Basic physio exercises – should my muscles feel more tired?

Hi,

I've just started a two week course of basic physio exercises to help strengthen my legs, particularly the muscles supporting my knee, but I'm not sure if I'm doing them right.

Out of the six exercises I'm doing, three of them don't seem to work my muscles very much at all. The three in question are: standing straight and moving one leg out sideways and back; standing straight and moving one leg backwards and back; and standing sideways on a step with one foot hanging off the edge – the hanging foot is then turned in and out.

With these three exercises, I've been told to do them until I get too tired to continue. The problem is the leg doing the action doesn't get tired at all – nor to the muscles ache more than a tiny amount. In fact, I usually stop because the standing leg gets tired.

My question is: should I be feeling more 'ache' in my moving leg when I do these exercises? Or could I be doing them right even though the moving leg doesn't seem to get tired?

Thanks for any help!
Tim

dear tim4321

i guess the question is why have you been prescribed those exercises? what do they hope to achieve? what was the initial problem? the exercises you described seemed suitablefor the hip which indirectly affects the knee, but really if strengthening is the purpose you will need some progression of the exercises...so tell us more about the whole issue first, your therapist nmay have good reason to give you simple exercises based on the problem

Hi,

Sometimes physio is looking to provide stability around a joint and isolate a particular muscle therefore the exercise can feel like it is not working particularly hard (ie a static quad where you are pushing the knee straight into the bed). Be sure to listen to the instructions of your physiotherapist in terms of the technique. The next thing to do is give them a quick call or email to clarify these questions. All physiotherapists on here will be working blind and have not seen the alignment of your hip/ knee or completed an assessment. The exercises you describe sound like strengthening exercises. Be sure to maintain good posture in your upper body so that you are not compensating with your back muscles ie leaning forward while bring the leg back.

Hope thats helped a bit!

The exercises you describe sound like very basic hip exercises. I often will prescribe standing on the affected leg to make it stabilize and get tired but more for the hip. As the other therapist noted, we don't know why you were prescribed these and what other factors such as pain, might be present.
If I feel an exercise is too easy and knowing the reason the patient is there, do not feel like I will aggravate the condition, I will push the patient. I also inform and expect the patient to let me know if it is to easy, or if pain is involved. If it is meniscal in nature, maybe you could ask about increasing the resistance by exercising on the table at your clinic or bed at home. By working against gravity, you are using force to lift the weight of your leg but again, sight unseen is hard to do.