Fitforu

Another good place to start is making your Quads stronger. Quad as in 4, four important muscles in charge of straightening your knee. Harmless exercise that can be done with high frequency at a pain tolerable intensity. Hold for 10, 15 or 20 seconds per repetition if you can take it!

If 99% of people would feel better if they did 10 more of this exercise everyday. Strengthens the glutes, stretches the hip flexors (tight from sitting, do U sit too much?) overall just an excellent simple exercise; especially those with cranky knees.

If you are like most people, who sit too much, your hamstrings are likely tight. If this is the case, it is never a bad idea to take time and stretch them however you like. This is one technique that works well for me. Stretch each leg for at least two minutes.

A fair number of people with knee pain will not be able to tolerate the standing version of this stretch. If that is the case try the verison on the floor. Use a belt as a lasso to pull your foot towards your rear end.

If your knee pain is on the lateral (outside) of your knee, there is a chance the IT band is the culprit. This is my favorite IT band stretch, but may be too intense for some. If this is too intense, stay with a piriformis stretch for now and maybe come back and try this later.

PSA: stretch your calves.

These four are great exercises to strengthen the hip and the leg without putting pressure through the knee joint. Keep he knee straight as you can and move with your hip. Work of to three sets of ten for each!

Good balance on a small surface area is a good sign of strong hips and feet. If this is too challenging for you, try just standing with your feet close together first, then shrink the surface. If this is too easy, move on to the next exercise :).

Hip and foot strengthening. Keep a slight bend in the knee you are standing on. If this is too challenging for you, continue working on tandem stance until you are ready for this one :).

The Squat.. Mother of all weightlifting. Too easy.. Add weight. Too painful.. Hold on to something sturdy, progress to less sturdy objects.

These two exercises a

The transverse abdominis muscle is a muscle that supports the lower park of the spine and is difficult to train. The most effective way I have found to recruit this muscle is to draw your belly button towards the floor. Holding that position take deep breathes, while keeping you belly button sucked in towards the floor. Try for 5 breathes if you can and do this around 5 times per set.

I stole this exercise directly from Dr. Stuart McGill and it is a good one. What you do is put your hands in the small of your back to help maintain your neutral spine position. Pretend your head and shoulders are resting on a weight scale and lift them just enough to zero the scale, keep your elbows off the ground as well. Hold for 3-5 seconds and do a set of 10. Work up to 2 or 3 sets of 10 per session.

The bridge is an excellent exercise for just about every person walking on two legs. Start on your back, knees bent, tighten your abdominal muscles a bit, press your feet into the ground, and lift your butt off the ground. I like to have just my heels pressed into the ground, but if this is uncomfortable for you, feel free to keep your feet flat on the ground. Try not to overarching your low back at the top of the exercise, keeping your abs a little tight should help prevent this from happening. Try 2 or 3 sets of 10 once you get the hang of it!

This is another excellent exercise I stole from the brilliant Dr. Stuart McGill. Start on your side with you legs stacked on top of each other. Use your top hand to help balance as you lift both legs just a little bit off the ground. Hold for up to 5 seconds, then relax back down. You may need to adjust your hips slightly to find a comfortable position. Work up to a set of ten on both sides.

In this video, I begin by flexing and extending my spine within a comfortable range of motion for me. The range of motion might look different for different people, but it is a good exercise to take your spine through a flexion/extension range of motion without the load of gravity. I then find the most comfortable position for the natural shape of my spine (may look slightly different for different shaped people). Once I find that neutral spine, I use my abdominal muscles to hold my spine in place and move through my shoulder and hip. If this is too challenging and you cannot control the motion of your spine, start with just lifting your hand or you leg alone and gradually build up to lifting both together.

Start with 5-10 on each side and work up to 2 or 3 sets per session!

This is a great core exercise for those looking for a little more of a challenge. Begin in a side plank with your top foot placed in front of your bottom foot. Hold for 10-30 seconds, then turn to a traditional plank, hold for another 10-30 seconds, and finish with the side plank on the opposite side that you started from, that is one rep! Work your way up to 5 or 10 reps!

