Treat Your Own Knees

The book gives practical exercises and explains the functionality that the knees should possess. Overall a nice book. Needed to order this for my mothers knee agony and would say it was reasonably effective in making the pain manageable.

Great little book very helpful and easy to understand

I purchased a copy of this book on the strength of the customer reviews here, and I have to say that after a couple of months I am in agreement with the general sentiment here. I have had pain in my right knee for several years, a problem that seemed to manifest itself when I began to run several times a week. It would come and go, but recently it has become more persistent. I'm 33 and put this down to the aging process, but was ready to give this book a try to see if it would make a difference. I think the biggest revelation for me is the concept of "proprioception", something that I'd never heard about before. It's basically about how your brain communicates, via your nervous system, with the various parts of your body - including your knee - and tells them how to function correctly. I combined the proprioception exercises with the quad strengthening regime. I tried to approach the book with an open mind, but I had to deal with my own ego when it came to muscle strengthening. I have been weight training for years, and my legs are probably my strongest body part. I can squat pretty heavy weights for my size, so I was quite skeptical when the book attributed weakness in the quad muscles as a contributing factor to knee pain. Anyway, I cast my prejudices (and arrogance) aside and decided to go ahead with the exercises. I was immediately taken with how quickly I noticed the effects. Within days, the pain in my knee had been reduced considerably. I didn't want to get too excited too quickly - there could have been other reasons for the lack of pain - but sure enough, I'm now writing after a couple of months have gone by and my knee is still holding up. Obviously, physiotherapy of any kind is no substitute for treatment, but I'm certain that following the guidelines laid out in this book has improved the health of my knee. I feel much fitter and eager to do the rigorous training that I used to do, and no longer have to worry about my knee playing up. I may or may not need surgery on my knee in the future, but for the time being I am very happy with the results brought on by this book.

small book , difficult to read and totally useless

My "net" is that if you experience chronic or intermittent knee pain and you have no reason to believe that there is something seriously wrong with your knee(s), like an infection or torn ACL, buy this book, read it, and then perform the simple exercises on the schedule prescribed by author Jim Johnson. I have been doing four basic exercises for almost six (6) weeks now and the pain in my problem (right) knee has almost disappeared. If you follow author Johnson's prescriptions for knee exercises, I hope they will benefit you also. That said, I would also reiterate the author's closing comment: If you don't feel any improvement in your knee pain after doing these exercises for three (3) months, these exercises are not the solution to your knee problem. Since hiking up and then back down part of Barr Trail (the trail to the summit of Pikes Peak near Colorado Springs) in 1995, I have experienced periodic pain in my right knee. I attribute the cause of my pain to hiking downhill for about seven miles that day. That was 14 years ago. In the intervening years since that hike, the pain in my right knee has become almost chronic, lasting for several days to several weeks, and is often aggravated after riding my bicycle, hiking or doing other exercise or work that requires extensive knee movement. I had X-rays taken of my right knee in 1999 and the leg examined by an orthopedic specialist. The X-rays did not show any obvious problem(s) and the specialst could not find anything wrong after physically examining my knee. Perhaps an MRI would have revealed something, but I chose not to spend the money for that test then. Fortunately for me, the pain has never been debilitating and it can usually be alleviated by taking ibuprofen. A heating pad also helped. Specifically, the pain I experience is almost always on the right side of my right knee and in the back side of my knee. This spring (April, 2009), I helped plant a number of trees in my neighborhood. After that work, I experienced pain in my right quadricep in addition to the "normal" knee pain I had been experiencing for a number of years. I am now 67 years of age and retired and I would like to stay active by hiking, bicycle riding, ice skating, motorcycling, etc., so I became increasingly concerned that my right knee might ultimately limit my ability to do these kinds of activities. To address my problem, I searched the Internet and found, along with a lot of other interesting information about the causes and sources of knee pain, Jim Johnson's book. The book is short, well-organized, clear in its descriptions and examples - and inexpensive. The author gets immediately to the four (4) attributes our knees must have to function properly, without pain or damage to the knee, and how to help regain or improve the four (4) key attributes. I read the chapters addressing the four attributes required one at a time and started doing a recommended exercise as soon as I completed reading a chapter. The exercises, as described by the author, are: 1. Simple 2. Quick to do 3. Require no special equipment (see two tips of possible benefit below) 4. For me, effective. Tip 1. The exercise I chose to strengthen my quadriceps is done every other day. The leg is straightened and the knee is pressed down for five (5) seconds against a pillow folded under the knee or against the floor. The exercise is repeated 30 times. I found it hard to count the 5 seconds ("1000", "1001, ..., "1005") for each repetition and also remember how many repetitions I had completed. To solve my problem, I put 30 nickels (any coin size will do) in a dish next to me. Each time I completed a repetition of the exercise, I tossed a nickel out of the dish until the dish was empty. 2. Because each of exercises is timed, I located a handheld stopwatch I bought a couple of years ago at WalMart for about $12.00. I use the stopwatch to time all of the exercises. If you purchase a stopwatch, I recommend one with large numerals and that you can operate easily with one hand. I think the use of a stopwatch lends consistency to the timing of each exercise and also relieves you of having to estimate the 5 seconds or 30 seconds required for each exercise. For the record: 1. Age: 67 years 2. Weight: 155 (+/- 3-4 pounds) 3. Height: 5 feet, 8 inches I believe I am in reasonably good physical condition. I try to exercise by lifting weights, bicycle riding, hiking, ice skating, etc. on a (more or less) regular basis.