Green Knees: How to manage knee pain in the garden

Knee pain is one of the most frustrating things for anyone, particularly gardeners. Whether it’s traipsing up and down the lawn with heavy water cans, bending down to tend to flowers or kneeling digging out weeds, your knees could be taking the brunt of your green finger work. Like nurturing herbs, your knees need some love.

A common thought is that all knee pain requires rest, and you shouldn’t do any exercise until the pain has passed. However, if there’s nothing visible wrong, ask yourself why your knees hurt. The innocent mediator between your ankle and hip, your knees will often reflect issues above and below. For example, weakness in your thigh muscles may cause increased pressure on the knee as it tries to compensate. By modifying technique and strength building you can overcome knee pain AND find yourself bursting with confidence and vigour.

If you are experiencing any swelling, redness, are unable to bear weight or to fully move your knee, stop! It’s time to rest and get checked out. For those of you who don’t fall into that category, here’s what you can do.

Are your legs strong?

As you read this, I want you to think about how you are getting down to sow seeds or in fact any squatting like movement. Frequently, we see people squat or bend down, with all their body weight coming forward onto the knees and their back folded. Short summary- your knees are taking the brunt of it. This can be due to muscle weakness, compensatory techniques or limiting mobility. Building strength in your leg muscle improves the support your knees have, meaning your knees get a break.]

How are your feet?

Have you ever thought about how important our feet are? And how they’re connected to so many other parts of our bodies? The feet are an often-neglected part of our body. If you’re experiencing knee pain, your feet may be the cause. Although there are many ailments that we write off as just being

Something we have, there may be something we can do to improve these conditions. Your feet are designed to move and when they do, they allow your knees to move well. The general rule is to make sure any shoes you are wearing can bend in half and twist from side to side to allow for move. Feet, like all joints need options! Letting them move is a good thing. Avoid blocking your feet from moving and fixing your arches. Stiff gardening boots, whilst they may feel supportive, could be blocking your moment. For example, in squatting positions it may prevent your ankles flexing forcing you knees to come forward and as you lift your heels.

Next thought… are you using your feet?! Your feet are design to push, support and generate power with your legs. I’ll give you once example to consider now… You’re raking back the leaves from next doors oak, during that backward forward motion, you whole body is moving. You feel yourself move from your heels to toes, pushing off your mid-foot back and forth, back, and forth. You whole leg, tummy and bottom are working away. What you don’t want to feel is a sinking down on your knees, fixed feet, pulling the pile using your back and shoulders muscles. By getting those feet working, the leg muscles will follow.

The Exercise

There are many ways you can prepare your body for gardening, but if you have knee pain in particular there are some exercises you can do to help strengthen the correct muscles and begin getting your body moving the way it's supposed to.

In this video I will show you how to get stronger legs through a functional single movement. It shows a super technique for getting up and down, and practicing it will help your brain learn the movement for when you're out in the garden. Imagine picking your hand tools off the floor and being aware of your WHOLE leg, not just your knee working!

Be sure to only go as low down as you feel comfortable. As you get stronger and more confident you can increase the range of movement. Any questions please reach out.

Take Care

If you are experiencing any swelling or pain using ice before or after activity can give great relief. It can also be used throughout the day to ease your symptoms. 10 minutes with the ice pack or frozen peas on your leg is enough. Make sure you wrap your ice pack in a damp tea towel not straight onto your skin, you’ll get maximum cooling without burning your skin. Sit back and enjoy your hard work for 10mins.

Heat is wonderfully relaxing and soothing effect on your body. Great for easing stiffness and aches. Use a wheat bag or hot water bottle on your knee for some soothing. 10 minutes is enough. Use this strategy little and often throughout the day when you feel symptoms or after doing the things that commonly make you sore. A hot shower or bath can be just as useful when you get up to help get your knees moving.

Before you reach this stage, try to pace out the jobs your find the most taxing on your legs. You probably know the activities that make your knee sore. If not, keep track of them and note how long it takes for things to worsen. With this knowledge, change position or activity before your knee is aggravated. It is so easy to get carried away, especially when in the garden! By pacing your activities, you avoid aggravating symptoms to the point you can’t function, you will achieve more.

Tempting as it is...

Avoid the temptation to rely on a knee brace or tape. Whilst kneeling on a pad or cushion can help you to kneel for longer, it doesn’t directly impact the function of your knees. It’s ok to try using a brace if you are in a severe amount of pain, or it’s the first few days after injuring your knee. Just don’t make it apart of your garden kit. Long term use of braces and supports can weaken your muscles and make your knee stiffer. Getting the correct advice for your specific problem is crucial if you are using braces or supports.

So, What the Fastest Way of Getting Pain Free?

The fastest way to get pain free is to invest your time and money in good, hands-on Physiotherapy. A Physio that treats the cause of the problem (not just the sore bit) will give you long term relief. Your old injuries, movement habits, and beliefs all influence your posture, movement, and load on your knees. A good physio will outline what is wrong and all the steps you need to take to get you back doing the things you love.

Commonly the pain eases after 3-4 sessions but that doesn’t mean you should stop coming. As you would when caring for your prize rose bush, skipping steps won’t help things bloom. Doing the FULL program will ensure you get your whole body stronger and muscles working together so your problem doesn’t return in the months and years to come

Another great way of helping prevent knee pain, especially after treatment is by joining a class that is run by experts who can keep progressing your strength, without causing damage. Classes such as Clinical Pilates will help you get used to using your knee under a wide rage of movements and will train you in using it effectively. Making sure that you don;t lose strength after treatment is a sure fire way of preventing knee pain from returning after all your hard work of getting it better in the first place.

If you are suffering from knee pain, and would like help, you can enquire about cost and availability here, or contact us on 01548 852 355 / [email protected] to speak to one of the team about how we can help you get rid of knee pain for good.

To find out more about classes give us a call or email [email protected]

"My knee pain meant I could only do half a day’s gardening a week – it would take the rest of the week for the pain to subside. Thanks to the HealthHub I now hope to be able to enjoy my retirement and be active at home and on the water crewing for my husband without the fear of knee pain limiting me."

- Ann (read more about Ann's success story by clicking here)

FREE Knee Pain Report

If you're still worried about knee pain and would like more tips on how to relieve pain immediately, as well as learning how to get rid of it for good, you can download this special FREE guide: The 12 Secrets to Eliminating Knee Pain

CLICK HERE to download now.

With love,

Abbie

and the HealthHub Team

P.S. If you want more information on how to get rid of knee pain for good you can download our FREE Knee Pain Report by clicking here. It's packed full of useful tips you can start doing right now to relieve pain immediately and say goodbye to it altogether.