BY DR. ARNAN SISSON

22 MARCH 2019

When someone has an ache or pain the first thought that comes to mind in most cases is “wow this thing hurts like crazy, I need to “take it easy” for a few weeks.” And to an extent this is most definitely right; When you develop an ache or pain it would be smart to lower your activity and ice the area frequently for a day or two. But that’s it. In most cases “taking it easy” longer than this can actually make your pain worse long term!

A few weeks ago I had a client in a very similar boat, and they came to me to get rid of nagging knee pain that had stuck with them for a few months. And the problem was that they were cutting all activity down for all those months. Not only had the pain not gotten any better but worsened a bit. So we had to build up their physical activity.

Today I’m going to cover two lifting methods I taught this person that allowed them to lift objects in my gym, but also around the house and in the community as well. These methods will help position your painful knees in great positions to allow almost anyone with knee issues to get back to what they love.

The first method is a traditional squat with outward knee position. This is pretty simple to perform. First you get as close as possible to whatever your lifting. Get your feet about shoulder width and as you bend down to pick the object up try to sit back as if your sitting back in a chair. This works very well to use larger muscles to support the knee, and the icing on the cake would be to make sure your knees are pushed out and lined up with your feet. This will provide some extra protection.

If this is too painful for you to use, then a staggered stance lifting position may be your best bet. Its very similar to the squat, but you put your non-achy knee in front and the troublesome knee is toward the back when lifting. As you go down to pick up the object you use the same principals as above, but bend more so on the nonpainful leg, and keep the back leg fairly straight.

If anyone out there has a friend with awful knee pain, be sure to cut this article out to give them. It can begin the process of healing the knee.

That’s it for today everyone, remember movement is medicine!

P.S. Sick of wasting time and money? Let us find the problem and fix it 100% for you! If your interested, shoot us a call at (804) 493-0002 or click here to set up your evaluation. We only allow 2 new knee clients into the practice every 1-2 weeks. So please call as soon as possible to avoid the wait!