Harder To Get Up & Down? Here’s How To Kneel Smoothly Again

Will Harlow, the over-50s specialist physio, shows us how:

A little less creaky

As with most age-related things, losing the ability to kneel is not necessarily an inevitable part of aging, and in this case, the problem usually falls into four categories:

• limited knee flexibility
• insufficient leg strength to get back up
• pain when putting pressure through the front of the knee
• restrictions related to previous knee surgery

We’ll give the exercises, and then some comments:

• Knee flexion in lying: lie down, press your stiff knee gently into the bed to straighten it, then bring your heel toward you until you feel tension (but not pain!)
• Mini squats: hold onto something stable, keep your feet about shoulder-width apart, push your butt backwards, bend your knees, and lower yourself down in a controlled fashion before returning to standing.
• Assisted split squats: hold onto something stable, place one foot forward and the other behind with your toes on the floor, slowly lower your back knee onto a stack of soft towels, then push back up through your front leg. You can then of course gradually remove the towels, and reduce your support (e.g. putting less weight there) until you’re doing it fully and freely.

A note on doing these after knee replacement or surgery: whether kneeling is appropriate depends on the type of surgery or injury, so medical clearance is needed before practising it; the video notes nevertheless that a knee replacement does not necessarily mean kneeling must be avoided permanently.

All that said, regaining kneeling ability can take weeks or even several months depending on whether the limiting factor is mobility, strength, or pain, so gradual progression and persistence are the way to go!

For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

For a much deeper understanding of treating knee pain, here’s a great book that we reviewed a little while back:

Treat Your Own Knee – by Robin McKenzie ← he’s a physiotherapist and not a doctor, and/but with 40 years of practice to his name and 33 letters after his name (CNZM OBE FCSP (Hon) FNZSP (Hon) Dip MDT Dip MT), he seems to know his stuff. His work is very well-respected, and almost any English-speaking physiotherapist will have read his books.

Take care!