This is a very simple exercise to improve your recruitment of the quadriceps muscle group, which will be very important after the procedure. In this video I use a T-shirt under my knee for comfort and for something to push into. This is not necessary, but can be helpful. Give your quad a good squeeze and hold for 3-5 seconds. Start with a set of ten and do a few sets a day!

Range of motion is another major area of focus following a Knee Replacement. This is another simple exercise to improve both knee flexion and extension. Bend your knee as far as you can, hold for a few seconds, then straighten your leg as best you can, hold for a few seconds. Do a set of ten, then do a few sets a day!

Stretching your hamstring is important for a number of reasons, but in the case of a total knee replacement it will help improve your knee extension. There is certainly more than one way to stretch your hamstring, but I like this way because it is simple and does not require any equipment (although you may use a towel or strap to hold your leg in place). Try to do around 2 minutes of stretching per leg/session (30 seconds x4 for example).

In this video, I show you two ways to stretch your groin or adductor muscles. The first one is the classic butterfly stretch. Bring the bottoms of your feet together, sit up tall, lean forward slightly and push your knees towards the ground. The second option is a little more comfortable, especially for the back. Lay on your back and let your knee fall to the ground and use your hands to help push your knees towards the ground if you can. Hold either stretch for about 30 seconds, and shoot for around two minutes of stretching total.

Similar to the hamstring, there are many benefits to stretching the quadriceps muscle group and many ways to do so. In this video I demonstrate two different ways to do so. The first is simple, but difficult for many people. The second can be easier for most to perform, I am using a small T-shirt, it may be easier if you use a larger towel, or a longer strap of some kind (dog leash possibly).

There are many ways to stretch your calf muscles. I tend to like this way, personally. You can use a variety of things to prop your toes up on, I just happed to have this seat cushion handy. Toes propped up, heels stay on the ground and lean forward. Knees straight or slightly bent (try both!) do around two minutes worth of stretching per session.

Straight leg raises are a great lower body exercise, both for the hip and the knee. In this video, I perform a few repetitions of four different straight leg raise exercises. The first one would be the most important for those planning on a knee replacement, but all of them are very beneficial if you can do them. Similar to most strengthening exercises I recommend 2 or 3 sets of ten for each exercise.

The bridge is an excellent exercise for just about every person. Start on your back, knees bent, tighten your abdominal muscles a bit, press your feet into the ground, and lift your butt off the ground. I like to have just my heels pressed into the ground, but if this is uncomfortable for you, feel free to keep your feet flat on the ground. Try not to overarching your low back at the top of the exercise, keeping your abs a little tight should help prevent this from happening. Try 2 or 3 sets of 10 once you get the hang of it!

When we replace our joints with synthetic pieces we lose some of the sensory information that we receive from those joints. That sensory information contributes to our balance and when we lose that, our balance becomes worse. One major focus with lower body joint replacements is to maximize our balance with the remaining sensory information that we have. Tandem stance is a good place to start with balance exercises, be sure to stand near something stable (counter, chair, etc.) in case you begin to fall. If this exercise is too easy, close your eyes and try to count to ten. Be sure to switch which foot is in front and practice this for a few minutes on each side.

A more challenging balance exercise. Be sure to have something stable nearby in case you lose your balance! See if you can hold it for 30 seconds at a time. Spend a few minutes practicing on each side.

***If tolerated*** Squats are an excellent, functional lower body exercise; however, if you are planning on having a knee replacement done, this might be too painful for you to do pre-operatively. Either way pre or post-operatively squatting is an excellent way to build up lower body strength. A few key points, I indicate with my hands in the video, try not to let your knees to come together as you squat. Ideally your knees would track more or less parallel with your toes. On the side shot you can see that my knees do not go too far forward over my toes. Keep your bodyweight back in your hips when squatting and keep your knees from blocking your view of your toes. Try 2 or 3 sets of ten once you get the technique down!

