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This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in March of 2024. For the original video go to https://youtu.be/4eWPcIRj798
Brad: If you're having knee pain from sprains, arthritis, or other reasons, particularly this is a problem with people who age, maybe over 55, we're going to help you today.
Mike: Now, if you have extremely sharp pain, especially if you had a recent fall, it is important to see a doctor before trying any of this to get an X-ray done.
Brad: Right, make sure there's no fracture or something that really needs a different treatment. Otherwise, we're going to help you out and show you some nice options. So we're going to show you five options to help get the knee pain under control and also how to get the knee moving and get you back into the swing of things. The first one is our most exciting news. We do have information from a new therapist we've met in the last year or two. His name is Rick Olderman. He is a master physical therapist. He's written a number of books. We're taking information out of this book to adjust knee pain and we'll talk about that a little bit more. So that's our first one, and we have four other options to help you get along.
Mike: So this is the most recent book that Bob Schrupp and Rick Olderman have written. It's called "Top 3 Fix." They look at the top three exercises to help each problem and if you go to Chapter 18, it is specifically on knee pain, and we're going to go over the first stretch you can find in this book.
Brad: That's right, so let's go ahead and show how to do it. Rick Olderman suggests the key exercises assess the tightness of your quadricep muscles from the hip to the knee. If they are tight, that can change the mechanics of the knee, causing pain. I'm not going to get into the details, but how you assess it and stretch it is actually in the same position. Mike's going to show you right now.
Mike: So if you can find a firm surface, like maybe a table or countertop, if you have a bed, you can certainly do us on the edge of the bed. Just make sure your buttock does not slide off the end. To begin, we're going to start with a double knee-to-chest position like this. The closer my butt is to the edge of the mat, the more stretch I will feel. So what I'm going to do is stretch this left leg first. I'm going to lower it down and then I'm going to bring my right knee up towards my chest. Now this is where you may notice tightness from one side to the other. When I try to flex my knee or bring my heel towards my buttock, I really feel a pull in this quad region here, even a bit in the hip flexor region.
Mike: You may notice one side is tighter than the other. You may notice one leg is way up. In comparison, the other one is down. Focus a little bit more on the tight side. I'm going to hold this for 30 seconds. You can do five to six breaths, whatever you're comfortable doing. Once you do that, reset the neutral position and perform on the other side.
Brad: Now I do want to emphasize one thing about this stretch. You'll be much more effective if you're not wearing jeans.
Mike: Mine are stretchy. I'm fine.
Brad: Oh, if you have stretchy jeans, it's okay. But anyway, something loose on your clothes or shorts does allow the stretch to go easier. Make sure you breathe and relax while you stretch. Again, 30 seconds per side and you'll get a nice stretch. You'll feel better. The next option to successfully manage knee pain, at least initially when it's very tender or painful, is the old hot pack or cold pack. Now different people respond differently. If it's really tender or swollen, I typically say to use a cold pack. Simply take a cold pack. I like the ones that are soft. You put it in the freezer and when it comes out, it's still flexible and you can actually get good surface contact with the knee. Now you don't have to buy one. You can actually make these. We have videos on how to make a cold pack very easily with some rubbing alcohol and water and some Ziplocs. They work excellently. Either way, you take your cold pack out of the freezer, and have some cloth over your skin, like just simply your pants. Don't put a cold pack directly on your skin. You actually can frostbite your skin. Obviously, not a good scenario. Put the cold pack over your knee. You see I wrapped it there.
