Knee Pain - How Physical Therapy Helps Relieving It?

At your first visit, the physical therapist will need to ascertain the type of pain you are experiencing and its cause. For this, they will need to go through your medical history and physically examine you. This examination could include a gait evaluation, palpations to find abnormalities, measuring the range of possible motions, balance assessments, measuring muscle strength and examining swellings if any. Do not keep any medical history issue from your physician even if you think it to be inconsequential.

Stretches can help strengthen muscles around the knee and provide stability. Two simple stretching exercises that can benefit knee pain are hamstring stretches and quadriceps stretches. To stretch your hamstrings begin by keeping the injured leg propped up on a stair or low stool. Bend forward from the hips while keeping your back straight and try to touch your toes with your fingers. Hold for thirty seconds. For a quadriceps stretch, hold your right ankle with your right hand behind your back. Pull the knee as far back as possible and hold for 30 seconds. Then repeat the exercise with the alternate leg. Do at least 3 sets of both these exercises.

Along with exercises, electricity may also be used to strengthen muscles around the knee and improve knee movement. This method is known as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation or TENS. This involves the placement of electrode patches on the thigh above the knee that is connected to a TENS machine with wires. Tiny electrical signals flow through these patches and pass electricity to the nerves. The use of a TENS machine can help significantly lower knee pain.

In addition to exercise and other forms of physical therapy your therapist may also tell you to change the way you walk or run. This can help reduce the pressure on your knees. Ideally, you should lean forward slightly while running so as to reduce the stress on the knee joint. Along with paying attention to how you run, you should also look at where you run. Avoid running on tarred surfaces if you have knee pain.