flop side to side. Try to keep your knee stable and only move your foot in and out. What this does at the knee joint is, it loosens up the joint in that angle of motion, which is rarely ever addressed on your own. This is one of the most effective ways that I found to loosen up your knee joints.

Now once you have done all the reps that I’ve told you to do. You have done the one where you swing your knees for about two or three minutes, and then you have bend it and held it for 10 seconds. You do that 10 times. Then you straighten out your leg, fire your thigh muscle, hold it for 10 seconds, do that 10 times with some overpressure, and then you do the knee twists about 30 reps or a minute’s worth. Then you can go to stand up and move around.

Now if you have other stretches, or exercises that you have found helpful for you, do those as well just make sure it doesn’t hurt. As I said earlier, these exercises should help you to eliminate short term problems, especially if you just injured your knee within the past few weeks. These exercises should help you eliminate that stiffness and get back to normal as fast as possible. If you have a more long-standing knee problem, one that’s been going on for maybe months, years or possibly even decades, these exercises may give you some short-term relief, but they likely will not fix the long-term problem.

Fixing the long-term problem is a little more involved. It’s a process and you must progress beyond just these exercises in order to maintain long term relief so that you can avoid having to rely pain medications, having to rely on injections, and of course, delaying or completely avoiding a knee surgery. If you’re interested in learning more about how to solve a long-term knee problem, so that you can be more healthy, active and mobile and avoid unnecessary surgeries, injections and pain medications, then I invite you to head over our website at www.EPManualPhysicalTherapy.com, to learn more about what we can do for you.

I hope you have the best day of life.