Hey everybody, it's doctor jo and unicorn Remy, and today we're gonna show you my top
7 treatments for a stiff knee. So let's get started.
So there can be a lot of reasons
for a stiff knee. Most of the time it's muscle tightness, sometimes it's just an injury.
Sometimes and injury causes muscle tightness. So one of the first things I like to do is
patella mobs. And patella mobs are a great way to kind of get that stiffness out of the
knee because even though the knee cap or the patella sits on top of the knee, if it's tight
in there, it will cause a lot of stiffness in that knee. And it will cause it to have
a really hard time bending your knee. So for patella mobs, all you do is really you're
just moving that knee cap around. So I like to kind of grab it on the sides to start off
with, and now if you don't have a specific injury like a dislocated knee cap, this is
fine. You can kind of push it a little bit. And if you have a stiff knee, this may make
it a little hard to move around. Buy I usually just take 2 fingers on each side and I'm just
starting off by pushing side to side. Now I'm not pushing down, you don't want to push
that kneecap down into the joint. So you just want to do a side to side motion. It's not
pushing down into the joint. So I'm just going side to side. And you can see, mine's pretty
mobile, it's moving around pretty easily. But if you've got a stiff knee, you might
have to push really hard to get it going. So maybe just 30 seconds to a minute this
way, and then you can do up and down. So I'll just take the thumbs on the top, fingers on
the bottom, and then just slide back and forth. So same thing. I'm not scooping down into
that joint cause that's just gonna cause more irritation. I'm really trying to take that
kneecap and move it up and down. And so again, if you've got a stiff knee, maybe an injury
or tight muscles, that might be a little hard. But the more you do, it should loosen up a
little bit. So again, maybe just 30 seconds to a minute each way, and then you can slowly
progress your time on that to really get it good. So once your have that kneecap a little
more mobile moving around, then you're gonna go into some stretches. So I like to start
the stretches with the calf. The calf muscles come and they actually cross that knee join
right here. They come up this way. If they're tight, they're gonna pull on that knee joint
and cause some stiffness in there. So there's a lot of ways you can stretch the calf. I
like just using a strap. If you're on the floor. If you can get on the floor, that's
ok, you can do this in your bed or on a couch. So take something that has a loop. You can
use a strap. If you don't have a strap, you can use a belt, or dog leashes work really
well. Just take that loop and kind of put it around the ball of your foot. You don't
want to do up on the toe, you don't want to do too low cause you're not gonna get a good
pull. But what you want to do is just relax the muscles. You're pulling with the strap
to get your foot to come up, but I'm not actively moving my foot. It's just nice and relaxed.
So I'm gonna take that and then just give t a good pull. And you just want to fell tightness,
you don't want to feel pain. You can prop this one up, you can put it down, whatever's
more comfortable for you, and just hold that stretch for 30 seconds. So after the 30 seconds,
give it a little break 10-15 second break, and then do that a total of 3 times. So then
the next stretch s gonna be a hamstring stretch. So again there's a lot of different ways you
can do that. Since I already have the strap, I'm gonna go ahead and lie down. Again if
you want to leave your leg propped up when you're lying down, that will take a little
pressure off your lower back. Some people like it down cause they feel like they get
a better stretch, but I like leaving mine propped up. So again, you're pulling that
leg up with the strap. Your leg is relaxed. Try and keep that knee as straight as you
can. If you're bending your knee as you're coming up, you're not getting that stretch
in those hamstrings. Cause the hamstrings cross the knee joint the other way. So really
try and keep that leg as straight as you can and just pull it up. If you can only go to
here, that's fine, but if you can go higher and your knee starts bending, come back down.
Really try and keep that knee straight. So if you just pull until you feel a nice good
stretch through here, and then again holding that for 30 seconds. After the 30 seconds
come back down. Give it a little 10 second break and then do that a total of 3 times.
