Help! Need To Do Quad Stretch & Not Hurt My Knee!

[Black Sheep]

I have a knee that I injured from falling on it several years ago. Most of the time it's fine; I just have to be careful not to climb a lot of stairs very often. The stairs with the high risers are the ones that really bother it. Well, since my much-beloved weight machine is in pieces in the garage (waiting for hubby to get his tons of junk out of there), I had to do something. So I put a stationary bike in our office. It's been a couple of weeks of that, and my knee is starting to bother me a little again. I'm hoping it's not the pedaling, as after all, it's not like I'm putting all my weight on it, like going downstairs. And it's the going downstairs that gets me, btw--esp. if I step down a little too hard. I'm wondering if it could be my method of quad stretches that's doing it.

The very athletic owner of a local sporting goods store once told me that since I have a fairly bad knee. I should not be doing the classic quad stretches where you grab your foot and pull it up behind you. I think the one where you sit on the floor does the same thing, too. He said that it puts too much stress on the injured knee, and told me of a better, less stressful way to do the same stretch. Trouble is, thanks to the damage that gluten has done to my brain, I can't remember how he said to do it!

Does anyone know a good way to stretch those quads that won't stress a bad knee?

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

Of course! Here it is:

Find a platform, that is just underneath the level of where your hip ends and the quad starts like a table or something. It has to be large enough. Then go get a chair. Now stand with your back against the platform. Lay down your leg on the platform. The area has to be big enough to support the entire leg. Put the chair in front of you for balance. Try to have your leg straight. If the hard surface hurts your leg at the shin or knee, put something soft like a blanket underneath. Now you should be with your back against the platform, the hurting leg straight on the platform (quad down) and holding on to the chair in front of you. To increase the stretch, push against the chair, so that your upper body goes up and back. To release the stretch, lean towards the chair more. Have fun!

[stef-the-kicking-cuty]

Oh, I forgot. The most relaxed stretch is to just have that leg straight. If you want to increase this stretch, without pulling up at the ankle, just put something to elevate the foot/shin under the foot/shin like a thick pillow. This way you're stretching your quad from the hip and not the knee. And your leg is still bend like in the traditional stretch. If you do the quad stretch the traditional way, you bend your knee and pull at the ankle. By doing that, your leg will be bend backwards from underneath the hip. But by pulling at the ankle, you're actually also pulling at the knee, which can sometimes even really hurt healthy people. By putting the leg on the table like I described, you're also bending your leg back from underneath the hip, but the knee won't be pulled out of place, which is healthier in general.

[Black Sheep]

Thanks Stef! I'm short and my bed is tall, so my be turned out to be the perfect height! Which is a plus, being so soft. I could feel a stretch--very different from the other way, but still a quad stretch for sure. It hurt my left hip joint a bit (and it's my left knee that gives me the trouble, wouldn't 'ya know it); but I'm old and decrepit, so what can I expect?

Do you think that my cycling could have aggravated it, or do you think it's more likely it was the bad way I was stretching?