Your knees are important for many of the routine tasks you do every day. They allow you to walk comfortably and help you keep your balance while you’re moving. The knees also make jumping, sitting down and standing up possible, but these tasks can all become much harder to do in Apache Junction, Arizona, when you’re feeling kneecap pain when bending your knee. Physical therapists can use many therapy methods to help you treat this type of pain. One of these methods is therapeutic exercises, and there are two strengthening exercises your therapist could include in your treatment plan. 

1. Short arc knee extension

The short arc knee extension is one of many therapeutic exercises that can help patients who have kneecap pain when bending their knee. This exercise is helpful because it’s designed to strengthen muscles that support the knee joint. At the same time, the short arc knee extension is done in a way that’s intended to reduce the stress on your knee during the exercise. 

Before you start the exercise itself, you’ll need to get into the appropriate starting position. First, sit down on the floor and place a rolled-up towel under your injured knee. Once the towel is in place, lie with your back and head on the floor, and the uninjured knee should be bent with the foot flat on the floor. 

From this starting position, begin to tighten your thigh muscles of your injured leg so that your heel lifts off the floor. However, you want to make sure that your knee doesn’t lift off the towel at this point. Your goal should be to hold your heel off the floor with the flexed thigh muscles for five to 10 seconds, and then, you can slowly let your leg relax back into the starting position. After a short rest, repeat these steps until you’ve done eight to 10 repetitions.  

2. Step down heel touches

Physical therapists can also show you slightly more active exercises as your pain improves. Step down heel touches are an example of a therapeutic exercise that meets this criteria, and it can also help continue the strengthening of your knee and decrease kneecap pain when bending it. 

To begin step down heel touches, you’ll need to find a surface you can step up onto such as the bottom stair of a staircase. You’ll then want to stand sideways on the bottom stair and place both feet on the stair. Also, you can help yourself stay balanced during the exercise by holding on to the railing or placing your hands on the wall. 

After getting into the starting position, stand on your injured leg as you slowly lower your other leg to the ground. Keep the toes of your uninjured leg pointed up slightly so that your heel makes contact with the ground first. As soon as your heel touches the ground, slowly straighten your injured leg until your other foot is level with the step. Continue to repeat these steps until you’ve completed eight to 10 repetitions. 

Find other therapy techniques for kneecap pain when bending the knee at Continuum Wellness in Apache Junction, AZ

At our Apache Junction clinic, our Continuum Wellness team is ready to help you with many types of pain, including knee pain. We also make it easy to start your treatment, and it’s the free screenings we offer that make this possible. Our team uses these screenings to gather information for your personalized therapy plan, and your plan can include multiple therapy techniques, such as: 

• Therapeutic exercises
• Joint mobilization
• Total motion release
• Manual therapy

Are you ready to begin getting our help with your knee pain? Contact our team today for more information or to schedule an initial appointment.