Painful Knee: Where Does It Hurt
The exact location of your knee pain is an indicator of the cause. Your doctor will ask you to describe in detail the exact location and type of pain you experience in the knee. This can help the doctor determine the type of condition or injury responsible for your symptoms. Below are some possible causes of knee pain.
Patellar Tendonitis Usually, pain in the front of the knee is caused by a problem with the patellar tendon. Patellar tendonitis is a type of overuse injury. Running, jumping, a sudden increase in the intensity of an activity, muscular tightness, and imbalance can contribute to this injury. With this condition, it can hurt to bend the knee, kneel, and squat.
Iliotibial Band Syndrome Pain on the outside or lateral side of the knee usually indicates a problem with the iliotibial band or the lateral meniscus . Iliotibial band syndrome is common in long-distance runners, as well as cyclists and rock climbers. The repetitive bending of the knee can lead to this condition. Meniscus tears, on the other hand, are caused by sudden twisting movements of the knee, which is common in basketball, football, soccer, and tennis players.
Other Causes Pain in the back of the knee could mean different things: a cartilage injury, a ligament injury, a hamstring injury, Bakerâs cyst , and arthritis. There are many possible causes of pain in the back of the knee, which is why it should be evaluated by an experienced medical professional.
Ways To Reduce Medial Meniscus Pain
The knees medial meniscus acts as a barrier between the knee and the outside world. It is possible that, as a result of an injury, the patient will suffer lifelong pain. You can alleviate pain and inflammation by following these steps: Its a good idea to ice the knee for about 20 minutes every 2-3 hours, starting after you notice the pain. Taking ibuprofen or other anti-inflammatory medications as directed by your doctor is the best course of action. Rest your knee as much as possible while exercising. If your pain does not improve within a few days, see your doctor for a diagnosis.
Cant Bend Your Knee Without Pain Physical Therapy Could Be The Answer
The knee is one of the bodys real workhorses, shouldering a tremendous amount of force with just about every move we make on our feet. Its no wonder then that the knee is also one of the bodys most frequently injured joints. Whether it occurs due to an untimely twist or an awkward stumble, debilitating knee pain can put a crimp in our daily life. In fact, it can be so bad at times that you may not be able to bend your knee without pain.
Sprains of the ACL or MCL, runners knee, and even arthritis can cause this level of agonyand its not something that you can live with long-term. At Agile Virtual PT, we routinely see patients who arent able to bend their knee without pain, and we use evidence-based methods to help them find relief.
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What Can You Do For The Pain
Your plan will depend on your specific injury. Mild to moderate issues will often get better on their own. To speed the healing, you can:
- Rest your knee. Take a few days off from intense activity.
- Ice it to curb pain and swelling. Do it for 15 to 20 minutes every 3 to 4 hours. Keep doing it for 2 to 3 days or until the pain is gone.
- Compress your knee. Use an elastic bandage, straps, or sleeves to wrap the joint. It will keep down swelling or add support.
- Elevate your knee with a pillow under your heel when you’re sitting or lying down to cut down on swelling.
- Take anti-inflammatorymedications. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen or naproxen will help with pain and swelling. Follow the instructions on the label. These drugs can have side effects, so you should only use them now and then unless your doctor says otherwise.
- Practice stretching and strengthening exercises if your doctor recommends them. You may want to do physical therapy, too.
Make an appointment with a doctor if you still have pain after 2 weeks of home treatment, if the knee becomes warm, or if you have fever along with a painful, swollen knee.
Some people with knee pain need more help. For instance, if you have bursitis, your doctor may need to draw out extra fluid from the bursa in your knee. If you have arthritis, you may need an occasional corticosteroid shot to settle down inflammation. And if you have a torn ligament or certain knee injuries, you may need surgery.
What Causes Patellar Tracking Disorder
Patellar tracking disorder is usually caused by several problems combined, such as:
- Weak thigh muscles.
- Tendons, ligaments, or muscles in the leg that are too tight or too loose.
- Activities that stress the knee again and again, especially those with twisting motions.
- A traumatic injury to the knee, such as a blow that pushes the kneecap toward the outer side of the leg.
- Problems with the structure of the knee bones or how they are aligned.
You are more likely to have patellar tracking disorder if you have any of the above problems and you are overweight, run, or play sports that require repeated jumping, knee bending, or squatting.
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Stiff Knee Treatment Options
Treatment choices when a knee feels tight when bending are determined by the underlying cause.
If the damage is slight, the following home remedies may relieve pain and reduce swelling while the injury heals:
- Regularly apply an ice pack to the knee
- Use over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
- Stabilize your knee and reduce the risk of further injury with a knee brace
Those with more serious injuries or recurrent knee pain should speak with their doctor. The doctor determines the reason for the knee stiffness and makes therapy recommendations.
