FEELING GREAT: Doing more exercise is rarely the answer to a painful knee

It’s one of the most common issues we deal with at the Paul Gough Physio Rooms.However, one of the big mistakes I see GPs make is telling people looking for a solution to knee pain to just “go and do some exercise’, as if more exercise will make the pain go away. But more exercise is rarely the right answer and not when it is already painful.

You see, the big mistake currently being made when it comes to healthy living is to think that when knee pain gets really bad, doing exercise – such as running and even more walking - will help make your knee stronger and therefore less painful.

It won’t and exercise will often make a swollen, painful knee even worse.

The only thing you should ever consider doing is to stop exercising completely for a short period and instead, strengthen the muscles that are designed to protect and support the knee by doing specific exercises prescribed by a specialist physio.

In case you are wondering, the muscles you should be strengthening include your thigh, hamstring and lower back muscles and it pays to have your feet looked at, just to make sure they’re in the right position before you exercise too.

Orthotics – insoles for your footwear specially designed to mould around your feet – are becoming more and more important.

By strengthening, all bases are covered and your knee has enough natural support from above and below to let you do the type of activity you love doing, free from relying upon painkillers.

Don’t worry – I’m not talking about doing exercises that involve heavy lifting of weights or sitting on machines (the latter I never advise), or anything like that. It’s possible to strengthen your knee muscles sufficiently just by using something as easy to get hold of as a resistance band.

It’s a large elastic band that has different levels of strength (often distinguished by colour) and all you do is strap it or tie it to something heavy or firm like a couch leg, and continuously work your knee muscles against the resistance. There's endless simple exercises you can do at home with them.