Osteopathic treatment for knee pain
There are a number of treatment approaches that can be helpful when managing knee pain; massage, manipulation and functional movement and mobilisation are all really useful in the right scenario.
The art in any therapy is in the selection of the right technique for the right problem, in the right patient.
So at MOH, we always start out the same way with every patient, we take a detailed history and do a comprehensive orthopedic, neurological and functional assessment so that we get to know the problem and the patient.
These sorts of manual treatments can have immediate beneficial effects like improving your joint mobility, decreasing your muscle tone and down regulating pain sensitivity. You’ll usually notice that this improves your functional capacity from the minute you get back on your feet so we can create a window of opportunity for increased walking and loading.
In this video we’ve provided a little sneak peek of the osteopathic treatment of a stiff and painful knee just to give you an idea of what to expect from an osteopathic visit. In the video you can see one of our osteopaths, Della demonstrating some simple manual therapy techniques to improve knee bending.
Restoring functional mobility at the knee can improve your ability to shock-absorb and distribute load up the leg and through the pelvis and spine. It can also help increase your loading tolerance and performance in walking and running activities where knee function is a limiting factor.
Reloading strategies like walking, running and resistance training are critical to challenge the body and drive adaptive responses to stimulate long term improvements in muscles, tendons, joints and the nervous system. But it is often these grass-roots Osteopathic manual techniques that can clear the way for success with these more active treatment approaches.
Want to know more?
You can learn more about the MOH approach to knee pain and improving hip function by checking out blogs in the MOH knee series;
- Functional Osteopathic assessment of the knee
- Functional exercises for your knees
- Pilates and your knees
- Single Leg Deadlifts for Hamstrings
- Myotherapy for knee pain
For more information, ideas and exercises check out our Health Tips blog.
