Squatting is a functional move – helping you do the activities of daily living, such as getting pots out of a bottom cabinet or picking up shoes off the floor. Squatting also helps build strength in the legs and hips, and stronger muscles mean more stable joints. But if you don’t squat correctly, it can be painful to sore knees. Too many people compensate for sore knees by bending over at the waist, which can lead to a sore back, says Cynthia Harrell, physical therapist and clinical coordinator of the arthritis and osteoporosis programs at the Duke Center for Living at Duke University in Durham, N.C. You need to know the right way to squat.
When you go to reach into a low cabinet, Harrell says, hold onto the countertop and “sit” down, using the muscles in your arms and buttocks for lowering and pulling yourself up. If squatting this way is still painful, place a chair in front of the cabinet. “Reaching to the floor from a seated position is much less stressful on the knees,” says Harrell.
Wall Squats Build Strength
The ability to squat correctly without pain can be improved by doing these “wall squat” exercises. Start with 10 of them three times per week, says Harrell.
Stop at the point where you feel muscle pain, but continue to perform the exercise regularly, so that the non-painful range will increase as thigh and core muscles become stronger. “If done correctly, squatting is well tolerated by people with osteoarthritis of the knees,” says Harrell.
1. Stand with back against a wall, feet shoulder-width apart, heels 18 inches away from wall. Keep knees in line with heels, not out in front of toes.
2. Breathe in and exhale as you squat by “sitting down” as far as you can go comfortably, without dropping buttocks lower than knees and keeping knees in line with heels.
3. Tighten abdominal muscles and flatten back against wall, or place a ball behind your back to keep you from moving too far forward. Inhale as you return to standing position, pushing up through heels (not off the balls of the feet) and working the muscles in the back of your legs and buttocks.
Go easy on your knees the next time you need to pick something up – remember the right way to squat.
I put myself facing the wall and squatting down, it has helped me a lot.
How are we to get anything from the low cabinet if we are both lowering and raising ourselves with our arms?
When Harrell says, in Paragraph 2, "If squatting this way is still painful, place a chair in front of the cabinet. Reaching to the floor from a seated position is much less stressful on the knees," it would have been helpful if she told us how to squat while sitting on a chair.
Or are we to stand facing the seat of the chair, bend over the seat and hold onto its sides as we squat? Won't this pull the chair over?
If she really meant 'If squatting this way is still painful, then don't try to squat at all. Instead pull a chair to the counter and sit in it while you reach into the low cabinet,' then say so.
The article's final sentence exhorts us to remember the right way to squat, but she never tells us what that right way is.
One might assume the wall squat exercise is the right way, but she didn't say it was. She only said the ability to squat correctly would be helped by the exercise. Big difference.
Or is Harrell telling us the only time we should squat to pick something up is when that something happens to be next to a wall that we can put our backs against - and we have a ball ready?
Ultimately, I had TKRs in both knees, and it had made a world of difference. I can walk up stairs now! Most people would find it funny that climbing stairs and squatting is something you would crave, but when you can't, getting that ability back again is HUGE. I know how hard and heartbreaking it can be not to have it.
A small therapy ball (or even a beach ball) made all the difference for me because it also provided a cushion, which seemed to help ease the pain and distress factor. Again, if you can manage an inch or two, then so be it. It will still help strengthen your muscles, and perhaps as Harrell suggests, it will improve. However, don't get too discouraged if it doesn't. Those of us with arthritis sometimes have to live with different fitness goals than people without the disease.
You're asking for something that doesn't exist, and may never exist. It sounds to me like you need to make some lifestyle changes. Having high blood pressure and sleep apnea at 50 could be from poor diet and lack of exercise. Exercise causes the body to release natural painkillers that can alleviate joint and body aches. Changing your diet will give you the energy needed to exercise. You may also want to look into medical marijuana, it is shown to be effective in treating fibromyalgia.
What is the ultimate goal?
I have osteoarthritis with loss of cartilage &
swelling.
but worrisome is the loss of muscle in my calf & thigh.
Thank you
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