Sebastian Brosche · 15 min · 1,568 words
Previously titled: Video 2 - LCL Knee Pain
Hi everyone, welcome back to day two of our rehab program for the lateral collateral ligament of the knee, the outside of the knee here. So today I'm going to need a bit more equipment. I've got my foam roller, I've got a towel that I was using yesterday. I'm also going to be using a step and I will later on want a resistance band.
We'll come on to that. I'm going to start with the foam roller. I'm going to start with the foam roller under the thigh of the affected leg. I'm just going to work into the quadricep muscle.
So nice and slowly, I'm working up and down the muscle, finding those slightly tender points, hanging out there a little bit. So what we're doing here is trying to coax that muscle to relax and to reduce that excess pain sensitivity that we often see when there's a knee injury. So again, the important thing here is that I'm taking it nice and easy. I don't want to try and bludgeon the muscle.
I'm trying to coax it into relaxing. Going all the way up, all the way down the knee. I'm just going to come on to the side of the leg. Repeat the same thing.
So I can put as much weight as I need through my opposite foot. So again, if it's really painful, I'm probably overdoing it. I'm just going to come on to the side of the leg. I'm going to repeat the same thing.
So I can put as much weight as I need through my opposite foot. So again, if it's really painful, I'm probably overdoing it. You just need to back off slightly. So again, look for that point where it feels like a good pain.
And we want to cover the whole of the muscle there. This will often go quite a long way to helping to relieve that soreness that goes with a knee injury. Just going to pop the roller to one side. And we're going to come up to standing.
So the next exercise I'm going to do is a mini squat. Now, you can do these unsupported, but a lot of people find that quite difficult, especially when the knee is sore. So I'm going to use a support. And for that, the easiest way to do that is to use a resistance band attached to a wall anchor that's not going to come away from the wall.
So I'm going to hold the band in front of me. Just allows me to lean back a little bit. I'm just going to do a partial range squat. As far as I can, reasonably comfortably.
But again, I don't want to force into that painful range. If you don't have a band handy, you can also do this one by leaning back against an inflatable Swiss ball against a wall. Or you can do it with your hands on a table or solid surface in front of you. I'm going to combine that exercise with...
and go straight into a heel raise. Coming up and down. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth.
And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth.
And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. We're going to repeat that sequence again.
Once again, the support in front of me just allows me to more easily take my hips back. Which takes some of the strain away from the front of the knee. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth.
And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth.
And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. And then straight into the heel raises. Coming up.
Excellent. Then when we've done that, I'm going to grab my step. So as always, I can use the step of a staircase or I can use a thick book. I'm going to start standing on the step for this one.
And I'm going to do a step down. The idea is I'm going to control as much as I can as I go down. And then come back up. And again, if this feels difficult to start with, you can always start with a smaller step.
Using a book or a stack of magazines, but I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth. This makes that really easy to do. And you can gradually increase the height as the knee improves. And then we're going to combine that one, just coming off the step, with a static single leg balance.
I'm just going to stand on one leg and try and keep my balance. If that starts to feel easy, I can make it harder by closing my eyes. If it feels a bit too much at the moment, I can put a hand on a wall or back of a chair. And then I'm going to do a little bit of a back and forth.
I can put a hand on a wall or back of a chair to give myself a little bit of support. And relax. Just give the leg a little bit of a shake out. Move around.
And then we're going to repeat that again. So we're going to do one more set. So starting on the step, lowering down, and coming back up. So putting as much weight onto the down foot as you need to.
But if possible, trying to just touch down gently and come back up. That's what we're eventually aiming for. And then coming off the step, standing on the single leg, just holding the balance. And rest there.
And rest there. And finally, we're going to finish off with a couple of the exercises we did on day one. So I'm going to have my towel handy. I'm going to start lying on my back, knees a little bit away from me, and we're going to go for the hip bridge.
I'm going to lift my hips up. And back down. Hopefully this should be starting to feel easier than when we first did it. And I'm going to come up to sitting.
Grab the towel again. Place that under the back of my knee. And once again, I'm just going to tense my quadricep muscle, push the knee into the towel, and really try and straighten the leg as much as I can. So I want to try and make sure that I'm getting as much weight as I can.
So I'm going to come up to sitting. Grab the towel again. Place that under the back of my knee. And make sure that I'm getting as much extension in that knee as possible.
So getting back the full extension back after a knee injury is important. And then relax there. And push again. Again pulling the heel up.
And if I can start pulling the toes back now a little bit as well. And rest. And again. And rest.
And one more. Pull up. That's it. And rest there.
And we're going to go through that set of exercises again. So we'll go back to the hip bridge. And coming up. Towel under the back of the knee.
And rest. And one more. And rest. And one more.
And rest. And one more. And rest. And one more time.
Push down. Lift the heel. Pull the toes back. And relax.
Give the leg a shake. And again. And relax. Give the leg a shake.
And push down. And relax. And one final time. Pushing down.
And relax. And then just to finish with sitting just bending and straightening the leg. And what we start doing now is taking it to the end of range and just encouraging it a little bit further. So there's some small movements there to try and encourage that flexion movement.
I don't want to push into pain though remember. So I'm not going to try and force it further than it wants to go. Just work at the edge of that discomfort. And a few more movements all the way there and back.
And rest there. So that's all for day two. I'll see you back here when you're ready for day three and some more advanced exercises.
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