How To Rehab Your Knee After An Injury Or Surgery
Strength Training Vs. Physical Therapy
Knee injuries and surgeries are not just physically painful but can also be very mentally traumatizing.
After any injury or surgery, you want to immediately rehab and start strengthening your knee as soon as possible. The faster you get started, the faster you can regain strength and mobility in your knee and get it back to NORMAL.
Unfortunately, I DO NOT believe in just getting your knee back to NORMAL strength and conditioning levels. In my experience of rehabbing many clients who have undergone orthoscopic surgery and titanium/ceramic knee replacement surgery, I discovered that the biggest cause of their knee problems in the first place was due to having WEAK KNEES!
That’s right!
Having weak knees is the main cause of most sports injuries and knee replacement surgeries! (Unless you were just in a freak accident!)
I come from a hardcore strength and conditioning background and have trained hundreds of people to leg press, squat, deadlift, and do other crazy and insane strength endeavors with over 700 pounds on their knees so I take a different approach when it comes to strengthening someone’s knees after an injury or surgery.
I do NOT focus on getting your knees back to “normal” strength because “normal” strength was not good enough to prevent you from having that accident or surgery in the first place.
Instead, I like to focus on getting your knees ABOVE AVERAGE strength to prevent the knee injury or surgery from ever happening again!
This is an insanely different approach then what normal, typical, and weak ass physical therapist would take…
Why?
Because someone that has never developed massively strong legs and knees for themselves & others, in my opinion, is completely UNFIT and UNQUALIFIED to tell someone else how to get their legs & knees stronger and tougher.
In the following info packed video, I want to share with you:
- The differences between “strength training” and how it differs from conventional lame ass “physical therapy”.
- How strength training will help you get back on your feet faster so you can start taking a piss on your own and not require assistance when trying to sit down and take a shit! (That shit ain’t funny when you can’t sit down to take a shit on your own bro!)
- Why strength training is better at breaking up the scar tissue in your knee then conventional physical therapy. (Scar tissue is the biggest cause of limited range of motion after a knee injury or surgery.)
How To Gain Strength Fast During Knee Rehab
In the following video, I’m going to show you one of the most simple, but highly effective leg exercises to quickly help you regain strength and mobility in you knees.
It’s an exercise that I call “bench squats“.
This powerful bench squat exercise works extremely well because:
- It follows the “natural” movement and motion of the human knee.
- It prevents you from “overstretching” your knees too early during the initial stages of the rehab process because the inclined bench prevents you from ever “accidentally” squatting down too low, too early.
- It is easily adjustable which allows you to make very small gradual increments in knee motion and strength. In my “underground” research on knee rehab, the key to success is small and gradual increments. Be patient and slowly work your way through the pain.
- It can be easily done alone without the assistance of a physical therapist or anyone else’s help.
- You can rehab at your own leisurely pace.
- Most importantly, it’s cheap and inexpensive, and all you owe is a little thanks and gratitude to the Asian Wonder!
Here is the video tutorial on how to do “bench squats”. Be sure to watch it several times to get maximum benefit:
How Joint Pain Affects Knee Recovery Speed
Contrary to popular belief, knee pain is NOT a bad thing during the rehab process. Why?
Pain lets the body know where the injury is located so that the body can send reconstructive supplies such as proteins, vitamins, minerals, blood, etc. and other resources to start healing the damaged area.
Unless you are in excruciatingly massive knee pain that causes tears to spit from your eyeballs, I DO NOT recommend taking pain killers to reduce the pain.
Most people undergoing knee rehab do not realize that pain killer medications will actually SLOW DOWN your knee rehab progress because it numbs and masks the pain in your knee!
When the body does not detect pain in the injured knee, it does not know to send blood and other resources to heal the damaged knee!
Therefore, if you want to regain strength and mobility fast during your knee rehab so that you can start kicking some ass again, I highly recommend that you AVOID pain killer medications as much as possible and so that your body can sense the knee pain and know to heal your knee faster.
Here is a quick video to give you more insight on how moderate knee pain can actually help you recover faster after a knee injury or surgery:
How To Position Your Knee & Foot During Rehab
Proper foot and knee positioning during the rehab process is very crucial.
After a knee injury or surgery, your knees are in a weak and vulnerable position which allows the upper thigh bone to be easily misaligned with the lower shin bone.
To make matters worse, if you run into a physical therapist that does not fully understand proper knee mechanics and how to develop above average strong knees, you can actually cause further unintentional damages to your knees.
In the following video, I want to show you how to correctly position your feet and knees during the knee rehab process so that you don’t screw it up and cause more unnecessary problems to your knees.
Here is the video. Please make sure you watch it several times:
How To Flex Your Muscles To Increase Size & Strength
The “secret” to increasing size & strength in your knees is to “flex” them!
Going through the exercise motion will NOT do anything for your knee!
This is one of the biggest reasons why it’s hard for people to get bigger and stronger in the gym. They go through the weight lifting and exercise motions, but FAIL to ever flex their muscles.
If you DO NOT flex your leg muscles under tension, your body will NOT know to build up muscle and strength around your knees.
Therefore, I made the following video to show you how to properly flex your leg muscles in a way that will massively induce muscle growth and strength gains in your knees.
By the way, after a big knee injury or surgery where you have been immobilized for several days or weeks, your knee and leg muscles will naturally shrink (atrophy) and you may NOT be able to “consciously” flex your leg muscles correctly.
If you don’t feel your thigh muscles flexing, I recommend you grab your thigh muscles with one hand (or have a spouse, friend, training partner, etc. grab it for you) so that you can feel your thigh muscle flex properly during the rehab.
Here is the video on how to properly flex your muscles during your knee rehab:
How To Use Your Hamstrings To Strengthen The Knee
So far, I have mainly focused on strengthening the front side of your leg, now let’s take a look at strengthening the muscles on the back side of your leg.
The muscles on the back side of your leg is collectively referred to as the hamstrings. The hamstrings are responsible for bending your knee and pulling your heel toward your butt.
The hamstrings are often neglected during knee rehab for the simple reason that it’s on the back side of your leg!
Out of sight, out of mind…
The thigh muscles (quadriceps) are responsible for straightening and extending the leg and the hamstrings provide the other 50% of your leg movement and responsible for bending the leg.
Therefore, it’s just as important to train the back of your legs to add strength and mobility to your knees.
Here is a quick video I made to show you a crazy simple hamstring exercise that you can totally do alone without anyone’s assistance that will supercharge the strength in your hamstrings, which in turn will reinforce critical areas in the backside of your knee:
I enjoyed making these knee rehab tutorials cause I don’t like people struggling to regain mobility.
To the average person, nothing is more crushing to the human soul and spirit then not being able to get around on your own.
To an athlete, nothing kills the “warrior” spirit and is more demoralizing to one’s competitive nature then a jacked up knee!
I hope that you have benefited greatly from watching these videos as you go through your knee rehab.
Please leave a comment below if you found my knee rehab videos helpful, this helps me to make better rehab videos to help YOU and others rehab and regain your knee mobility and strength faster after a knee injury or surgery.
You can also leave any questions in the comment box below too.
Take care, and fast recovery my friend!
Peace
Asian Wonder
Fast Joint Rehab & Recovery Expert
==============================================================================
Testimonials
