Pilates for MCL Rehab Exercises
If pain, swelling and sensitivity to the touch in the medial knee is a symptom you are feeling then your doctor may have done imaging on you. This can likely be an medial collateral ligament (MCL) injury which can reoccur and gets better with exercise, it is not common to have surgery on.
The MCL attaches to:
Medial epicondyle of the femur - the bony part of the upper thigh bone of the medial knee
Posterior aspect of the semimembranosus tendon - part of your hamstrings (back thigh muscles)
The MCL works against forces that make the knees fall inwards
Typically with physical therapy the rehabilitation is focused on strengthening your quads, hamstrings, inner thighs and glutes.
Rehabilitation
These exercises look like: bridges, clamshells, quad squeezes and hamstring curls. Sometimes these exercises are great for most knee injuries but it is not often as accommodating for clients who have little to no exercise experience or those who love a hard workout routine (like athletes) who can go through the motions but do not find it enjoyable. That can lead to falling off of continuing their exercise routine when it is still healing.
What if, What’s next?
Now we all hope that you get back to 100% after committing to those 3 to 6 months of physical therapy, but what if it doesn’t work or you aren’t feeling your best self yet?
We will focus our MVNT principles to creating a well rounded routine that focuses on all the major muscle groups you worked on in physical therapy with an added spice of utilizing a pilates reformer, pilates chair, and other pilates equipment while giving you an at home program including lifestyle rehabilitation exercises and lifestyle based stretching routines.
For example:
For the Quads - footwork series, single leg foot work series, added glute band and bridges
For the hamstrings - reformer bridges, reformer seated curls, pilates chair curls, pilates chair bridges
For the hips - glute band and bridges, lunge series, sideline series
Accessory movements - further improving overall body movement mechanics; abdominal strengthening, unilateral lower body exercises, upper body rotation and strengthening, and pilates trunk stabilizing routines.
How Our Studio Differs from PT and Pilates
Combining pilates, holistic health, corrective exercise and physical therapy aware procedures we create a plan and routine for you to do that helps your injury, your compensation patterns, and muscular imbalances that may be a cause of tension in other parts of your body. This combined, focused and developed work not only helps you reduce pain but allows you to reduce re-injury, prevent future set backs and plan to be healthier than you’ve ever been before!
Our MVNT Approach
A deep dive on our approach is in my previous post here. Our MVNT method in summary focuses on all your past history, your lifestyle that maybe increasing inflammation, and your goals and movement needs day to day.
These factors in mind develop into our full MVNT practice. Involved with in person or virtual pilates based training, following client education with an at home practice to continue daily. These become the stepping stones so that once each is met in ways that pain is reduced we continue to return your body to the abilities of it’s fullest potential while preventing further pain and discomfort that may involve more corrective exercises for imbalances in your musculature. Once each step is achieve we slowly progress to the movements the spine is able to do and challenging your areas of issue so that we provide the guidance and skills so that those movements no longer become an issue!
Our goal is to get you back to moving as your best self while preventing future set backs. So if this was informative to you and may interest you in becoming a client with me. Find our studio and see us for a consultation any day.