Soft Tissue Injuries of the knee

Exercises for soft tissue injuries and knee pain

There is no set approach that has been shown to be the best so feel free to try different types of exercise and activity.  Be guided by what you enjoy and feel able to make a start with.  Being generally fit and healthy is very much encouraged to help the knee.   

If you are local to Sheffield and you would like support to increase your physical activity, then you can:

• Self-refer to Sheffield Physical Activity Referral scheme to access expert and discounted support in physical activity including select gyms across the city.
• Find sport, leisure and activity groups in your local area.
• Visit our page on physical activity under the wider health section of the website for further guidance and support to increase your activity.

More specific knee and lower limb exercises do help too.  Here is a range of exercises to try.  However, if you are struggling to manage these or they are not helping then do seek some input from a healthcare professional. These exercises are all pretty simple as they do not involve twisting or big impacts.  Build these elements up gradually but again, seek help if needing guidance to get back to full activities. 

Please note, this video mentions arthritis but it is very useful for the majority of knee pains:

For a really comprehensive programme, it is advised to work on hip strength too so feel free to add elements of this video too:

There is a printable and more graded exercise sheet from Kings College Hospital that also covers more advanced exercises if the above versions are getting too easy.