Why do physical therapists recommend exercises for knee pain exactly?

Many people associate doing physical therapy with stretching and strengthening exercises, and there’s a good reason for that.  Though there’s a lot more to physical therapy than just therapeutic exercises, such exercises are frequently used to treat musculoskeletal disorders. Knee pain sufferers in particular are likely to find themselves doing therapeutic exercises, and there are many reasons why physical therapists often build exercises into treatment plans for knee pain. 

Three reasons your physical therapist uses therapeutic exercises for knee pain: 

1. Exercises can help ease pain — Therapeutic exercises can be useful for reducing knee pain. They can help strengthen muscles that support this important joint, which helps take stress off it. A lower level of joint stress often means less pain. Stretching exercises can help ease tension in tight muscles. In turn, this can help realign joints and improve how far you can move your knee without pain.

2. They are customizable — Not every patient will be able to do exactly the same therapeutic exercises, but that’s not a problem. Physical therapists know many different exercises, so they can choose the ones that can help you meet your recovery goals. Having difficulty doing certain exercises? That’s OK. Your physical therapist can find you another exercise that can help you, or they can show you how to modify an exercise so that you can do it. 

3. Exercises integrate with other treatments — Most physical therapy plans for knee pain won’t rely on exercises alone. They’ll typically be made up of multiple therapy techniques, such as: 

• Joint mobilization.
• Transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS).
• Myofascial release.
• Dry needling.

Find effective treatment options for your knee pain at Back in Motion 

Want to find the most effective exercises and other PT methods for your knee pain? Our Back in Motion Physical Therapy team is primed to help you meet this goal. We can do a free screening to pinpoint the source of your knee pain. Then, our clinicians can build you a physical therapy plan that’s unique to you and designed to decrease pain. You can even work with us from home thanks to our at-home care and virtual physical therapy services.  Contact us today for more information about how we can help treat your knee pain or to schedule an initial in-person or virtual appointment with us.