Your knees are essential to your health. They have an incredibly important job of supporting and stabilising your body as you walk, run, dance, or play sports. But most people don’t think about them until they start hurting.
Knee pain can be experienced in many different guises, it is common during growth spurts in children, or with trauma from sport or falls, or it may come on as we age with wear and tear. Knee pain can stem from the muscles, ligaments, tendons, cartilage or meniscus. It can sometimes also be referred from the hip joint or lower back.
Acute knee injuries often occur with sports that involve rapid acceleration or deceleration, twisting, kicking or sudden changes of direction. More gradual onset of knee pain can occur during due to repetitive running, jumping and landing, kicking or squatting.
In this article we explore how knee pain can be managed with physiotherapist Nutnarinee Lerdsatittroong, better known as Khun Prahn. She’s the founder of Hua Hin’s ‘The Movement Clinic’, offering a range of services all about improving mobility; including restrictions due to knee pain.
Khun Prahn says ‘’Remember when you used to talk about your knees as right and left, instead of good and bad? Helping you to stop talking about and suffering from those bad knees is my aim!’
If knee pain with the following symptoms lingers more than a few days, it may be time to seek some professional help from a physiotherapist.
- Joint swelling and stiffness
- Constant aches
- Sharp, shooting pains
- While sitting or standing, you may hear popping or crunching sounds
- Inability to bend, straighten, or flex the knee
- Knee weakness or instability
- Deformity of the joint area
- Knee pain during the night or at rest
Physiotherapy is extremely beneficial for knee pain, as these experts in movement and function and are well equipped to help recovery. Khun Prahm is well-versed in the management of knee pain. She explains some of the most prevalent causes and how physiotherapy can assess, treat and offer relief for a ‘bad knee’.
You have four knee ligaments, tough bands of connective tissue that link bones together at the knee. You can injure any one of the four, but you most commonly hear about anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries; they can sideline you or a player for your favorite sports team for a season. The ACL joins your thigh bone (femur) to your shin bone.
An ACL sprain, which can be a stretched ligament or a full or partial tear, can happen from suddenly twisting or pivoting, often during sports. Pain from an ACL sprain can be intense depending on the severity of the injury, as well as causing difficulties walking.
Damage to the meniscus, the C-shaped piece of tough, rubbery cartilage that acts as a shock absorber between the shinbone and the thighbone, can come from a sports injury or accident, from progressive arthritis, or from overuse. Tearing the meniscus occurs more frequently after age 50 because your cartilage isn’t as healthy as it was when you were younger. As it becomes more brittle, it can tear more easily.
If you’re a runner or you play basketball, you may be more prone to tendonitis in the knee, especially if you’ve reached 50 years old. The force of your foot hitting the ground repeatedly, such as from running or jumping, can cause your knee tendons to become inflamed, stretched or torn.
Knee osteoarthritis is an age-related degeneration, when your body produces less protein in your cartilage, causing it to become weak and brittle. In some cases, it disappears altogether, leaving you with bone-on bone pain. This can cause pain, swelling, and stiffness. Osteoarthritis can also result from obesity or the aftereffects of trauma from an accident or sports injury.
Learn more about knee arthritis by following this link https://youtu.be/BBqjltHNOrc
Treatment
Firstly, a physiotherapist at the Movement Clinic will conduct a thorough assessment to determine the causes and contributing factors of your knee pain. Your strength, flexibility and balance will be assessed.
Hands on techniques such as soft tissue massage and joint mobilisation are then used to help relieve any muscle tightness or joint stiffness.
The clinic will also use ultrasound and heat or ice packs for pain relief. These all help to stimulate blood flow to the area to speed up healing, reduce swelling and inflammation as well as to relax the muscles as soon as possible.
To overcome a knee ailment, you need to stay as active as can be managed while dealing with the pain. Taping may also be necessary for short term relief as you begin your return to sport or recreational activity. The use of a knee brace may be recommended during sport to help offload the structures and provide some extra support.
If the cause of your knee pain is more of a structural issue and due to biomechanics, wearing orthotics may help with your lower limb alignment and correct your foot posture.
Exercise & Strengthening
Knee exercises can help boost your fitness level and increase your sports performance. But even more important, they also can help keep your knees healthy and prevent serious injuries.
Exercises should be individually tailored for you after an assessment of your strength and flexibility, tightness or muscle imbalances.
Strengthening the muscles that support your knees can reduce the constant strain exerted on your knee joints. The less your knees are stressed, the lower your chance of suffering a sports or orthopedic injury. Even a modest amount of swelling or soreness in your knee is enough to hinder the vital quadriceps (thigh) muscles. If these muscles aren’t operating properly, it might lead to long-term knee difficulties.
A small, partial tendon tear around the kneecap may be treated with rest, physical therapy, and a brace. If the cartilage damage from an accident is extensive, you may need surgery.
If you have recently had surgery on your knee, Khun Prahn will guide you through your post-operative rehabilitation to help improve your range of motion, strength, balance and endurance. Physiotherapy is essential following knee surgery, typically for around four months, and may be recommended for the two months preceding the operation.
If you talk about your knees as the ‘good one and the bad one’, schedule an appointment and then get back to having knees that are just right and left.
About The Movement Physiotherapy Clinic
SEE THE MOVEMENT CLINIC STORY BY CONNECTING TO https://royalcoastreview.com/…/changing-lives-through…/