These therapies can vary depending on the reason for the knee stiffness:
- Utilizing corticosteroids to reduce inflammation
- Improving knee function and total mobility with physical therapy
- Pharmaceuticals for rheumatoid arthritis
- Taking prescription pain medications
What Can I Do At Home
There are a bunch of things you can do at home, including:
- Modifying your activities. Temporarily changing certain movements that hurt your knee will help it heal.
- Practicing low-impact activities that arent painful. Examples would be walking, swimming, or biking.
- Wearing a knee sleeve. It provides compression and warmth that can help reduce the pain. Although, the type of knee sleeve you need will depend on whats causing your knee pain.
- Using anti-inflammatories or icing only if necessary. They help make the pain more manageable but they might also impair tissue healing.
If your pain and/or swelling worsens over time, or if it limits you in your daily activities, please go to your doctor or physical therapist.
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Three Reasons Why You Cant Bend Your Knee Without Pain
It might feel like youre the only person in the world dealing with knee pain. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, medical researchers estimate that about 25% of adults are affected by frequent knee pain.
Though knee pain isnt limited to you, it can affect your body in ways that are unique. For instance, it might be that you cant bend your knee without pain. Other people might have more pain when doing certain activities or waking up in the morning. Not being able to bend your knee without pain can be a symptom of several different issues, and a physical therapist can help you discover which issue is causing your pain.
How To Fix Knee Pain When Bending
Now that we have a better idea of whats causing our pain, how do we fix it?
See, thats an interesting question here.
Depending what the problem is, there can be several solutions theres no one-size-fits-all fix for knee pain when bending, and its best to double-check with your doctor or physiotherapist.
Regardless, lets check out a couple options.
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Why You Can’t Bend Your Knee Without Pain
Mobility is everything. Our world understands this concept now more than ever. When you cannot go where you want to go when you want to go, frustration sets in. When you can’t bend your knee without pain, you quickly find yourself limited.
You may wonder, why can’t you bend your knee without pain? Knee pain results from one of three problems. A sudden injury, an overuse injury, or disease can cause knee pain when bending.
Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about what to do when you can’t bend your knee without pain.
Pain Inside Or Outside Our Knee When Bending
Looking at pain on either side of the knee, we have four things we want to know about check out our article on inside knee pain for a closer look.
1. Meniscus Injury
Any strong twists or change in directions can bug those menisci.
If you have swelling and pain in your outer or inner knee, along with having your knee feel like it wants to lock up on you, there may be a tear in either of the menisci this usually happens with a specific incident such as twisting the knee really hard.
2. MCL/LCL Injury
This can happen if you bend your knee outwardly or inwardly pretty hard.
You can sprain the MCL or LCL doing this because of the strong force, and it usually results in localized pain and swelling at the injury site.
3. Bursitis
This time were looking at the pes anserine bursa, located on the inside of your knee close to your MCL.
Pes anserine bursitis is very common in runners, swimmers, and basketball players, and presents with pain and swelling on the inside of your knee.
4. Hamstring Tendinopathy
In this case, we could be looking at the semimembranosus and semitendinosus tendons if the pain is on the inside of the knee, and the biceps femoris tendon if the pain is on the outside of the knee.
Since the hamstrings run behind the knee as well, this pain can spread from the back of the knee to the sides at the tendons insertion points in the tibia and fibula.
This is more common with runners/sprinters or people who jump a lot.
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The Traditional Treatments And Exercises For Knee Pain Are Not Cutting It
Most primary care and orthopedic doctors start with medications and injections. Well, anyone that’s paying attention knows that you can’t fix a mechanical problem with a chemical solution like an injection!
The pain may go down or disappear temporarily. The pain will return and is usually worse. Research clearly states that chronic use of NSAIDs and steroid injections increase the speed and severity of degeneration!
What Is A Torn Meniscus
A meniscus is a disk-shaped piece of cartilage that acts as a shock absorber inside a joint. Each knee has one lateral meniscus under the outer knob of the thighbone and one medial meniscus under the inner knob of the thighbone. Each meniscus acts as a natural cushion between the thighbone and shinbone . The two cushions prevent excess wear and tear inside the knee joint by keeping the ends of the two bones from rubbing together. Each meniscus also absorbs much of the shock of jumps and landings and helps to distribute joint fluid evenly to lubricate and nourish the knee.
In the United States, a torn meniscus is the most common reason for knee surgery.
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Can I Bend My Knee Without Pain
More than one in four adults experience the negative effects of chronic knee pain. Its actually nothing unexpected, as our knees handle a lot of day-to-day wear and tear. Scientists have discovered that for each pound of body weight, our knees are exposed to as much as seven pounds of weight when they are in motion or standing.
This is a lot of stress to put on such an important joint. However, there are many ways to treat the problem of chronic knee pain .
Obviously, bending your knees is inevitable. Therefore, we have gathered together some key information that should be able to help you find a solution that will work for you. Before we start talking about the tips to alleviate that pain, we have to look at what may be causing it. This may help you determine what needs to be done.
