Safe Knee Exercises
I’ve often seen people who have suffered some kind of physical injury. I’m always a bit saddened to walk into a room filled with physical therapists and see how they are “exercising” their patients and wondered to myself why it seemed that most people rush into surgery to correct their knee injury. I have nothing against surgery, but sometimes I think, as a society, we demand too much instant gratification Sometimes we find that the immediacy we sought isn’t there!
There are all kinds of safe knee exercises one can do whether or not surgery was involved. My biggest wish is that folks would take care not to become another statistic in annals of knee injures There are also many forms of equipment the can be used to help prevent knee injuries and there are knee exercises that can be done prior participating in rigorous activity.
When my younger sister and I were in high school, we participated in all kinds of activities but her special love was basketball. I can’t tell you how many ties she came home with another twisted or otherwise knee injury. Our family could not afford to pay for surgery, so my sister relied upon what she and her coach deemed to be safe knee exercises for recovery. In time she would be able to play basketball again.
Another instance of knee injury comes to mind - my college roommate. He and I had found a nice place to live with lots of shade trees and beautiful, lush green lawns. One day, it was his turn to mow the lawn. Anyway, shortly after started mowing, I heard him yelp and I knew by the tone of his yelp that something serious had occurred.
Sure enough, he had pushed the mower over the curb. The mower blades apparently had hit the curb broken off a peice of concrete and shot it into my friend’s knee, just under the kneecap. Well he had to have surgery to remove the concrete that was logded under the kneecap and then the therapy started.
In both instances the two of them spent a great deal of time in physical therapy. I noted the differences in the two experiences and to this day am intrigued when I see some gal or guy hobbling around on crutches and think about why? It seems to me that a lot of injuries could be prevented if people would just more stretching and some knee exercises along with the rest of their bodies.So I became somewhat of a knee-watcher, looking at all the scarred knees and gritting my teeth as I imagined how the injury occurred. Most of the scars were clearly surgical scars and I wish I could have known these people so that maybe I could have helped prevent their knee injury.
On the other side of all this, I have a somewhat obnoxious nephew who works in an orthopedic braces manufacturing company and he is always telling me about the most recent piece of equipment for the injured knees of the world. And I think to myself, “If those folks with the knee injuries had committed to a routine of safe knee exercises, then my nephew might not have a job!”
