Fix Knee Pain When Going Down Stairs

Today I’m demonstrating how to strengthen your knee for going down the stairs. Do you have increased pain when going down the stairs even though you don’t have much pain going up the stairs? Going down the stairs is more difficult than going up the stairs because the act of lowering your body in a controlled way takes more muscular strength.

We actually use the same muscles going up the stairs when we go down the stairs. This means we can strengthen the knee by practicing step up exercises. Once your knee gets stronger from practicing step up exercises, you could attempt step down exercises. For both step up and step down exercises, we only need to use one step and something to hold onto for balance. For step up exercises, put your affected leg on the step and keep your foot on the step. Hold onto the handrail or table for support. Lift your body up and bring your other foot onto the step, then bring that foot back down to the floor. Repeat for 5-10 repetitions for each set, for 3 sets. If you have increased pain with even one repetition of step up exercise, your knee is probably not ready for the exercises in this video yet. You could try more gentle knee strengthening exercises in this other video If you are able to do at least 2-3 reps of step up exercises without increased pain, you could increase the repetitions by 1-2 per set each week, until you are able to do 3 sets of 10 reps of step up exercise without increased pain. Once you are able to do 3 sets of 10 reps of step ups without pain, you could attempt step down exercises. The first step down exercise is the step down toe touch exercise. Start standing with both feet on the step facing the floor. Hold onto the handrail or table for balance. Keep your injured leg on the step. Bend this knee to lower your other foot to touch the floor with the toes, then immediately bring that foot back onto the step. Repeat for 5 repetitions for 3 sets. If you cannot do even one reps of step down toe touch exercise without increased pain, your knee is probably not strong enough yet. Continue to practice step up exercise until it gets stronger. If you can do at least 2-3 reps per set of step down toe touch exercise, you could increase the amount of reps per set by 1-2 reps each week until you could do 3 sets of 10 reps of step down toe touch exercise without increased pain. If you could do 3 sets of 10 reps of step down toe touch exercise without increased pain, you could attempt the even more advanced exercise called step down heel touch exercise. Remember to stretch your quadriceps muscle daily to release the tension in your quads from these strengthening exercises. Stretch for 3 sets of 30 second hold, twice a day. If the standing single leg quad stretch is uncomfortable for you, you could try other quad stretch variations from this video. Aerobic step Amazon Affiliate link Timecodes: 0:00 - Introduction 0:32 - Exercise #1 2:33 - Exercise #2 4:12 - Exercise #3 All footages used in this video are obtained from either Storyblocks or original footage. Disclaimer: Please consult your local doctor or physical therapist before attempting these exercises. These exercises are specific to my needs and are what work for me. You are responsible for any injury that might occur while attempting these exercises. Music: “Oh Christmas Tree” by DJ Williams from YouTube Audio Library