Pain Behind Our Knee When Bending
Lets flip the leg around and check the back of our knee.
1. Bursitis
We want to be aware of the semimembranosus bursa here.
When we bend our knee, semimembranosus bursitis can cause high levels of irritation because we squish that bursa every time we bend the leg, causing further irritation.
2. Bakers Cyst
Also known as a popliteal cyst, a Bakers Cyst typically happens because the knee has swelling that pushes into either a bursa at the back of your knee or gets trapped, causing an outward growth.
This can feel like a marble in the soft spot behind your knee, and typically gets angry when we keep bending our knee and putting pressure on it.
3. Hamstring/Gastrocnemius Tendinopathy
Since our hamstrings and gastrocnemius tendons also run behind our knees, tendinopathy in this area can be a cause as well.
This typically happens if youre a runner or strained either muscle during stretching or exercise.
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To Be Clear I Don’t Fault The Individual Providers That Are Doing What They’re Trained To Do
No one learns how to find or fix fibrous adhesion in school. No one learns how to directly treat degeneration/arthritis without surgery or injections. Even the training for which exercises and stretches to use is contradicting. On top of that, insurance companies are 30 years behind and reimburse providers to keep using out-dated and ineffective treatments.
Three Reasons Your Knee Hurts When Straight But Not When Bent
Your knees are complex joints that bear a lot of your body weight and power your legs for a wide range of activities like walking, running and jumping. Its important to take care of your knees so you can live out your normal daily life and enjoy physical activities. However, despite your best efforts, injuries and conditions can affect your knees, which can limit their use.
Some conditions cause pain that only affects your knees when trying to straighten them but not bending them. Common conditions that cause this kind of pain include:
1. Torn meniscus
The meniscus is a small, flat piece of cartilage that rests between the thighbones and shinbones on each side of your knees. There are two menisci in each knee. They exist to absorb shock in the knees and keep the bones from grinding against one another.
A traumatic injury that causes the knee to violently twist can cause a meniscus to tear. A torn meniscus might fold on itself, which can keep you from fully straightening your leg and cause knee pain when you try to do so.
2. Runners knee
Runners knee is the common term for pain around the kneecap. This is a condition in which the tendon that connects your kneecap to your shinbone becomes inflamed from repetitive motions. This can make it painful around the kneecap when you try and fully straighten your leg.
3. Strained muscles
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How To Treat Knee Pain
As you can see from the article, there are numerous reasons for pain when you bend your knee. You could spend hours on the internet trying to diagnose yourself and find the cause and even then, you could get it wrong and make things worse. Opting for a route of painkillers is only going to mask the problem its wont solve the issue. You wont wake up one day to find your knee pain has healed by itself.
With existing pain, the wrong YouTube exercise could land you in the emergency room with an expensive bill. Its not worth it.
At Intecore PT, were a specialized outpatient orthoepic and sports medicine rehab center knees are our specialty.
So, we 100% recommend that you book an appointment at the clinic for us to make a swift diagnosis and help you get out of pain quickly and easily.
Dont waste another moment in pain. Book Now for your Free Telephone Consultation or Discovery Visit with one of our Knee Pain Specialists and kiss goodbye to knee pain, stiffness, reduced mobility, and daily discomfort.
A Smart Person With Knee Pain Knows This And So They Tell Their Doctor No Thanks
So you get shunted off to PT–usually within the same medical group. Then there’s a lot of exercises, stretches, kinesiotape, Graston, rubbing, ART, ice/heat, e-stim, ultrasound, etc. It seems like it’s a shot gun approach hoping it gets better. Because at this point all they are telling you is “it’s just arthritis”, or “it’s just tendonitis”, or “it’s just IT band syndrome”, or “jumper’s knee”. This list of generic labels is too long to mention.
Next, you try your local chiropractor who tries adjustments to your spine and extremities, may implement supplements or diets, and may even use some of the same methods your last PT tried all to no avail.
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My Knee Hurts When Bending: What To Do
1. Manage the Pain
Knee pain is usually the result of inflammation a natural response from your immune system to damaged joint tissue. Pain and inflammation are completely normal and necessary for proper joint healing. Despite being natural joint inflammation can negatively influence your quality of life. Your knee may hurt so much that it makes day to day tasks difficult. In such cases, reducing inflammation with NSAIDs, the R.I.C.E. method and exercise are often used to manage pain in the short-term.
2. Get a Professional Knee Exam
Getting your knee assessed by a healthcare professional is crucial. This is even more important if you have suffered a traumatic knee injury. A definitive diagnosis will give you peace of mind and help expedite the healing process.
3. Try Different Treatments
If you are lucky, your knee pain may get better on its own with rest. However, more than likely you will need to engage in rehab exercises to overcome the injury. Physiotherapists specialize in providing specific exercises and treatment regimes that increase the strength, stability, and mobility of your joint.