{"id":1561,"date":"2020-02-28T10:55:04","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T17:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/?p=1561"},"modified":"2020-02-28T10:55:04","modified_gmt":"2020-02-28T17:55:04","slug":"knee-injuries-and-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/knee-injuries-and-prevention\/","title":{"rendered":"Knee Injuries and Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/alora-griffiths-WX7FSaiYxK8-unsplash.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1562 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/alora-griffiths-WX7FSaiYxK8-unsplash-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/alora-griffiths-WX7FSaiYxK8-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/alora-griffiths-WX7FSaiYxK8-unsplash-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/alora-griffiths-WX7FSaiYxK8-unsplash-464x310.jpg 464w, https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/alora-griffiths-WX7FSaiYxK8-unsplash.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The knees are a common injury for people of every age, gender and race. Some knee injuries<br \/>\ninclude strains, sprains and ligament tears. These injuries may require bracing and<br \/>\nphysiotherapy; others may require surgery in order to repair the damage.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A knee sprain occurs when ligaments of the knee stretch or tear. The ligaments of your knee<br \/>\nconnect your thigh bone to your lower leg bones. A strain occurs when a muscle or tendon in<br \/>\nyour knee is torn or stretched. The tendons connect the muscles to the bone. The most common<br \/>\ncauses of injuries to the knees are<\/li>\n<li>Sports \u2013 especially contact sports like hockey and football<\/li>\n<li>Lack of flexibility<\/li>\n<li>Overuse<\/li>\n<li>General muscle weakness or muscle weakness on one side of the body<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There are several things we can do to prevent injuries to these much-needed joints.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Build up to intense exercise gradually<\/li>\n<li>Replace old shoes every year or more often if you are an avid runner<\/li>\n<li>Stretch daily \u2013 establishing a daily gentle yoga program is fantastic for this<\/li>\n<li>Strengthen all muscles of the legs evenly<\/li>\n<li>Rest and ice your knees if they hurt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We can help prevent injuries to our knee joints by doing simple stretches and strengthening<br \/>\nexercises.<\/p>\n<h4>SINGLE-LEG STRENGTHENING<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Stand with your feet hip-width distance apart and your hands stretched out to either side<br \/>\nfor balance.<\/li>\n<li>Slowly lift one foot off the floor.<\/li>\n<li>Hold for 30 to 60 seconds. Repeat 2x on either side.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>HEEL RAISES<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Holding onto a handrail on the stairs, let your heels hang off the step.<\/li>\n<li>Lift both heels up so you are balanced on the balls of your feet.<\/li>\n<li>Hold for 10 \u2013 15 seconds.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat 2x.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>CALF STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Stand 2 feet away from a wall or chair.<\/li>\n<li>Step one foot approximately 1 foot to 1 \u00bd feet behind the other foot.<\/li>\n<li>Lean your torso forward, maintaining a straight back.<\/li>\n<li>Hold for 15 to 30 seconds.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat on the other side.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>QUADRICEP STRETCH<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>Holding onto the back of a chair with one hand, bend the opposite knee, bringing your<br \/>\nfoot towards your buttocks. Keep your knees parallel with each other.<\/li>\n<li>If you can, grab the foot of the lifted leg with your hand.<\/li>\n<li>Hold for 30 \u2013 60 seconds.<\/li>\n<li>Repeat 2x on each leg<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4>BANANA POSE<\/h4>\n<p>1. Lie flat on your back with your limbs stretched out straight.<br \/>\n2. Clasp your hands together and move your hands and arms to the left. Without moving<br \/>\nyour hips, bring your legs to the left side as well so your body is curved like a banana.<br \/>\n3. Rest in this pose for 30 to 60 seconds.<br \/>\n4. Repeat on the other side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The knees are a common injury for people of every age, gender and race. Some knee injuries include strains, sprains and ligament tears. These injuries may require bracing and physiotherapy; others may require surgery in order to repair the damage. A knee sprain occurs when ligaments of the knee stretch or tear. The ligaments of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[182,112,179,157,180,181],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1563,"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1561\/revisions\/1563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imaginehealthcentres.ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}