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knee pain

How To Get Rid Of Your Knee Pain And Stiffness Naturally

Knee pain is no fun!  It keeps you from doing things that you could enjoy.  So let’s find out why knees get crabby.

Muscles in your lower legs attach to your thighs and muscles in your upper legs attach to your lower legs.

Your knees are stuck right in the middle of all of these muscles and guess what!

Muscles are the most common cause of knee pain or any other type of pain.

Sometimes injuries cause knee pain.  Here’s some information about that:

Knee pain can be caused by injury to the ligaments that attach bones to other bones.  Sometimes they require surgery to repair.  Ligaments are dense, tough tissue without much blood supply so they heal slowly.  My understanding is that if it is not completely torn from the bone a ligament can heal over time.  Lots of time.

Knee injury can also cause damage to tendons.  Tendons are the ends of muscles that attach to bones.  Like ligaments, they are also tough tissue that takes a long time to heal.  If a tendon totally detaches from the bone it is supposed to attach to, it can create instability in a joint.

But lets assume that you do NOT have a knee injury–you haven’t fallen or been in an accident.  But you DO have knee pain.

Why?

And what can you do to get rid of that nagging knee pain and start doing the things you’d like to do?

Lots of times the doctor will say pain in your knees is from ‘old age’ or ‘arthritis.’  Maybe it is but usually that means the doctor doesn’t really know why you have pain.  Those are catch-all diagnoses.  Kind of like Old Wives Tales.  They don’t teach muscles much in med school.

This may be the real reason:  Muscle imbalance in your legs.

Muscle imbalance means that some muscles are a bit ‘too tight’ and some are a bit ‘too weak.’  This happens from using some muscles too much and some too little.  Pssst:  Or from sitting too much.

We have over 600 muscles.  Unfortunately, lots of times we get in habits or positions which use only 60 or so muscles on a regular basis.

But we were born to move!  We are supposed to be using ALL of our muscles on a regular basis.

I know a man who had ligament damage in both knees from injuries.  But as long as he kept his leg muscles strong he had little discomfort and could even walk stairs with no pain.  Every day he worked to strengthen his legs.

You can see where I’m going with this, right?  🙂

It may not be comfortable at first but you have to start using your leg muscles again.

They don’t have to be big movements right off the bat.  Little movements are just fine to help your leg muscles remember how they used to move–how they are supposed to move.

I’d like to tell you about my friend, Rosalie.  She didn’t have knee pain but she had hip pain.  She couldn’t even walk up her stairs.  She had to crawl like a puppy.  🙁

But she got better!  Her legs got stronger!  Now she’s a heck of a walker and it’s all because she took the first steps to walking.  She took baby steps.

And you can get better, too!  But you have to start moving.

You have to take those baby steps.

Are you sitting on the couch or at the computer?  How about doing some circles with your feet? (Uses all the muscles in your lower leg.)  How about lifting your lower leg with your toes curled toward your nose?  (That strengthens your shin muscles.)

Or when you are standing at the sink how about lifting one foot at a time behind you?  The weight of your lower leg is all the weight you need to start building strength in your thigh.

Or maybe you could march in place?  Hold the wall if you need support.  It’s okay.

Do your knees hurt when you walk up the stairs?  Use your calf muscles.  Push up from your toes.

Does it hurt to walk down the stairs?   Hold the handrail and walk backwards.  (That uses your leg muscles in a different way.)

 The idea is…get moving.  Help your muscles wake up and let them feel useful and happy again.

These little steps can help you get on the road to bigger and bigger steps and pretty soon, know what?  You will notice less and less pain in your knees.

And walking is a great way to strengthen your leg muscles.  Remember Rosalie?  That’s what she did and that’s how she got rid of her hip pain and the neuropathy (numbness) in her feet and increased her lung capacity!  (Her pulmonary doctor was amazed about that!)

I’d like to help you walk without pain like Rosalie did so you can have strong legs, too.  Strong leg muscles take the pressure off knees.  They work so your knee joint doesn’t have to.

By strengthening your upper and lower legs there’s a great chance that you can get rid of your knee pain naturally!

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8 replies on “How To Get Rid Of Your Knee Pain And Stiffness Naturally”

Thank you so much this blog was helpful, although I’m already doing most of these things I was recently in a car accident and then before that I had major surgery. So it’s taken me longer than usual to get back on track but I’ve been able to get some strength back in my legs by doing the circular motion, I also walk every morning to the gym. I basically walk every where now and I think that has been a major part of my recuperation, I’m also able to start running again, something I haven’t been able to do consistently for a while now. I’ll try the one with the toes curled towards your nose, the rest I’ve been doing, thanks again for this article.

Hi Alicia,

Thank you for writing and I’m glad to help. It sounds like you are doing all the right things. 🙂

Looking forward to you feeling better and getting back to your old self.

Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach

Hi Kathyrn, thank you for writing this article and I’m glad I found it today. My knees are making life tough for me as of late and I need them for at least 8 more years to continue making my livelihood. Long story short, I am almost 41 and have been a weekend warrior on the basketball courts and ski slopes for close to 20 years. During the past year my knees feel very stiff and bending down to a 45 degree angle is painful as heck.

I just joined the gym again in hopes of strengthening the surrounding muscles supporting the knee to see if that helps. As a delivery driver, I get in and out of my truck 180 times a day, usually with a load in my arms each time I step out. Do I have a chance of being pain free again or should I just stop the weekend warrior stuff and try to survive 8 more years? If I was a race horse I’d probably be put down but that’s not an option unfortunately.

Hi Allen,

Thank you for writing about your knee pain. You are welcome and here are my thoughts about your knees.

Twisting is hard on knees. So are abrupt stops. This sounds a lot like basketball as I have observed it. 🙁 However, you could still keep throwing the ball into the net. Stretching and throwing are good for the upper body and heart.

Running is hard on knees because of the pounding. That’s why walking helps–it uses all of the leg muscles without the jarring movements that usually accompany running.

If your vehicle seat is high, that’s very good getting out. You may have to think about how you get in. The goal is to keep our knees at a 90 degree angle or more open. Could you back onto your seat first and then lift your legs in? Perhaps you can ‘plant’ your feet getting in and out in a way that avoids twisting your legs, back or knees?

That’s good you are working on strengthening your leg muscles. Don’t forget the hamstrings! You also have muscles on the inner side and outer side of your thighs. But you want soft, relaxed calves.

Do you need arch supports? If you have flat feet that is hard on knees because flat feet create angles in knees rather than allowing them to track normally. Running shoe stores usually sell good, firm orthotics for runners and anyone can use them.

On a brighter note, if you were a race horse you would probably be used to sire more race horses. 🙂

1. No twisting-turning at the knees. Keep your feet pointing in the direction you want to move. When I was 30, I thought I would need knee replacements. One day it dawned on me that I was twisting from sink to dishwasher…at the knees! So I stopped doing that and the knee pain went away.

2. Strengthen all of the leg muscles except for calves.

3. Flat feet? Get good arch supports.

4. Ice is great therapy. Use cold packs around your knees whenever you are resting or even in bed. I’m talking often! Daily! At least once a day. Twenty minutes on/twenty off.

5. It doesn’t sound like you are overweight but if you are, it causes pressure on knees.

6. Watch your posture when sitting and standing.

7. Avoid sitting with your feet tucked under you.

8. If your favorite chair or couch makes you work to get up, make it higher with pillows.

9. When you walk for activity (which is also fun) make sure to roll your foot from heel, through mid-foot and push off with your toes. Swing your arms at your sides with thumbs facing forward. Use Nordic walking sticks if you wish.

10. Examine the muscles around your knees, looking for tender areas. Warm them by rubbing, massaging. See if you can follow the tender spots to other tender spots. Massage is great natural therapy!

Here’s the deal: Bodies heal all the time and you have an advantage because you are young.

If it were me, I would replace the weekend warrior stuff with more knee-friendly neutral-movement activities, at least for now. Give your knees a chance to heal. It make take a few months.

Whenever you feel an ouch, pay attention to the movement that just caused it. Change the movement.

Allen, I think you have lots of years left with happier knees. They just need some care and attention from you right now. That’s why they are complaining: They want help.

Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach

Oops I forgot, I’ve heard about stem cell therapy for knee joints and ligaments. I don’t think it’s legal here in the U.S.A. but is in Germany and other countries. Do you have an opinion about this?

Hi Allen, Thank you for asking but I don’t have an opinion except that treatments are often approved in other countries much more quickly than here. Sometimes we drag.

Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach

Wow, lots of good advice there Kathryn! I do have orthotics but don’t use them anymore since my plantar fasciitis has gone away. However, I do have a good pair of gel inserts for my work shoes but don’t transfer them into my basketball shoes for the weekend. Raising my adjustable seat to make it easier to get up from the sitting position is a good one too. Come to think of it that’s where I notice a lot of fatigue and pain.

I could probably stand to lose 10 to 15lbs which would help too. My normal weight is around 180 but I’m a little sluggish since the knee pain began and got up to 195- 200 after a 5 week vacation last month. All in all, I think I have a plan to try to stick to now.

Thanks Kathryn!

Hi Allen,

If you have flat arches, please consider using the orthotics. They will help your knees tract normally.

I’m so glad that you now have a plan to work with! Stick to it! 🙂

Thank you for writing back and you are welcome! Glad to be able to help.

Kathryn
The Pain Relief Coach

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