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I find after strenuous exercise (competitive basketball specifically) that my knee needs a couple days to recover. Are there any specific exercises I can do to strengthen the joint and reduce my recovery time? I prefer in-home techniques.

Specifics: I jammed my knee into a rock while fielding a ground ball three years ago and have had issues since. I wear a brace/sleeve whenever jumping is involved, though I usually can run with no pain. 95% of the time, I'm fine. I started to wear the sleeve because I had occasions where I'd come down to the ground and my knee would buckle like it wanted to give out completely. When there's pain (minor, generally just a hindrance on stairs), I tend to have a hard time with any squat type movements, particularly with weight (like a toddler).

Steve Jackson
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    Could you provide some more information on what type of injury? – G__ Mar 09 '11 at 21:29
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    Honestly, this sounds more like a question that should be asked of a physician. It'd be hard for us to know enough about the specific nature of your injury in order to recommend specific exercises that wouldn't cause unnecessary pain/discomfort or re-injury. – whaley Mar 10 '11 at 17:05
  • @whaley - Should I edit the question to remove the part about the injury? Tests by GP didn't turn anything up (my prescription was stretch better, ibuprofen and take it easy). – Steve Jackson Mar 10 '11 at 17:27
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    @steve-jackson Maybe not remove, but de-emphasize. When I read the question originally I fixated on the injury and not what you were really asking (how to strengthen the knee). – whaley Mar 10 '11 at 20:40
  • I agree with whaley. The knee is a complex joint and knee pain covers a variety of symptoms. And those symptoms indicate different injuries. Some injuries can be solved with physical therapy and others with surgery. Proper treatment is determined by the cause. If your GP was unable to determine a cause, then perhaps try another professional. – wdypdx22 Mar 10 '11 at 20:50
  • On a personal note, I developed ITBS as a result of cycling. ITBS is also common in runners. In working with a physical therapist, I was able to resolve this through targeted hip strengthening work. The solution required correctly identifying the cause of the pain. – wdypdx22 Mar 10 '11 at 21:01
  • @wdypdx22 - Definitely good advice. I actually play ball with a couple physical therapists. I figured fitness.SE might have ideas as well. – Steve Jackson Mar 12 '11 at 02:57
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    @Steve - You don't provide enough information. The type of pain and the location could be helpful. For example, pain in the front of the knee would indicate a different problem (and treatment) than pain on the outside of the knee. You did mention "giving way" which could easily indicate a ligament injury. A professional opinion is probably a good idea, but in the meantime here's a link: http://orthopedics.about.com/od/hipknee/a/kneesymptoms.htm – wdypdx22 Mar 13 '11 at 17:53

4 Answers4

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I have osteochondritis desicans(sp?) in my left knee. Basically a nerve is pinched when my support muscles tire and sometimes the pain is bad enough that my knee buckles. My physio initially recommended movements like swimming (breast stroke) and cycling. This was good at first.

But what really helped was lots of squats and bar bell training (deadlift, front squat, back squat, various Olympic lifts).

Megasaur
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As an ACL reconstruction patient, I was told to always stretch before you do anything. Work on hamstring, calf, leg extension, and knee bend stretch before you do anything physical. These are the exercises that i do to strengthen my knee back to 100%:

Static, side, split-squats, ploymetric lunges:

  • Static lunges are great for working all the major muscles of the hips, glutes and thighs. In this version of lunges, you're simply dropping your knee down rather than stepping forward or back.
  • side lunges are similar to static but you are basically stepping to the side to work the lateral movement.
  • Split-squats can be done with or without weights(dumbbell or barbell). There are different variations of split-squats you can do it with dumbbell with one leg elevated on a chair and squad down as if you are doing static lunges or you can use barbell without elevation and position barbell on back of shoulders and grasp barbell to sides. Stand with feet far apart; one foot forward and other foot behind.
  • Plyometric lunges involves fast pace, burst movement, and balance coordination. This is more advance form of lunges and builds strength. They come in many different forms one example would be "Mary Katherine Lunges" where you basically repeatedly doing static lunges with a jump in between each rep with little down town as possible.
KJYe.Name
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Knee pain can have many causes which can't be resolved in the scope of an internet forum, but squatting, with or without weight, is an excellent natural motion that helps in strengthening all the components of the knee. To build endurance and strength gradually over time, I recommend twohundredsquats.com. If basketball on a hard surface is your only knee exercise, that is pretty tough. I recommend sprinting barefoot on grass, sand or track surface.

J. Win.
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I had knee pain and these two exercises helped me to strengthen my knees. After some weeks, the pain disappeared.

But I recomend you to visit a doctor.

JoaquinG
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