If you are having trouble with the squats, maybe try using a heel lift! Again, I had a seat cushion handy that worked really well for this, but you could use a 2x4, small book, a rolled up towel, anything to give you an inch or two lift off the ground. Nothing about the squatting technique changes, the heel lift just helps you more easily get in a good squatting technique.

Prone lying, just simply laying on your stomach is a great place to start with an extension-based spinal program. In this video, I begin by just lying comfortably on my stomach. If that is tolerable, you can try the next position, propped on your elbows. If being on your elbows is painful or too uncomfortable, return back to the first position for now. Try and stay in this position for a few minutes at first, maybe 3-5 minutes, then get up and walk around. Do this two or three times as frequently as every hour throughout the day, or just a few times a day if that is more realistic for your schedule.

Once sustained extension begins to feel good, you are ready to start with some press ups. Keep your hips on the ground the best you can, breathe in, exhale and press up, extending your spine. This helps to reverse the constant flexion posture that is so common in our society today. Start with a set of 10 and work up to doing 1-3 sets per session.

After doing some extension exercises, this is a good time to flip onto our back and do some nerve glides. The sciatic nerve begins in the low back and innervates down the leg and lead to other nerves that innervate the lower leg and foot. This nerve can commonly be obstructed by bulging discs. Gliding the nerve combined with extension exercises can help minimize the numbness or painful symptoms resulting from obstruction of the nerve roots.

The transverse abdominis muscle is a muscle that supports the lower park of the spine and is difficult to train. The most effective way I have found to recruit this muscle is to draw your belly button towards the floor. Holding that position take deep breathes, while keeping you belly button sucked in towards the floor. Try for 5 breathes if you can and do this around 5 times per set.

I stole this exercise directly from Dr. Stuart McGill and it is a good one. What you do is put your hands in the small of your back to help maintain your neutral spine position. Pretend your head and shoulders are resting on a weight scale and lift them just enough to zero the scale, keep your elbows off the ground as well. Hold for 3-5 seconds and do a set of 10. Work up to 2 or 3 sets of 10 per session.

This is another excellent exercise I stole from the brilliant Dr. Stuart McGill. Start on your side with you legs stacked on top of each other. Use your top hand to help balance as you lift both legs just a little bit off the ground. Hold for up to 5 seconds, then relax back down. You may need to adjust your hips slightly to find a comfortable position. Work up to a set of ten on both sides.

In this video, I begin by flexing and extending my spine within a comfortable range of motion for me. The range of motion might look different for different people, but it is a good exercise to take your spine through a flexion/extension range of motion without the load of gravity. I then find the most comfortable position for my neutral spine (may look slightly different for different shaped people). Once I find that neutral spine, I use my abdominal muscles to hold my spine in place and move through my shoulder and hip. If this is too challenging and you cannot control the motion of your spine, start with just lifting your hand or you leg alone and gradually build up to lifting both together.

Start with 5-10 on each side and work up to 2 or 3 sets per session!

The bridge is an excellent exercise for just about every person walking on two legs. Start on your back, knees bent, tighten your abdominal muscles a bit, press your feet into the ground, and lift your butt off the ground. I like to have just my heels pressed into the ground, but if this is uncomfortable for you, feel free to keep your feet flat on the ground. Try not to overarching your low back at the top of the exercise, keeping your abs a little tight should help prevent this from happening. Try 2 or 3 sets of 10 once you get the hang of it!

One of my favorite stretches.. Start on your hands and knees and sit your hips back towards your heels, hold for 5-10 seconds and repeat! Notice I adjust my hands and move back during my first rep, find your own comfortable version of every exercise!!

This is an excellent stretch to maximize space for nerve roots for those suffering from stenosis of the lumbar spine. Start on your back, pull both knees to your chest, hold for 5-10 seconds, try maybe 5-10 reps to start.. Enjoy!

The sciatic nerve begins in the low back and innervates down the leg and lead to other nerves that innervate the lower leg and foot. This nerve can commonly be obstructed by bulging discs. Gliding the nerve combined with extension exercises can help minimize the numbness or painful symptoms resulting from obstruction of the nerve roots.

