British wintertime can do us no favours if we suffer with painful knees. Cold weather can make our joints and muscle pain feel so much worse, especially in our knees.
What can we do to reduce pain in our knees during the winter?
Staying as warm as possible in the winter is the answer to help your knee pain, but there are some tips to help you:
- Wrap up warm. If you are to go outside, just to the shops, or for exercise, ensure that you wrap up warm, as keeping the damp from your body will help immensely
- Try and stay as active as you can in the winter months, as it will not only help with your knee pain, but also your general well-being and positive mood.
- Exercise indoors if possible. Try to do your daily exercise indoors, rather than walking or running outside in the cold.
- Stay strong. Strengthening your quadricep muscle will give your knee joint more stability and will reduce pain from your knees
- Eat well. Having a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight will help take the strain off your knees.
- Keeping moving. Sitting for too long can cause our muscles and joints to stiffen and cause us pain. Stay as active as possible.
- Warming up exercises. Even five minutes or more of stretching will help with your stiffness and prevent any further injuries
- Cool down after exercise. Ensure after you have finished exercising you do some stretching to reduce the tightness in your muscles
Different reasons for knee pain
There are many different reasons why you may be suffering with knee pain. Treatment may help reduce the symptoms, but it may not completely subside. This is often due to arthritis but can also be attributed to an injury that has never completely healed.
Working with a physiotherapist can help you with your knee pain and get you on the road to recovery. During your initial assessment with Home Physio Group, they will do a thorough assessment of your medical condition(s), taking a detailed history of your knee pain.
They will then do a physical examination to see how your movement, joints and nerves are working, and will look at your overall posture and gait.
Once you have had your assessment, your physio will discuss the options that they feel will help you in your recovery, such as:
- An exercise programme built for your own needs for strength and mobility
- Manual, hands on treatment
- Giving you advice on pain management, that will help you, in order to be able to carry out your exercise programme without too much pain
In most cases of knee pain, however painful and restricting it is for you to continue with your day, knee pain usually does tend to get better with the right pain medication, staying active and some physiotherapy.
Contact us on 0330 335 1016 to find out how we can help you or a loved one. Alternatively, please fill in our enquiry form and we will get in touch with you.