Knee Pain: Four Phase Rehabilitation and Strengthening Program: Phase 2

Phase 2:

  • This week will will set up 2 categories
  • Sorry for the long explanation below, but believe me it is necessary
  • Below the explanations you will find your movements for the week with new ones in BOLD
    • Light movements that I call “Daily Sequence”
      • This is a sequence that is all about light movement and muscle activation
      • It is meant to improve mobility and possibly serve as a warm up, cool down, or a light sequence in the morning or at night to improve mobility
      • I will continue to give you some alternative options over the next few weeks to include in this sequence
      • The goal is to isolate 4-5 movements that you feel are most effective in moving parts of your body that are stiff/painful and feel that they improve mobility/stiffness
      • You will do one set of 10-20reps for each movement so this sequence should be very quick and user friendly
      • There is something called the “5 Tibetan Rites” that had a great impact on me
        • Basically, these monks for thousands of years did this sequence, some calling it “The Fountain of Youth”
        • I do not necessarily hand out the 5 rites, but I do believe that everyone should have their own personalized version of 5 movements that are not incredibly challenging, that move areas of their body that they do no move enough in their daily life
        • This sequence should be brief and take only 5-10 minutes at the most
        • I do my own 5 rite sequence before bed each night and I do it as a warm up pre workout/wrestling practice/jujitsu
    • Strength Circuits
      • These are meant to challenge you with the goal of creating fatigue or tension in muscle without overloading painful structures
      • Your goal with this is to feel muscle tension and hopefully fatigue
      • Each movement will have a time goal or a rep goal, once you achieve that goal with no negative side effects, you are ready for a new challenge
      • When your body fatigues, you may start to get pain and that is your cue to stop
      • Pay attention to what you feel later that day and the next day
        • Mild pain is alright as long as it goes back to baseline within 24 hours
        • If pain is more severe you have a couple options
          • 1) Ice right after to minimize inflammation
          • 2) Try to decrease the intensity of the exercise by not going through as much range of motion or not pushing so hard
            • In my mind, most exercises can be made painful or not painful by the way that you go about it
            • Example: If I give you a squat variation, there are many ways to decrease risk of pain
              • Don’t go as deep into the motion, do it slower, keep weight more on the heels, hold an isometric position squat without moving in whatever range is least painful, do only 2-5 reps
            • Have the mind set of getting through new exercises making it super easy just to find a safe zone…you can always increase the challenge from there
  • Daily Sequence: Complete everyday
  • Strength Sequence: Complete every other day, if sore, wait until soreness completely goes back to baseline prior to completing it again which may require 2 day rest