Brad: Now it's really critical that you get in a comfortable position. So Mike is lying here on his back. We put a pillow under the knee and put a slight flex in the knee. Typically that's more comfortable. If you're in a recliner or maybe on a couch long sitting, it's still a good idea to support the knee with a nice pillow for sleeping. If it's really swollen, you could put a cold pack underneath. I've done this many times with patients, and at the same time, one over the top so you get a complete cold app, and typically 15 to 20 minutes is all it's going to need. You're going to feel the pain go away. It's going to feel much better. Now, at the same time, I'm going to say if it's chronic knee pain, particularly arthritis, some people respond very well to heat. So heating packs, this particular hot/cold pack is really nice because you can put it in the microwave. It's made to do that. It gives you the time written right on it, and pull it out of the microwave. You have a nice hot pack. That can be used with the same body position and that's going to be on for, again, 15 to 20 minutes.
Brad: Now, electrical heating pads, the ones you plug in. Here's a big one. This is actually the Bob and Brad weighted heating pad. It's made for the back, but you can use it for any part of the body you want. Whatever you have, you go ahead and use it and put that over the knee. This one's nice, it's big for the back, but you can wrap it right around the knee, and then you put it on, and adjust the temperature with your hot pack so it feels comfortable. It should not feel hot.
Brad: Now, a big warning with electric hot packs is, if you fall asleep with the hot pack on and it's too hot but you don't really realize it, we've had this happen, particularly if there's not enough insulation or clothing between the knee and the skin, you can actually burn the skin if you have it too hot if you fall asleep and it doesn't have an automatic turnoff. So know your hot pack. Just be aware of that. It doesn't happen very often, but it can. So that's a red flag to be aware of. Now there is another type of hot pack that is a big step ahead of a typical hot pack or heating pad, and that is a far infrared. Now the big difference between this and a regular hot pack is this will put heat and comfort deep into the skin. They've actually measured it and you'll have heating 2.36 inches deep into the body tissue. A typical hot pack will go just a couple of millimeters, or it'll be, in other words, skin deep. So that'll get deep. This is a Thermotex. This is one that we've been using. We do recommend it. They're built very well and they have three panels. It's important that you put it on the right way. It comes with the instructions. If you put it on the backside, it will not heat. You have to have it, they call these panels. There are three panels. They're producing far infrared energy into the skin.
Brad: That's an option. They are quite a bit more expensive. It's one of those things you'll probably use maybe if you have arthritis and you may use it on different parts of your body for the long term. Now let's go on to the next option. All right, this next exercise is one of those that if it's going to work, it'll work well, and if it doesn't, nothing's lost with it. It's worth trying, particularly if you're having pain while you're walking consistently. And the IT band, which is a ligament from the knee all the way up to the hip, if that tightens up for whatever reason, that can cause the knee to work improperly in regards to the mechanics, causing pain, and it can be pretty severe. Again, typically with walking, not when you're seated. Mike, do you want to show this simple stretch?
Mike: So you can do this on the floor. You're probably not going to want to do it on the bed. So if I'm going to stretch my left leg, I'm going to first start by just crossing my ankle over my knee. Then I'm going to get my foot flat on the mat, bringing my knee across my body like this. I'm going to notice my trunk is rotating in this general direction, and you can just hold this stretch. I feel it stretching more in my hip. You might feel it stretching more in your knee. That's where that IT band runs. And you're just going to hold this for 30 seconds. You can either pull like this if that's comfortable or if you have the mobility, you can put your elbow into the crook of your knee there and rotate. Now I'm getting more spine rotation but I'm also stretching that IT band.
Brad: Good. So obviously, this is one for someone who's more mobile and maybe a little more flexible and active. But I did want to mention it because it can work very well and it's simple to try. It doesn't take long. If you experience pain with it, do not do it. Or if it's just too aggressive. We'll go to the next one. Now, anytime you have pain around a joint, the muscles around there have a tendency to tighten up to protect that area. It's just a natural tendency that goes along with the body. So you can actually massage the muscles. We can do the quadriceps and you can simply use your hands like I'm demonstrating here. And you know, we're not professional masseuse, we're not trying to teach you professional massaging, but you can get in. You'll feel the muscles tight and if you work them, you find a tight or tender spot, you may want to work over that area for 30 seconds to a minute to get those muscles to relax. When they relax, you have better blood flow, the pain goes better and you have a better range of motion.
