Knee pain!….it’s the pits! Have you ever suffered?
Sharp pain, aching, stiffness, creaking and cracking……it’s all in there! Sound familiar?
What a tuneful joint!…our knees take a lot over the years. They are a work horse helping us walking, run, bend, jump, hop. No wonder they sometimes begin to grumble at us.
Now you need to ask yourself, have you been kind to your knees over the years? Have you been making them commit movement crimes they shouldn’t have?
Now what do I mean by movement crimes? Below are 3 things you could be doing on a daily basis that have caused your knee pain or making it worse.
Sitting with your legs crossed
Avoid Sitting Cross Legged. Your knee joint isn’t designed to twist or turn. And sitting in a cross-legged position is doing just that. In this position, your joints are twisted, muscles stretched and you’re vulnerable to injury. Spending an excess of time in this position will catch up on you – usually aged 40-60 in the form of unwanted noises like click clunk and crack – and more swelling than most other people your age.
Avoid High Heels
Here’s why. Wearing high heels will increase the pressure through your knees by about 25 times. By wearing a nice soft cushioned pair of shoes instead, your knee joint would be experiencing 25 times less pressure and force placed upon it. Imagine how much relief you’d feel if you could take that type of stress off of your knee joint right now? But understand that it’s a cumulative effect. This pressure builds up from wearing the wrong footwear over a period of weeks and years and results in a weak and stiff knee joint, somewhere around the age of 40- 45.
Check your squat
Ever noticed how a toddler squats to the floor and is able to sit in this position for ages! Well toddlers have the most beautiful purest movements.
As we get older our hips get really stiff and this causes us to change how we bend and squat down.
Next time when you bend down to load the washing machine or when getting those plates out of a low kitchen cupboard (I hope you bend your knees and hips and not your back) check how you do it.
If you feel pain in your knees it’s likely your knees are going too far over your toes and this is bad as it places extreme pressure on the knees causing pain. What you need to do is bend from your hips too so get that bottom shooting backwards so those hips start to help your knees out with the workload.
Do you do any of these things?
If your answer to any or all of these is ‘yes’, then putting an end to these three bad habits today will help ease your knee pain, and stop it from getting any worse than it needs to be.
There’s obviously so much more you can do too – for example do exercises which have been tailored for you, and your knee pain, by a Physio, and get hands-on specialist treatment.
Please don’t listen to anyone that says you have knee pain because of your age and it’s to be expected. Please don’t think popping a couple or paracetamol or Neurofen will cure it as they won’t. All they will do if taken for a long time is give you other health problems.
Knee pain can be worrying as you may fear that if it gets worse you may lose your mobility and independence but let me tell you now there is help out there so please do not suffer in silence.
If you want some more tips on how to avoid knee pain click the link below where you can download a completely free report on ways to ease chronic knee pain naturally: http://www.wdcphysio.wpenginepowered.com/physiotherapy/knee-pain/
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[ebs_iconheading type=”h4″ style=”glyphicon-user” icontype=”glyphicon”][/ebs_iconheading] About the Author
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About Wendy McCloud
Wendy is the founder of The South East’s Leading Specialist Private Physiotherapy Practice for People in their 40’s, 50’s and 60’s, who want to keep healthy and active.
Wendy’s background includes working as an Extended Scope Practitioner Physiotherapist working as part of Mr. Ali Al-Sabti’s Orthopaedic Consultant’s team specialising in Shoulder Pain.
Wendy has treated royalty for Shoulder pain through referrals from her close links with a top Orthopaedic Shoulder Surgeons. More recently Wendy has been the sole choice physiotherapist for all Essex based referrals from London Shoulder surgeon Mr. Matthew Sala.
Wendy worked in National Level Rugby Union for 11 years, working with players who achieved county honours and representative honours for various countries such as England, Samoa, Australia and New Zealand. Wendy resigned from her position as Head Physiotherapist at Southend RFC in June 2011 to open WDC which has become the fastest growing clinic in the South East of England.
WDC is now a large multi-therapist speciality practice in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.
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