Keeping your knees healthy and using proper protection should be your first priority to prevent injury or reinjury. There are a number of things you can do to keep your knees and menisci healthy and prevent further damage.
Maintain a Strong, Flexible Knee
To stabilize your knee joint and increase your range of motion, maintain and build the strength and flexibility of your quadriceps, hamstrings, calf muscles and hip flexors. Strengthening and stretching exercises will help to keep your knee strong and supple to reduce the risk of injury.
In addition, balancing exercises will help retrain your position or “joint sense”. A regular exercise program that focuses on total body fitness and includes low-impact aerobic activity such as walking, swimming or biking will also strengthen your knee and keep you healthy overall.
Always Warm Up
Your body is less prone to injury during exercise when your heart, muscles and joints are gently warmed ahead of time. To protect your knees, warm up and cool down your leg muscles before and after working them, and learn theproper techniques for your activity. You can use the Inferno Wrap® prior to activity to help warm up the deep tissue.
Use Proper Equipment
Invest in footwear that fits properly and is suitable for your activities or sports. Cushioning in the shoes will help to keep your knees stable during activity and reduce some of the impact.
If your knee is weak or unstable, aknee brace, strapping or taping can provide extra support. When kneeling,wear knee pads to protect your joint from damage.
Avoid Activities That Cause Pain
If you are experiencing knee pain during any activity, stop and see a doctor to find out why. Listen to your body and decrease, modify and/or avoid any activities or motions that cause pain and irritation (twisting, squatting, kneeling, jumping, heavy lifting, climbing and running, walking on uneven terrain). If you are required to perform these motions at work or play and cannot avoid them, make sure you take frequent breaks and rest your knees to prevent fatigue.
Avoid Doing too Much too Soon
Following a knee injury, give your body an opportunity to build up its endurance.Progress through exercises gradually and work slowly when increasing the load or intensity. Allow your body adequate time to recover after exercise to repair any soft tissue damage that may have occurred. You can use an Inferno Wrap® for more complete and faster repair.
Meniscus Tear and Knee Pain Treatments
It is the blood in your body that heals and repairs damage to your tissue. By transporting oxygen and nutrients to the damaged tissue and flushing away dead cells, your blood helps your body to heal itself. Unfortunately, when a meniscus injury occurs and you have knee pain you need to prevent further injury and rest the area to allow it to heal. By resting, you actually limit the flow of blood and slow the healing process. The trick is to slow tissue damage, reduce scar tissue, and generate blood flow to speed healing and prevent further damage.