I made my first visit to the physical therapy guy today, and he pushed and prodded and pulled and said that what’s really causing the pain is tight quadriceps muscles. Almost the first thing he said was to stop crossing my legs. I’ve done it both ways for years: ankle on knee or knee over knee, and with both legs. He said this puts tremendous torque on the knee and pulls the quad, which was fine at age 25 but not so good at age 68.
He gave me a couple of exercises to do and made another appointment for March 7. One of the exercises is repetitions of wall squats, which don’t hurt too much. The other one, though, is a killer: hamstring curls. Rather than use a resistance band attached to a wall or fixed piece of equipment, he suggested lying on my stomach, looping a towel around my ankle, and pulling my foot as close to my backside as I can. Do that a dozen times, two or three times a day. He demonstrated. It doesn’t feel good.
Fun. Oh well, it’s feeling much better than it was a month ago when this all started, so if this will keep the pain from recurring I’m in favor. Trouble is, I have no set routine for exercising, so I’m gonna have to start one.
I have a sore knee and knew I shouldn’t cross my legs. Yet it seemed automatic. I got a small 2” high foot stool and when I’m sitting I try to use it. If you have something in your lap, IPad also keeps me from crossing.
Foot stool. Hmm. That might be a help. Thanks, Marcia.
You really need to start one. After my first knee replacement I had continual troubles for a couple of years with tight IT bands (down the outside of the leg). I now start the day with a set of lower back and leg stretches (got from Kaiser), followed by some light exercises. Exercise is the cure for this.
On the wall squats, when I began them I could do about 7 seconds. My weekly resistance training routine now includes 4 squats for 30 seconds each. Keep working at all of this.
30 seconds! Wowsers!
As I was reading this, I realized my legs were crossed. 🙂