Knee Pain: 3 Things That Do Not Help

September 4, 2018

Knee Pain

Knee Pain

A patient walked into my clinic last week, limping with knee pain, asking:

“I’ve had this knee pain for a few weeks now, and I’m not sure what I’ve done to it. I’ve tried taking some pain killers and it hasn’t helped”.

I was trying to rest it so that it wouldn’t hurt, but whenever I stand up, it starts to hurt again so I have to sit right back down.

Now I’m wearing a knee brace to see if that helps, but I can still feel the pain when I take it off.

“Is there anything else that I can do to get rid of the pain?”

I know how frustrating it can be when you’re not sure what you’ve done to hurt your knee. And I know it can be even more frustrating when everything that you’re trying to do to get rid of the pain, doesn’t do a thing to make your knee feel any better.

Everyone always thinks and hopes that there will be a “quick fix” to their problem.

And because people come into my clinic feeling confused, fed up, and even skeptical about what can be done to help with their knee pain, I wanted to address this idea of “quick fixes”. Whether it’s your knees, back, neck, wherever, I’m going to tell you why they’re no good.

Are you properly caring for your knees? Watch this video to find out.

With that said, here’s the three most common “quick fixes” that people THINK ease their knee pain, but actually do the opposite:

1. Reaching for the Painkillers

When you’re in pain, let’s face it, one of the easiest things to do is reach for the painkillers to “kill” the pain quickly.

It’s also unfortunately the first option that your doctor or GP will give you to help your knee pain.

But the thing is, is that pain killers will not get to the root cause of your problem, and actually, won’t do anything to fix it. They just mask the pain instead, which will only help temporarily.  Doing this repeatedly can cause more injury and prolong recovery.

And at the end of the day, that pain will still be there when the painkillers wear off, so it’s better to do something to fix your pain long-term.

2. Resting

When pain strikes, it’s tempting to do nothing but rest, “in case the pain gets worse”. This means that many people end up laying on the couch watching Netflix, waiting for their pain to miraculously go away. But when it comes to knee pain, “rest” actually means not “do too much”.

If you rest too much, your joints will become stiff and tight, which can make your knees feel even worse and much achier when you try to move them again.

To actually help your knee, you could swim, go for a light walk, try out some yoga or even go for a bike ride. Basically, any low-impact exercise will help you to keep moving, without placing any added pressure on your knees.

And lastly…

3. Wearing A Support

Things like knee braces should ONLY be used as a last resort.

Wearing support around your knee on a daily basis to try and “ease” the pain is actually just masking the pain, and creating a bigger problem.

The best way I can explain it is to imagine you have a broken leg or arm that you’ve put a cast on.

After six weeks or so when the cast is taken off, the muscles underneath are weak. This is exactly the same as wearing a support every day.

Although it supports the joint and takes the pressure off your muscles, it makes the muscles weak and lazy.

Once you take the support off (after it’s “eased” the pain”) there’s an extremely high chance that it comes back quicker and worse than before.

So there you have it. 3 quick fixes that people think ease their knee pain, but do the opposite.

When it comes to your joints, these quick fixes are not the way to move forward and fix the underlying issue.

Announcement:

If you want more information on how to recover from knee trouble, we’re offering a free 20-minute discovery session. You get 20 minutes with a physical therapist, discussing your problem and deciding if physical therapy would be a good fit for you. Click this link to take advantage of this offer:

P.S. If you’d like some simple tips you can use now to start easing your knee pain, click below to download my free knee pain report:

Nick Hunter, PT, DPT
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