As the only Holistic Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Physical Therapist in Long Beach, I marvel at the simplicity of our knee design. The knee architecture is deceiving in my journey of helping people stay active when dealing with arthritis in knee. This article will summarize my favorite 3 knee arthritis exercises that I prescribe to many who are successfully avoiding or delaying a total knee replacement at my clinic.
Although the knee is simple in design it relies on your whole body to capture the functionality of the knee. What I mean to say is that the knee is a victim of how you use your whole body: ankle/foot, hips, pelvis, spine, shoulder, head/neck, and inner ear system.
Here are three quick examples to help you see the big picture.
There are more options and hope to counteract the stress to your knee. We understand that when you have been told to have an unchangeable fact of having knee arthritis, mensicus tear or bad alignment, it is very hard to believe that you can still function and stay active. Here is a list of people that we have helped over and over again.
- If you cannot feel the ground well, how can you expect your knee to know how to help you to walk, navigate stairs or run?
- If we put you on a rocky raft where you definitely will have balance issues (many do not know they have this until tested), you will automatically try to stay low to the ground to stay safe. Your knee muscles are compressing your meniscus and arthritic knee joint to protect you from stumbling.
- Did you know that there is a sensory nerve called the saphenous nerve that gets tugged and tensed when you have digestive disorder? This nerve mimics medial (inside) knee pain.
Consumer Report recently wrote an article that says having knee surgery is too risky. There is a recent research article that demonstrated having knee meniscus clean-up has the same result as a sham surgery? Sham surgery is where they open up to portal incision and stitch them back up without doing anything inside.
The article supports what the recent Orthopedic and Physical Therapy research have been talking about for the past 10 years, but not publicized enough. A top surgeon can fix a knee design but it is the whole body that drives how you make of your “surgically-fixed” knee. You can improve your chances of having less knee pain, even when diagnosed with arthritis or meniscus injury if you read along.
I have been a Sports Physical Therapist and Fitness Performance Specialist for 13+ years and clinical frustrations came when I use to chase after all the fancy exercises and therapy techniques. When I would ask the gurus of knee surgery and rehab, I would get a sense that everyone talked a nice game but had the same struggles as me. Reassuring for me but didn’t help me solve the difficulties of helping a small portion of people in pain.
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This might not be shocking news but yoga has been shown in multiple studies to be highly effective in combating back pain. As yoga has been more accepted by the public, I have seen and had to undo some people doing yoga the wrong way. That being said, yoga can be harmful if you abuse the principles and make up your own rules.
This is the biggest weekend holiday coming up. It is father’s day!….Of course I am biased and like to think I am superman. I know my children think I am made of steel and can do anything and everything. The reality is that everybody needs maintenance especially since modern society asks everyone to take huge responsibilities and forces us to be expert in multi-tasking to survive. I will like to highlight common stiff patterns that I see in males that should not be as we age. I hope to provide gentle suggestions or “nudges” to the fathers so tmhey can help themselves. Remember no one likes to be reminded that they are getting old and told what to do. Make it playful and hopefully change will happen.
