How to Alleviate Knee Pain and Improve Mobility

As many as 1 in 4 adults are said to suffer from ongoing knee pain, and for many of us we believe that we simply have to live with the pain. Whether your knee pain is caused by overuse in repetitive movements, incorrect form, or as a result of injury, there are things you can do on a regular basis to reduce the pain. In this blog we’re looking at what causes knee pain, what the location of your knee pain could be telling you, and exploring simple yet effective exercises designed to provide relief and promote overall knee health. Give them a try and start feeling better today!

Knee Pain Explained

If you’ve ever had knee pain, it probably needs no explanation. Perhaps you’ve experienced swelling knees that get red and warm to the touch. Or maybe you’ve felt a sense of stiffness in the knees, giving you much less flexibility than you’d wish for at any age. Feeling weakness or instability in the knee can also be a sign that something’s not working right in your knee joint.

Knee pain happens when something is wrong with the muscles, bones, or tendons around the knee. It could be from an injury, overuse, or even arthritis. Whatever the cause, knee pain can be uncomfortable, and even debilitating. Knee injury types vary greatly, from sprains and strains to torn ligaments and tendons. If you’re experiencing pain in one or both of your knees, it's important to consult a healthcare professional to determine the root cause of your knee pain. Not attending to your knee pain, and trying to ‘work through the pain’ instead, can make daily activities difficult and lead to more serious issues down the line.

What Causes Knee Pain?

Knee pain is, unfortunately, a common complaint amongst people of all ages. There are a variety of reasons why you may be experiencing knee pain, so pinpointing the exact cause can be a bit of a challenge. Some of the most common causes include arthritis, injury, misuse or overuse. Arthritis can cause joint pain and stiffness, while an injury can be anything from a torn ligament to a broken bone. Misuse can occur when you’re performing movements – be it Pilates, barre, running or squats – with too much weight, or incorrect form. If too much pressure is put on your knees, particularly when doing the same style of movements again and again, pain from overuse can occur.

Types and location of knee pain

The surrounding joints and muscles all play a part in supporting the knee joint to do it’s very best in flexing and straightening your leg – allowing you to sit, stand, walk, jump, run and even skip if you so-please! When one part of your lower body is out of balance, it can have a run-on effect to all other areas. The location of the pain can offer clues to the reason behind it. So let’s take a deeper look at these surrounding muscles and joints so you can better understand what may be contributing to your knee pain.

Ankles & Knee Pain

Ankle joint inflammation, tendonitis, weak or inflexible ankles can all put extra pressure on your knee joints. Your ankles help hold up your body weight, give you balance and absorb shock from movement. If the ankle does not move well or is too stiff, some of that weight and shock will go to the knee which can cause pain in the inside of the knee joint.

Calves & Knee Pain

Your calves are the main muscle stretching from the back of your knee joint to your ankle, connecting the joint and muscle via tendons. Your calf muscle is responsible for movements such as pointing your toes or lifting your heels. Calf muscles can become tight from repetitive movements such as running, cycling or even a few too many pliés. As the muscle tightens, these tendons begin tugging at your knee and ankle joints, and if not addressed eventually result in pain felt behind the knee joint.

Hamstrings & Knee Pain

Hamstrings can become tight for many reasons – including doing a lot of sitting. As they begin to tighten, this reduces our ability to straighten our legs out, which puts more load on our knee joints and often results in knee pain around the patella (or knee cap).

Pelvis & Knee Pain

A misaligned pelvis means that our body’s weight is unevenly distributed in the legs and pain can develop in one knee over the other. Due to this misalignment, one leg can become shorter than the other and long-term knee pain or arthritis can develop in the leg that is carrying more of the load.

Hips & Knee Pain

Hip joint problems can often manifest as referred pain, felt in the knee. Nerves running from your spine to your knee pass through the hip socket and are therefore affected by any localised inflammation. The main muscles of your thighs – your quadriceps – begin at the hip bone and extend to the knee cap. Just like the calves and hamstrings, when these become overly tight they can pull on the knee joint causing pain above the knee cap and to the exterior side of the knee.

So, the next time knee pain strikes, take a closer look at your overall lower body health to help identify the root cause.

Strengthening Exercises to Alleviate Knee Pain & Improve Mobility

There is some good news when it comes to knee pain – there are plenty of simple exercises that you can do on a daily basis to improve the strength and mobility of your knee and supporting muscles. We recommend repeating each exercise for 10-15 repetitions (on each leg). Let’s take a look at them now.

Straight Leg Raises
Strengthen the muscles around the knee.
Lying flat on your back with one leg straight and the other bent at the knee, slowly lift your straight leg off the ground, keeping it straight and parallel to the floor. Hold for a few seconds, then lower it back down.

Wall Squats
Strengthen your thigh muscles and glutes.
Stand with your back against a wall and your feet shoulder-width apart. Slowly slide down the wall, bending your knees and lowering your body into a squat position. Make sure your knees are directly above your ankles and your thighs are parallel to the floor. Hold this position for 10-15 seconds, then slowly push yourself back up to the starting position.

Step-Ups
Strengthen your thighs and glutes, & improve knee stability, balance & coordination.
For this one, you’ll need a sturdy step or platform that is about knee height. Start by standing in front of the step with your feet shoulder-width apart. Step up onto the platform with your right foot, making sure to fully extend your knee and hip. Then, bring your left foot up onto the platform, standing tall with both feet on the step. Step back down with your right foot, followed by your left foot.

Hamstring Curls
Strengthen the muscles at the back of your thighs.
Grab an exercise ball and lay flat on your back with your arms by your sides and your feet resting on top of the ball. Engage your core and lift your hips off the ground, creating a straight line from your shoulders to your knees. Bend your knees and roll the exercise ball towards your glutes, squeezing your hamstrings as you do so. Slowly roll the ball back out to the starting position, straightening your legs.

Quad Sets
Strengthen your quadriceps.
To perform quad sets, start by sitting on the floor or a mat with your legs straight out in front of you. Bend one knee and place your foot flat on the floor, while keeping the other leg straight. Tighten the muscles at the front of your thigh on the straight leg and press the back of your knee into the floor. Hold this contraction for 5-10 seconds, then release.

Knee pain can be troubling and difficult to manage. It can be the consequence of old injuries, repetitive physical activity, wrong form or posture, or simply carrying around a little more weight than our knees need to. Knowing where the pain is located can help you get to the root cause of your knee pain.

Want to learn more about alleviating and preventing knee pain?

Join us for our next Pilates Geek-out Workshop – Weak at the Knees. Together we'll get into the nitty gritty details of how you can best alleviate knee pain, improve overall mobility and start doing more of the things you love. Sign up today—we'd love to have you join us! Feel like you need a little extra support? We also offer a variety of private 1:1 sessions, which can help you improve form and function, to reduce knee pain and ensure you don’t continue to do more damage. We’d love to see you in the studio. You can book a 1:1 private mat Pilates class in our Cornerstone Studio, or visit our Tugun Beach reformer Pilates studio.