How to Strengthen Hips & Knees with Gentle Exercise

As we move through life, knee and hip injuries can challenge us. For some that can mean drastic changes in life as activities shrink. For others, with good rehab programs and the help of their doctor and chiropractor, life, goes on and a normal routine is re-established.

If you find yourself dealing with knee and hip pain or injuries, find out how to gently strengthen your hips and knees as you stay active and recover.

Low Stress Exercises for Hips & Knees

Harvard Health suggests pool exercises as a good starting point. The water supports weight, reducing stress on the joints, allowing you to start gently exercising.

Harvard researchers also explain how muscles work in pairs. One contracts while the opposing one relaxes. For example, when you straighten your knee, your quadriceps on the front of your thigh contracts, and the hamstrings on the back relax. Imbalances in the function of paired muscles can cause joint problems and invite injury. If your hamstrings are tight, your quadriceps can’t contract fully and may weaken, so exercise the quadriceps and hamstrings, the opposing muscles, equally. Flexibility exercises to stretch and relax these muscles can help improve joint function.

Continuing to exercise all of the muscles with gentle exercises can make the difference in recovery. Try these as your hip or knee heals.

Floor exercises can include abdominal curls, crunches, push-ups, or leg lifts.

Hand weight routines can use small hand weights with repetitive motions in different directions

Exercise ball routines can include stretches, abdominal curls, or leg lifts.

Gentle yoga can strengthen muscles and lift your mood paving the way for more exercise as your injuries heal.

How Your Chiropractor Can Help

Your chiropractor is experienced in hip and knee injuries and will assess the problem and come up with the best plan for treatment. In the first visit the chiropractor will use a spinal manipulation to evaluate the health of your spine and talk about current pain. There will also be a complete medical history review followed by a discussion of daily activities.

From there your chiropractor may want to talk about posture, healthy diets, weight loss, relaxation exercises to reduce stress, and more gentle exercises like swimming.

I have known many people who have turned chiropractic visits into regular health checkpoints. They maintained active schedules and enjoyed busy lives. But whenever pain became an issue they turned to their chiropractor for solutions. As their chiropractors helped them stay healthy the emphasis was on natural care with no medications or surgery.

If this sounds like a plan you would like to live with make an appointment and find out more.

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