Brad: So you can work the quadriceps. The hamstrings are oftentimes muscles that tighten up as a result of pain. You can work on those. And there's one spot that Rick Olderman, the therapist that we mentioned earlier, we just learned this in the last couple of years. It's called the popliteus muscle, which is just below the knee in the back and it's a small muscle, but if it tightens up, it actually changes the mechanics of the knee and causes pain.
Brad: So we want to get that below-the-knee crease here and it's right in here and we're going to work that and you can massage that. Make sure you do get that one and spend some time there because it may be the answer to your problem, decreasing that pain.
Brad: Now, the big problem with massaging like this is your hands get fatigued and your fingers get fatigued, particularly if you have arthritic hands. The option to that is, you know, you may have a massage gun, maybe you don't. Get one from your nephew or uncle or whoever family member. The massage guns that we're going to show here are new on the market in regards to the head. It's a cold and a hot head. It's adjustable, it's amazing, it's electric. You push the button here. So with the massage gun, there are two buttons here. One is for heat, one is for cold. There are two adjustments, low heat, high heat, low cold, and colder. You're going to use that. And one thing about this particular head, and there's other heads that come with this gun, is you do not want to get close to the bone because it will not be effective. It'll hurt and you do not want to do that. So I have this on warm right now and it feels good and so we're going to work around here. Now this would work really well, particularly for the hamstrings, where there's a lot of muscle belly or on the back where we get in that popliteus muscle or on the big muscle belly of the calf.
Brad: Okay, the thing that really impressed me with this is when you put it on a cold setting, it feels cold and it doesn't warm up after, you know, using it for a while on your skin, it continues to feel cold. Just the heat or the cold is just like a hot pack or cold pack can relieve the pain. Now Mike's going to show you the other head if you don't have this newer head, and you're going to use another option.
Mike: So this is simply a round head. It's more foam and very cushiony. So that way if you do happen to hit some of the bony prominences in your knee joint itself, it's not going to hurt at all. I can go next to it. If I bump it, this doesn't hurt at all. This is the T2 massage gun. Any massage gun you happen to have is fine. But yeah, just kind of massage around the joint, the painful areas. I like this with the popliteus muscle in the back here. Just kind of bend your knee and dig in there.
Brad: And there's one other head that comes with all the Bob and Brad massagers is the air-head, and that's actually cushiony. It's even less aggressive than the round head and that can be used as well, particularly when you're getting around those bones. It's very comfortable. Now this next option is probably the easiest option to reduce pain, particularly if the pain is really put on with walking or weight-bearing. All you need to do is decrease the weight bearing through that knee and it's going to help. But this is one that patients really do not want to do, and that's using a cane.
Mike: Now, the cane will help take weight off of the painful side. So if you're having pain in your left knee, place it in your right hand. We're not going to do the Dr. House thing where you mimic the same side like this. You're going to actually use the left foot with the right hand when walking. This will help take the pressure off. You don't have to use it all the time, but if you are experiencing pain or have a flare-up, it's important to use it for a while.
Brad: That's right, you may only need it for a day or two. And then when the knee gets better, simply put the cane aside. Go to the other exercise or the options, the massage. And it may just be if it's arthritic when it flares up, you use it when it goes away, and hopefully, that's for a period of time you do not need it. Very simple, but people kind of do not like to use it. Don't be shy about it. All right, so work with all these options. I'm sure you're going to find at least one or two of them helpful with your knee pain to help you get back into the groove of things. Now if you're having knee pain, particularly with going up and down steps or with walking, again, Mike, there's some more help for them.
Mike: We have a video, "Fast Fix For Knee Pain With Stairs Or Walking! 55 And Older," and in this one, we do a few more exercises and stretches in this one. So give it a try if these aren't helping.
Brad: That's right. Take care.
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