You have found out that you sprained your knee and now are wondering what are the first steps you should take to heal it for the best results. There are endless amounts of information on the internet so you can never seem to find a clear answer. People come to us with a lot of questions on what steps to take, so we wanted to give you the most efficient way to recover.
Starting out you are wondering ‘should I ice or take an anti-inflammatory?’ These options help with the pain that you are experiencing with the injury, but it stunts the inflammatory process that is necessary for healing. Our advice is that if you are in a situation where you have to put a lot of pressure on the joint or you’re in a lot of pain then it’s ok to take medicine and ice to help manage the pain. Inflammation promotes blood flow to the injured area to provide it with the necessary nutrients, so if you are not experiencing too much pain then let your body do its job!
Next, we want to address the swelling. Swelling causes weakness in the quad muscles, so to decrease the swelling you can elevate the knee, take an anti-inflammatory, or ice. Once the swelling goes down we need to work on improving that range of motion because it is important in being able to walk effectively.
After we improve the range of motion then we need to start working on quad strengthening exercises. Quad strength takes off the pressure in the knee, so when the quad isn’t strong it will put more force onto the joint.
These are the steps you should be taking first to kick off the healing process and then you’ll slowly be able to progress from there. If you have any other types of knee pain or questions, please come to us and we can help!
