Sebastian Brosche · 13 min · 1,178 words
Previously titled: Video 1 - LCL Knee Pain
Hi everyone. In this video rehab plan, we're going to cover injuries to the outside of the knee here, in particular the lateral collateral ligament or LCL. Now, for a minor injury, this rehab plan might be all you need. However, for more serious injuries, I do recommend seeing a sports injury professional and using this in conjunction with any advice you get from them.
In some cases, additional help might be needed, for example, a knee brace to help protect the knee during the initial recovery period. And in a few cases, surgery may also be required, but that's a small number. So to start with, this is the stage one. So this is suitable in the early stages after injury, and all we're going to need is a towel.
So I'm going to start lying on my back, and I'm just going to bend and straighten the affected leg as far as I can. Now, I'm only going to go up to the edge of the discomfort. You'll find that in the early stages after injury, you may very well not be able to bend or straighten it fully. So I'm just going to take it as far as I can, right up to the edge of that discomfort, and then back.
I'm not going to push into pain. I just want to keep it moving as much as I can within that range. This is something that I want to do a lot of, especially in those early stages after the injury. I want to try and keep things moving as much as possible to avoid the knee tightening up and becoming stiff.
I know movement will help the recovery to progress. And I can just gently start to encourage the range of movement a little bit further, but I'm not going to force anything. And from there, I'm just going to sit up, take my towel. I'm just going to put that under the back of the knee.
I'm going to try and encourage the knee into extension. So I'm going to try and straighten the knee, just put a little bit of pressure on. Again, not forcing it and not pushing into pain. And then I just relax to let the knee move.
So again, if this is quite sore here, I can use more towel. So I can use a thicker roll. Again, I'm just working right on the edge of that discomfort. Just push down and hold and relax.
I'm concentrating on using my quadricep muscles. So I'm going to tighten the quad muscles to push the back of the knee down into the towel. And just hold that and relax. I'm just going to do two more.
Just push down and hold and relax. I'm going to start thinking about trying to bring the heel up a little bit if I can and pull the toes back. So again, just take it as far as you can, reasonably comfortably. And relax.
I'm just going to put the towel to one side and from there, I'm just going to lift the leg up and down for 10. Once again, towel back and I'm just going to repeat this. So I push down into the towel. I'm trying to pull the heel up a little bit if I can.
Hold that and relax. Push down again and relax. So these early stages of rehab, it can sometimes seem a little bit dull. It's not most exciting exercises, but this can really make a difference to the speed of recovery.
Push down again and relax. I'm just going to do two more there. Push down, put the heel up and you may find that you're starting to get a little bit more extension each time. Once again, just hold it on the edge of any discomfort and relax.
And final one and push down and relax. And then put the towel to one side and once again, we're just going to lift up and down. Okay. And from there, I'm going to fly onto my back again.
I'm going to do one more set of these. So all the way out, all the way back. Again, I may find that I've got a little bit more range now, but just encouraging it as far as I can. And the important thing is to keep the movement going.
And we stop there. So now I place my heels a little bit away from me. So I'm aiming for something approaching a 90 degree angle at the knee, my hips on the floor, and I'm going to push down into my heels. If I can, I'm going to lift my hips up into a hip bridge.
But if that's painful at the moment, I'm just going to concentrate on pushing down into my heels, just to the edge of that discomfort. Okay. So if we can, we're going to go for a hip bridge. Just lift up and down.
And it's important when I'm doing this that the heels aren't too close towards me. So we're not doing a typical jujitsu bridge so much. So I want that wider angle at the knee. And relax there.
And once again, I'm just going to bend and straighten that leg. And then from there, I'm going to turn onto my side. Just hold the leg in a straight line parallel to the ground. And then bring the leg down to the other leg.
My knees are bent. My heels are roughly in line with my body. I'm just going to lift the top knee. Just keeping my hips on top of each other.
I'm not rolling the hip back. I'm just lifting that top knee. And then I go back onto my back. Same again.
So I'm going to push down into my heels. Once again, if I can't lift my hips, I'm just going to do a static hold. Just push down. But if I can, I'm going to go for the bridge.
So an again, I just bend and straighten that leg. And then, once again, I'm going to lie on my side. I'm holding the leg in a straight line with my body. I'm feeling the muscle contraction here.
So this is working the muscles around the hips, which also have an effect on the knee. You want to make sure those hip muscles stay strong. And that's there. Then the knees stack everything on top of each other, so the hip is vertical.
I'm just going to lift the knee and back down. Again, not rolling the hip back, just squeezing the glute muscle, lifting the knee. So once again, we're working the hip muscles here. These have important effects at the knee joint.
And rest there. And that's it for day one. So I recommend doing that plan in the early stages after the injury. And then as the knee starts to recover, we'll be ready to go on to day two, which will add some extra more functional exercises as well.
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