For a person suffering from knee arthritis, it's extremely important that he/she does regular knee exercises. Exercise is an amazing way to keep a cartilage that's healthy and strong. It helps in strengthening the muscles and the tendons supporting the knee. However, one must keep in mind that not every exercise will help an individual suffering from knee arthritis, which is why one should consult an arthritis knee exercise expert before taking any kind of step, as doing a wrong exercise can adversely affect the situation and make it go worse. In this article we'll be discussing on a few knee exercises that'll give you relief from your arthritis problem.
One of the most simple exercises for your knee is to sit on a chair and let your feet lay flat on the ground. It's important that when you're practicing this exercise, your thigh should be parallel to the floor. When you sit properly during the exercises, it helps the tendons and the muscles around the knee to relax, which in turn removes any stress surrounding it. You can add on certain variations according to your own comfort, like you can slowly lift your feet in order to make it parallel to the surface, point and move your toes or just raise your feet and do a bit of circular motion.
Another good option is to take up swimming. Yes, swimming can give you one the best cardiovascular workouts and is very safe. The main concern with swimming is that if you're having shoulder problems, it may aggravate and cause more pain while doing a few strokes. Apart from that, patients suffering from lower back arthritis may also experience that their symptoms worsen with certain moves. However, if you only have knee related problem, swimming can prove to be really effective.
If you think that swimming won't work for you, you can go for Hydrotherapy, which is extremely helpful for patients suffering from knee arthritis. This initially involves walking in the water, which is very useful. Once you're used to it, you can try walking backwards and/or sideways. Other activities that can be tried out in the pool are standing and marching on the same spot, floating while kicking your legs and stepping up/down with a small step.
If you're looking for a good form of aerobic activity, a stationary bike just serves the purpose. It’s an easy and a non-impact workout. Patients suffering from knee problems need to start out slow and steady, and use a low-tension setting. Or else you might end worsening the knee problem instead of bettering it. With a stationary bike, you should also perform hamstring stretching and quad strengthening too.
Yet another simple exercise you can do without much problem is sitting on the ground cross-legged. When you do this, the tendons and the muscles get stretched without putting any kind of effort. You can remain in this comfortable position for at least a minute and then involve other variations. For example, you can slowly push your knee towards the ground in order to exert more pressure on the muscles surrounding the joints. In this position, since the legs are crossed and one leg goes on top of the other leg, it's necessary to change the legs position and re-apply the pressure.