WGMB featured Baton Rouge Physical Therapy’s Shea Rogers, PT, DPT, OCS, Clinic Director of our Brittany clinic, in a TV segment on exercises to ease arthritis discomfort for National Arthritis Month.
At least 50% of adults will develop arthritis in one knee in their lifetime. This pain can impact daily living and quality of life. “As a physical therapist, I can’t change people’s arthritis, but what I do is work on the joint’s mobility and range of motion to restore the normal mechanics of the joint as well as exercises that we perform to strengthen the musculature around the joint and that is going to help drastically improve the joint’s overall mobility, the strength around the muscle and that offloads the joint leading to decreases in pain and improved function,” explained Dr. Rogers.
Perform these three exercises at home to get your body moving and help with the pain.
- Seated Leg Extension: Sit in a chair and start with your knees bent at 90 degrees. Extend the knee by focusing on squeezing your quad. Hold for 5 to 10 seconds. Repeat 10 times per leg.
- Standing Hamstring Curl: Stand at your desk and use it for balance. Bend your knee to bring your heel to your bottom while focusing on squeezing the back of your hamstring. Pause for a second and then return to the starting position. Perform two sets of 10 reps per leg.
- Squat with Butt Tap: Start by standing at your desk with the chair behind you. Push your hips back like you are sitting down. Bend at your knees until your butt taps the chair (but don’t sit down!), and then squeeze your butt to return to starting position. Perform two sets of 10 reps.
If you have any questions regarding arthritis or pain, schedule an appointment with a Baton Rouge Physical Therapy physical therapist. To watch the full interview, please follow this link: 3 exercises to ease arthritis discomfort.