So then the next one is gonna be for the IT band. The IT Band is on the side here. It
goes up into that TFL. That Tensor fasciae latae, which is the muscle belly, so that's
really the part you're stretching but when you stretch the IT band, it comes down and
crosses the knee joint on the outside. So again, if that whole area even up into the
hp is tight, it can cause that stiffness in the knee. So again, there's lots of ways to
stretch the IT band, I've already got the strap. So I'm gonna go back down into the
position it's kind of like you're starting with the hamstring stretch. This time I'll
probably bring this leg down because you're gonna come up just a little bit, still keeping
that knee straight, and then drop it over to the side. So now you should be feeling
that stretch through here. Depending on where your tightness is, so people feel it more
in the hip, some people feel it down at the knee, some people fell it kind of all the
way through. It's different for everybody. Sometimes people if they're a little bit lower
they feel it more, if you can come up higher without bending your knee, coming up higher
and bringing it over, sometimes people feel that stretch just a little bit more. So just
play around with it a little bit from the height and see which one feels better for
you cause everybody's just a little bit different. But still same thing, so that's 30 seconds,
take a little break in between, and do that a total of 3 times. So then the next one is
gonna be for your quads. So the quad doesn't technically cross over the knee joint, but
the quad goes into the quad tendon that connects to the kneecap or that patella. So if it's
tight, again it's pulling on that area causing that stiffness and tightness in that knee
joint. So I'm going to roll over onto my stomach this time. so I'm just gonna switch legs so
you can see it closest to you. This time put the strap kind of around your ankle. And as
you turn over, put the strap around your shoulder. That's usually the most comfortable way to
do it. Now I'm propped up on my elbows, make sure you're comfortable doing this. So if
you want to lie all the way down, you can. Don't end up getting something else sore or
tired by trying to stretch out. I like being on my stomach. You can do the same stretch
on your side, but when I'm on the floor, you can see here it keeps my hip in that kind
of neutral position. And so to get the best quad stretch, you want it to be kind of straight
up and down. And then you're just gonna take that strap and pull your heel towards your
bottom. Now if you have a stiff knee, tight knee, maybe a little injury in there, you
might not be able to get this far, that's ok. If you can only get to here, you want
to feel that tension, some pressure, but you don't want to feel any pain. So just kind
of holding it there again for that 30 seconds and then come back down and do that a total
of 3 times. So then the next one is gonna be a little bit activating the muscles now.
So this is still kind of stretching out the joint, that stiffness in there, but now you're
starting to get some movement into it to get those muscles activating. So you're gonna
lie down again and go into a heel slide. So with a heel slide, it's just like it sounds.
I like to prop this one up again just to kind of take pressure off the back and to give
myself a little push. If I have a really stiff knee, all I'm doing is just sliding my heel
up trying to bend that knee. Now there's a couple of different ways you can do it. If
it's really tight and you're having a hard time pulling it up, you can take the other
leg and kind of help pull it up like this. Or if that's not really comfortable, something
that you can do. You could take this strap and then you can put it wither like this and
help pull it up to get that stretch. Or again you can kind of take that strap and put it
around your ankle and then as you're sliding up, you're using that strap to get that little
bit of over pressure to get that stretch. Once you get to where it's tight, you don't
have to do a full 30 second stretch. I'd maybe just hold it 3-5 seconds and then slide it
back down. This is more kind of an active movement so you're not really doing a long
hold for this one. So maybe 10 reps, 2 sets of 10, a couple times a day just really depends
on what's going on. And so the last one is going to be seated in a chair. So seated in
the chair, you're gonna do heel slides again, but they're gonna be a little different than
lying on the floor, or on your bed or on the couch. So this time, if you have to start
out here depending on how much distance you have that's fine. You're just gonna slide
your heel back while seated, and as soon as you feel a little bit of tightness, you're
gonna tap your heel a couple of times. So once you do that, maybe 3-5 times, then you
should be able to slide it back just a little bit more. And so then you're gonna keep tapping
again, you know 3-5 times, and then slide back even more. But the goal is to try and
keep your heel down on the floor while you're sliding. But that little bit of tap while
you're doing it sometimes helps to loosen up some of that stiffness and tightness. And
then you should be able to slide back just a little bit more. And so again you just want
to feel tension, some pressure, you don't want it to be so painful that you have to
like jerk back as soon as you're at that last spot because it hurts some much. Just getting
that pressure, getting that tension, start back over and then do that again. So again,
you can do 5 -10 of these since it's a little bit of a process all the way through. And
you can do these a couple time throughout the day. So you don't have to do a set number,
but especially if you're working at a computer a lot or watching TV, this is a really easy
one to do to help get that knee loosened up. So those were you're top 7 treatments for
knee stiffness. And if you'd like to help support my channel, make sure and click on
the link up there, and don't forget to subscribe, where? Down there, yeah! And remember, be
safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.
