Knee Pain No More: This 10-Minute Exercise Fights Knee Pain & Increases Flexibility

Joanna is going to do the exercises and I'm going to explain. Joanna, please sit down. Bend your right knee and place your calf close to your thigh. Assume this position. But you'll probably have a harder time than Joanna here. It's likely you'll have to lean left a little since the distance between the heel and the buttocks is still too large because this muscle here is too tensed up and short. That's reason number one. The reason for the pain in your knee is a shortened muscle in your thigh. If this muscle is shortened, it pulls your calf muscle upwards and that gets the whole story started. Explain the rest later. First, it's about making this muscle more flexible and after that, you just feel if anything has changed in terms of pain. What's important in this exercise? Well, you should position your foot like this. Long, that is. But even if you can't do that, since your muscles are too short, except that you'll have a small angle here, the important thing is that you keep working to get your foot into this position, okay? Each time you exercise, your tissue will yield and make this easier. And then bring your buttocks as closely to your heel as possible. If there's still too large a gap because everything is shortened, move your leg out a bit. Pin your foot down to the floor and stay in this position. Let's show the exercise in this position because chances are high that's the position you at home are in anyway. So, that's set. The next thing that's going to happen is that you tilt your upper body backwards even more, taking your pelvis with you. To help with that, you tuck your belly button in, bend your arms as well and lean backwards and down. So, as a beginner, you probably won't be able to do it exactly like that. I'm showing you here what the goal of your training should be, because in this position you could start a stretch right here and resolve, very likely, the cause for your knee pain. I'm going to show you another way to open up this area here on the side rather nicely. Please, bend your right knee. Now, grab your foot with your right hand and pull it towards your buttocks. Everybody should be able to do that, but I'm convinced that many of you cannot. So, how should we develop the exercise so that you could do it anyway? Do the following. Get a belt or a towel and use your right hand to pull the stretching strap forward and by doing so, just like that, it's easier. You bring your heel closer to your buttocks. This kind of extends your arm and makes it possible to execute this exercise. But it's important that before you start pulling, place your hand here before you start, maybe at this angle, when everything is still rather relaxed, to make sure that your groin is pushed down to the floor as hard as possible. Don't bend your hips. The groin has to be flat on the mat and then, only then, you start moving your hand to pull on the strap and bring your heel to your buttocks. And soon enough, you notice a stretch here in your groin, maybe even in your back. So, what are you doing in this exercise? You start a stretch, dial the stretching pain up to a level that is still bearable for you, it still feels comfortable, and you stay like that for two minutes. During those two minutes, the stretch intensity is going to subside and the more the pain subsides, the more you keep pulling on your strap, bringing your heel closer to your buttocks, and that's stretching this entire area here, which is responsible for your knee pain. The second exercise is about the back of your legs. To be precise, your calf. Because of this muscle is shortened, this also happens when you sit too much, it pulls your thigh muscle downwards into your calf and that creates the problems, the pain in your knee. So, try to grab your foot and see how far down you could reach. And maybe this is all you could do at home. But in this exercise, you'll need immediate contact with your foot. So, you just take a belt or a towel and you sling it around the top of your foot to have good leverage on your ankle joint, grab the strap, and now you have the chance, and that's the start of this exercise, to pull your foot backwards as much as possible. Before you do anything else, pull your foot back as much as you can. Really hard. And after you do that for 10-15 seconds, so your foot is really bent all the way back, it should be vertical, by the way, then you arch your lower back and pull your upper body. With your lower back still arched, you pull it forward. And you'll notice some pain in the back of your knee. And that's the tight situation we want to open up. And so it's good that it hurts, you should enjoy that. But limit it to a pain intensity that you could just take. Just barely, though. For 2-2.5 minutes, that means your foot should be pulled back as much as possible during this time. And your upper body moves forward millimeter by millimeter. That relaxes everything in the back. You'll love it when you're done and you get up and walk around. For the back of your legs, we're going to show you a great alternative exercise. Now, in case you don't have our Knee Hero yet, not to worry, you just take a couple of books and stack them up to the appropriate height, and that'll do the trick. Step on the Knee Hero, please, Joanna. And now, at first, first thing, move your pelvis forward, your knee is locked, so that you have a maximum stretch on your calf, right below your knee. Move forward as much as you can take it. And as soon as you have a stretch going in your upper calf, it's crucial that you understand you arch your lower back and increasingly bend over your hip. Use your arms for support. Don't back out. You just did a little bit. Move forward again. You have to understand the following. Bend over forward. And now, you notice how your butt is moving out, right? And the stretch gets weaker. That's why your pelvis has to stay in position when you bend forward. Great. Your lower back is still arched. It's not easy. You need to consciously control it. Your butt automatically wants to move out backwards. Bend forward until running over the back of your knee. You can feel a stretch. And that involves the entire back of your leg. Go deeper if you can. Your hip moves forward. Okay. So, here, too, increase your effort for two, two and a half minutes. And since your foot has been pre-stretched, thanks to our Knee Hero or books, we have created an intensive and highly efficient stretch whose effect you'll feel immediately.