A reader requested some clarification on a post from 2003 (the link is below) about how to get the quadriceps muscles to work together, such as in a squatting motion, when your knee hurts. This post was originally written for a clinical audience (because that was my audience in 2003) so there were a few assumptions in the article that a non-clinical person would not know. Here's the question from the reader and my reply follows:
I
just read the following article by Doug Kelsey and I don’t really understand
where to put the rubber band. It just says attach it to your client, but I
didn’t know where? Also – it’s for my left knee so I wasn’t sure which side to
have the door on.
http://sportscenteraustin.
I
am so excited to find this article. With my HMO it took almost an entire year
of going to the Dr before finding out what the issue was (standard runaround –
your knee hurts? Take these! It still hurts? Try the anti-inflammatory AGAIN!
Still hurts? Stop bending it!) After finally getting to see a specialist I was
given the VMO exercises and I’ve been doing them for 3 months now and NOTHING.
I have a toddler and it is so hard to go through life w/out squatting or
bending my knee. Thank you so much for any help that you can give me!
The exercise the article references is this:
"......Strengthen all of the quadriceps while in a weight bearing position and
your clients will feel much better. How do you do this if weight
bearing hurts? The easiest way is to use a strong elastic band. Attach
one end of the band to your client and the other end to something very
sturdy such as a door. The band should angle upward about forty five
degrees. Your client stands sideways to the door (e.g.the band will be
pulling to the client's right). Stagger the feet placing the left foot
back about twelve inches. Your client now squats through a small range.
The band counters the force of gravity while also forcing the
quadriceps to stabilize the leg...."
You attach the elastic band to your waist by clipping it onto a waist belt. The other end slips into the door frame using a special strap made just for this (click here and here to see the tools). So, once the elastic strap is attached to you and the door, you stand sideways to the door (in the reader's case, the left side will face the door) and perform a small squatting motion. The arrow in the picture is pointing up and to the right which is for a right knee problem.
Since the original post was intended for clinicians, a clinician should first decide if this exercise is appropriate for you. It may not be.