The pelvic tilt is a great flexion-based core stabilization exercise. It is a little difficult to see in this video, but what is happening is, I am contracting my abdominal muscles and flattening my low back onto the floor. Hold this for a few seconds, maybe 3-5 seconds per repetition and start with a set of 10. When you release, the arch in your low back and space between the floor and the small of your back should return.

I stole this exercise directly from Dr. Stuart McGill and it is a good one. What you do is put your hands in the small of your back to help maintain your neutral spine position. Pretend your head and shoulders are resting on a weight scale and lift them just enough to zero the scale, keep your elbows off the ground as well. Hold for 3-5 seconds and do a set of 10. Work up to 2 or 3 sets of 10 per session.

This is another excellent exercise I stole from the brilliant Dr. Stuart McGill. Start on your side with you legs stacked on top of each other. Use your top hand to help balance as you lift both legs just a little bit off the ground. Hold for up to 5 seconds, then relax back down. You may need to adjust your hips slightly to find a comfortable position. Work up to a set of ten on both sides.

The transverse abdominis muscle is a muscle that supports the lower park of the spine and is difficult to train. The most effective way I have found to recruit this muscle is to draw your belly button towards the floor. Holding that position take deep breathes, while keeping you belly button sucked in towards the floor. Try for 5 breathes if you can and do this around 5 times per set.

The bridge is an excellent exercise for just about every person walking on two legs. Start on your back, knees bent, tighten your abdominal muscles a bit, press your feet into the ground, and lift your butt off the ground. I like to have just my heels pressed into the ground, but if this is uncomfortable for you, feel free to keep your feet flat on the ground. Try not to overarching your low back at the top of the exercise, keeping your abs a little tight should help prevent this from happening. Try 2 or 3 sets of 10 once you get the hang of it!

In this video, I begin by flexing and extending my spine within a comfortable range of motion for me. The range of motion might look different for different people, but it is a good exercise to take your spine through a flexion/extension range of motion without the load of gravity. I then find the most comfortable position for my neutral spine (may look slightly different for different shaped people). Once I find that neutral spine, I use my abdominal muscles to hold my spine in place and move through my shoulder and hip. If this is too challenging and you cannot control the motion of your spine, start with just lifting your hand or you leg alone and gradually build up to lifting both together.

Start with 5-10 on each side and work up to 2 or 3 sets per session!

This is a great core exercise for those looking for a little more of a challenge. Begin in a side plank with your top foot placed in front of your bottom foot. Hold for 10-30 seconds, then turn to a traditional plank, hold for another 10-30 seconds, and finish with the side plank on the opposite side that you started from, that is one rep! Work your way up to 5 or 10 reps!

The chin tuck is a great exercise to improve cervical posture. To perform correctly, slightly lower chin, then retract your head backwards, trying to move your ears back behind your shoulders. Hold for a moment or two, then release. This exercise is sometimes easier to do while lying on your back, pushing the back of your head into a pillow.

For this exercise attempt to get your heels, tailbone, shoulder blades, back of your head, and the back of your hands to touch the wall behind you. If this is too difficult, move your feet forward to allow the rest of your body to touch the wall. As you practice, you should be able to move your heels closer to the wall! ***This exercise may restrict blood flow to the brain, use caution and do not force movement.***

The most massaged muscle in the human body (do not fact check me). The upper trap becomes very tight for a number of reasons, this is a great way to stretch that muscle! Moving one arm down by your belt line moves the origin of the muscle on the scapula away from its insertion on the cervical spine. Use you hand to GENTLY tilt your head away from your depressed scapula.

Another heavily massaged muscle, the levator scapula spans from the medial/superior tip of your scapula to the base of your skull. Using your arm again to depress your scapula, rotate your head as if you were going to sniff your armpit (hehe) and GENTLY use your other hand to increase the stretch.

