Alleviate Knee Pain with Water Exercise

Overcome Knee Pain with Water Exercise

Knee pain is a common ailment that plagues people of all ages and can occur for a variety of reasons. Knee pain can occur due to an acute injury, overuse, or an underlying condition, such as arthritis. If you are experiencing knee pain, it is important for you to differentiate if your pain is acute or chronic in nature. Typically, acute pain is characterized by pain that is less than 3 months in duration, versus chronic pain which is greater than 3 months. This differentiation is crucial because management of these two types of knee pain will differ. With acute knee pain, initial management includes rest, anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen, followed by a slow re-introduction to range of motion, strength, flexibility and eventually return to functional activities. If you are experiencing acute knee pain that is progressively worsening you should seek medical management from an experienced health-care practitioner who has the competency to give you a formal diagnosis, such as an orthopedic physician or a licensed physical therapist.

With chronic knee pain, exercise, strengthening and range of motion play a key role in managing knee pain. Strengthening the muscles surrounding your knee increases the stability of your knee and off-loads some of the force. Unfortunately, many people with chronic knee pain tend to sit more and minimize movement throughout the day since they may fear movement will worsen symptoms. On the contrary, in some cases it is the lack of motion that can actually make your pain worse. Thankfully a great natural remedy that allows you to exercise and strengthen your muscles is water exercise! The unique properties of water decrease the load on your knee, hips, back, etc., and allows you to move more freely and pain free. Try some of these exercises to help strengthen the muscles surrounding your knees in order to increase stability. 

Exercises for Knee Pain: 

1. Hamstring Curl: This exercise helps to strengthen the muscle in the back of your leg and supports the knee. This muscle helps to flex your knee.
1. Standing next to the edge of the pool, holding on if you need to, with your feet shoulder width apart and your toes facing forward. Flex your left knee bringing your heel towards your buttocks and then return to starting position. Complete this exercise for 2 sets of 20 repetitions on each leg.
2. For increased resistance, add ankle weights. 

2. Forward Mini-Lunge: This exercise helps to strengthen the muscle in the back of your leg and supports your knee. This muscle helps to extend your knee.
1. Stand in the water at waist deep next to the edge of the pool if needed for balance. Stand with feet shoulder width apart and toes facing forward. Take a medium sized step forward. Lower your body so your front knee bends and your back knee bends too. Make sure your front knee does not bend past your toes.
2. Return to original position. Repeat on other leg. Continue to alternate back and forth until you complete 20 repetitions.
3. Make sure you are standing up tall then entire time.

2. Step-ups: This exercise helps to strengthen the muscles both on the front and back of your knee. This exercise will strengthen the muscles that you use to go up and down stairs.
1. For this exercise you can either stand by the steps to get in and out of the pool or place a small stool/step in the pool.
2. Stand in front of step with feet shoulder width apart, holding onto the railing if needed for balance. Step up with one foot followed by other foot. Step back down. Continue to complete step-ups for 12-15 repetitions leading with the same foot. Then switch and lead with the other foot for 12-15 repetitions.
3. Make sure you are standing up tall then entire time.
4. For increased resistance, add ankle weights.