By: Alyssa Burke, PTA
Are you feeling weak in the knees, but not in a good way? There are many different factors that can cause people to experience knee weakness and knee pain. We often don’t think about how much we move our knee joints in a day but when we are experiencing knee pain, we become more aware of how much we are moving. Some of the common knee problems that people experience are:
- Osteoarthritis
- Tendinitis
- Ligaments sprains and tears
Unfortunately, we cannot control if we will develop osteoarthritis in our lifetime. Osteoarthritis occurs within the joint. It causes the cartilage surrounding our bones to deteriorate, which can lead to pain when walking or bending your knee and often a popping or grinding feeling inside your knee joint when you bend and straighten your knee.
Tendinitis is associated with overuse. This overuse causes the tendons connecting the muscles to our bones surrounding the knee joint to become painful and inflamed. Tendinitis could cause you to have swelling, tenderness, and pain when you bend and straighten your knee.
Within our knee joint, we have four ligaments that we rely on to keep our knee stable. A ligament sprain could occur after a fall, if you twist your knee or id you get hit in the knee doing something like playing a sport. If one or more of these ligaments becomes injured or tears completely, there’s usually a decrease in knee stability. Depending on the severity of the sprain, it is common to see bruising, an increase in swelling and pain . These symptoms all make it difficult to bend your knee or even walk.
While it’s easy to brush of a little bit of discomfort or tell yourself it’ll get better with time, it is important not to ignore the symptoms if you are experiencing knee problems. If left untreated, a minor injury could become a major injury. This can lead to increased pain, loss of range of motion or the inability to bend and straighten your knee. If symptoms worsen, you may find it difficult to walk, stand up out of your favorite chair or end to just bend your knee so you can put on your shoes and socks.
While some knee problems are major and may require surgery, physical therapy is a great option to helping resolve your knee problems. CALL TODAY AT 703-450-4300. With the help of physical therapy interventions, strengthening and improving body mechanics and movement patterns, you can regain your range of motion, reduce the stress on your joint to prevent overuse or adding additional stress to your muscles, joints, and ligaments and get you back to a pain-free lifestyle.
