Knee Pain and Exercise - Singapore Personal Trainer Explains

One of the meaningful work I do as a personal trainer and strength and conditioning coach in Singapore is helping people recover and rehabilitate (rehab) from various types of pain, dysfunction and injuries at our facility, the Genesis Performance Center.

Now, we are NOT doctors. If a car runs over you, please do NOT drop by.

For instance, if a 130 kg opponent tackles you on the rugby field and twists your knee so you damage your ACL. You should go for surgery!

****As soon as possible.****

But once you are done with surgery, what next, usually, a patient will go for some physiotherapy, but what next?

You are not fully well yet you are not injured enough to have more doctor visits.

The next step in fact is to remove the weakness that is usually the cause of the injury to begin with.

To do this, make sure that your rehab program (once your knee moves without sharp pain) includes important exercises like split squats, full squats and exercises to strengthen the hamstrings such as deadlifts and leg curls.

However, keep in mind that surgeries are unnecessary for most knee injuries.

First of all, get a few different doctors to read your MRI. Reading one is a skill and its a subjective skill. And doctors have (it's not their fault - reading these is hard) given different opinions on the SAME MRI given some time between readings. I would go for 1 MRI and 3 doctor's opinions.

Next most injuries can be fixed with some soft tissue work and some strengthening. ACL tears are probably the only one that really needs surgery. And if you do get surgery get a doctor that will NOT take the ligament graft from your hamstring.

The hamstring is VERY important in knee stability because it actually wraps around the knee joint. So don't let it get even weaker (it's possibly why you got injured in the first place).

One of the most common problems I work (surgery free of course!) with is scar tissue on knee connective tissue.

The symptoms are:

* Pain inside the knee especially climbing up and/or down stairs
* The same pain when walking up or down slope
* The pain comes on and off - it does not improve and it does not get worse.
* The pain is worse on days after you do "start/stop" activity like badminton, basketball and so on.

How do I know so much about this? I had this problem myself! And soft tissue work by a strong therapist was the only way it got fixed. And it bothered me for years! Experiencing that pain for real, for yourself, teach the best way to fix it right!

Nobody can train well when they are in pain. So in general...

* Fix the pain
* Train hard
* Prevent the injury from happening again.