Fix My Knee by George Demirakos

Author:George Demirakos [Demirakos, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2017-08-30T04:00:00+00:00

Quadriceps Stretch. All photos in chapter 4 by the author.

Bend your right knee. Place your right hand on your right ankle. From this position, pull your knee back until you start to feel a stretch in your quads muscles. It should not be painful. Try holding the position for approximately one minute.

Your goal: three sets of ten reps, holding for one minute, resting for thirty seconds in between sets.

What to watch out for: The nonstretching leg is the secret to this exercise and the reason I prefer to do it lying on the side rather than standing up. If, instead of bending your nonstretching leg, you kept it straight, you would not get the same stretch. When your knee is brought up in the direction of your head, it locks the hips, not allowing them to move. This in turn won’t allow you to “cheat” on your stretch, so you get the full benefit.

However, if you are outside and cannot lie down on the floor, the standing stretch is the next best thing. As long as you can visualize pushing the hip forward as you stretch, you should feel pulling in your quads.

There are many ways to do a quad stretch, so choose the best way for you—just be sure to hold the position for at least a minute or so. Research has shown that during the first fifteen seconds of a static stretch, the muscle fibers actually contract to protect themselves. After fifteen seconds or so, the muscle starts to loosen up. That’s why holding a position for one minute or longer (I hold my position while listening to an entire song on my iPhone) gives you the best results, loosening your patella so that it can move around better and decrease pressure on your knee.

Hamstring Stretch

Hamstring tightness is a common issue for people with knee pain. Stretching and loosening your hamstring not only reduces pressure on your knees, but because the hamstring is a muscle that passes through two joints, it also relieves pressure from your hips and back.

There are many ways to stretch your hamstring, but this is one of my favorites. It is best for those who do not have back pain.

Sitting with your feet in front of you, bend the leg you are not stretching so that the foot rests against the inner thigh of the leg that you are stretching. You don’t need to jam your foot all the way to your groin, just place it comfortably on the inner thigh.

Place the leg that you want to stretch in front of you. With both hands on your knee or slightly above on your thigh, slowly start to bend forward, with your chest moving toward your leg, keeping your head straight, until you feel a pull in your leg. Hold that position for one minute.

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