Cervical rotation is very important, we all know the feeling when we slept in a funny position and woke up with a stiff neck. This can be a real problem for people who begin to lose this rotational motion in their neck. This is a nice way you can attempt to regain some of that lost motion. In this video I am using a T-shirt, any number of things can be used (a small towel works best) to help stretch into a few more degrees of motion. As with any stretching of the neck it is so very important to be gentle and not force motion that is painful or not available to you yet.

Think of nerves as electrical cords that connect the power source (brain) to our exterior components (hand, foot, etc.). Similar to the insulation around electric cords, our nerves run through tunnels that protect the nerves. The nerves can occasionally become bound down within those tunnels and that is why we perform nerve glides, to attempt to free up the nerve in the tunnel and improve conductivity from the brain to the rest of our body! These again are to be done gently and should not be painful, but can be slightly uncomfortable at first. If you feel an electrical stretch after extending the arm back, then there is no need to tilt the head away from the arm to increase the stretch, yet. As the nerve path clears up, you should be able to extend the wrist and tilt the head to take the nerve to full stretch.

The hand is innervated by three nerves, the median, ulnar, and radial nerve. This technique is used to glide the ulnar nerve. This is usually felt from the inside of the elbow, along the arm to the pinky side of the hand. Remember, always gentle when stretching nerves ;).

The radial nerve is the third and final nerve innervation of the hand, responsible for sensation of the back of the hand and on the thumb side.

Stretching your calf muscles is a good place to start if you are experiencing foot pain. The calf muscles play a major role in walking and running; strong and flexible calf muscles will help prevent or reduce a multitude of foot pains and aches. Stretch with the knee straight and try a few with the knee slightly bent to target deeper calf muscles.

The big toe’s ability to extend is very important for foot health. In this video I use my hands to stretch my big toe. There are a number of ways to do this stretch. Using your hands allows you to block the joint and increase the stretch.

Pushing your big toe into the ground activates the muscle that supports the arch of your foot. Push for a few seconds and then relax. Repeat 10 times per set.

This exercise is to improve the mobility of the ankle joint. The idea is being able to get your knee as far out in front of your toes without the heel coming off the ground. In this video I start with just leaning my knee out over my toes, then I use my hand to block the lower part of my shin bone to increase the stretch.

Balance exercise is great for strengthening foot and hip muscles that support the structures of the foot. If this exercise is easy for you, try closing your eyes and count to ten.

Having good balance on one leg is a good indicator of fine tuned lower body muscles. Stand near something to sturdy if this is challenging for you. Try with your eyes closed if this is easy for you ;).

Strengthening the hips and the core will take stress and demand off the feet in weight bearing movement.

Stronger hips and legs, the easier walking is on your feet :). Try two, or three sets of any or all four!

Especially if you are a runner, there is a chance you have a tight IT band that is contributing to your foot pain. If not, it is still a good idea to stretch you IT band. Two minutes, each side.

Strengthening of the medial and lateral stabilizers of the ankle will support the foot. Try 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Strengthening of the medial and lateral stabilizers of the ankle will support the foot. Try 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions.

Think of nerves as electrical cords that connect the power source (brain) to our exterior components (hand, foot, etc.). Similar to the insulation around electric cords, our nerves run through tunnels that protect the nerves. The nerves can occasionally become bound down within those tunnels and that is why we perform nerve glides, to attempt to free up the nerve in the tunnel and improve conductivity from the brain to the rest of our body! These again are to be done gently and should not be painful, but can be slightly uncomfortable at first. If you feel an electrical stretch after extending the arm back, then there is no need to tilt the head away from the arm to increase the stretch, yet. As the nerve path clears up, you should be able to extend the wrist and tilt the head to take the nerve to full stretch.

For this exercise attempt to get your heels, tailbone, shoulder blades, back of your head, and the back of your hands to touch the wall behind you. If this is too difficult, move your feet forward to allow the rest of your body to touch the wall. As you practice, you should be able to move your heels closer to the wall! ***This exercise may restrict blood flow to the brain, use caution and do not force movement.***