Treat Your Own Knees: Simple Exercises to Build Strength, Flexibility, Responsiveness and Endurance

by Jim Johnson

This is an effective, practical, easy-to-use book of exercises to strengthen knees and prevent pain and problems. Written by a physical therapist, this book uses simple, effective do-it-yourself treatments for knee pain, backed up by several drawings and illustrations that clearly show the correct way to perform the exercises. The last chapter is a "master plan" that pulls together all the concepts and exercises into a time-efficient exercise programme.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Medicine, Self Help

96 pages, Paperback

First published November 11, 2003

About the author

Jim Johnson, P.T. is a physical therapist who has spent over 25 years treating both inpatients and outpatients with a wide range of pain and mobility problems. He has written many books based completely on published research and controlled trials. His books have been translated into other languages, and thousands of copies have been sold worldwide.

Besides working full-time as a clinician in a large teaching hospital and writing books, Jim is a certified Clinical Instructor by the American Physical Therapy Association and enjoys teaching physical therapy students from all over the United States.

Reviews

[Mac]

The only book that I have bought ten copies (and counting) of to distribute to those who even make a whisper about having knee issues.

[Tennye GiOtis]

I'm doing these exercises for my knee, they help. I did however go to see a therapist and he added some others. I'm still going to end up having surgery. Maybe if I had gotten this book months earlier I could have avoided the surgery.

[Karel Baloun]

Excellent at its stated purpose: convince that most knee pain can be self-treated with a few simple exercises, used with rigorous consistency.

Encouraging especially for 40-70 year olds who have various imagine “findings” and chronic pain, who have not established a strong exercise routine.

I’d have preferred an advanced version of this book that covers more muscles and exercises targeted at each group, ... if you find one let me know!

[DW]

Simple, straightforward, to the point. I admire this author for saying what he wants to say and ending it there. Clearly he knows much more than is in this book, but he doesn't think it's necessary to explicate the intricacies of knee anatomy or list pages of exercises for every possible permutation of pain/ability. I really appreciated that he backed up everything he said with not just one, but several studies. I also appreciated that he left open the possibility that his program wouldn't work - only quacks insist that they can cure anybody.

I was expecting more detail, more of a slog, and more of a belligerent tone (I've read other exercise books). I was pleasantly surprised to find a quick read and a program that can be easily remembered without requiring handouts and a notebook to keep track of everything.

[Nancy Mikrut]

What you really need to know about knee paim

This is a great primer for anyone with knee pain. The fact that Mr. Johnson is not a physician but a physical therapist, shows that his primary goal is to give patients relief from pain without the inclusiveness of surgical or other treatments. His plan is straightforward, he uses everyday language that all can understand, and he makes no false claims. Before considering any other kind of treatment, it is a must to read this book!

[Sahar Pirmoradian]

I really liked how succinctly and efficiently the author shares his many years of physiotherapy experience with healing knees: Most knee pains are the result of dysfunction; restore the function by doing specific exercises and your pain will be relieved.

The four abilities our knees must have:

- good muscular strength
- adequate flexibility
- working proprioception
- enough endurance to allow it to perform movements over and over again

The author dedicates a chapter to each function. He provides sufficient scientific evidences to explain which muscles are critical for the function and suggests one or two simple exercises to restore that functionality. Specifically,

- One quad exercise for gaining knee strength
- one hamstring and one quad stretch to improve flexibility
- one balancing exercise for proprioception
- 20-30 min walking three times a week for endurance

Thanks to this book, I have become more intentional about taking time to go for a walk during a day and more confident in my ability to heal my knees, which I suspect have got painful due to my incorrect sitting and sleeping patterns.

[Duchess_Nimue]

Written for everybody's use, this is the book you're glad you read when you started learning about knees and exercises. It's quite short, and cuts to the point. It explains the four important abilities your knee has to have. My biggest problem is that it emphasizes importance of quadriceps' strength, which is a bit problematic in our sitting everyday reality. Other than that, the advice is solid, concrete and easy to implement.

[Kat]

This is a very good step by step process by a Physical Therapist long in the business. Medical advice by your lead health care provider so they can monitor you is recommended. My disclaimer: health care provider can be anyone from a doctor, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, naturopath, and even chiropractor to help. And even herbal and other types of practices help. Holistic all the way.

[Dorothy]

This book was well written and easy to understand. It was structured well and I liked how studies were presented to support the suggested exercises. The exercises are also very simple and will be easy enough to implement. I guess I’ll be back here in 6 weeks or so to give an update on my knee pain 😉

[Justin]

Well it does seem useful it also seems very simple. I will try to remember the strengthening exercise as well as the proprioception one but the stretching exercises were all pretty well known

[Dougal]

I have a simple 'Goodreads' rule for factual books. Did I actually read the text cover to cover? Under this self-imposed rule, dictionaries and reference books don't count, eg The Penguin Dictionary of Geology, or The Writers' and Artists Yearbook. There has to be a date when I can say: 'I finished reading that book'. That isn't to say that the book had to be read to the end (eg Rosie Alison's foray into fiction); but there at least had to be that intention at the beginning.

And so to 'Treat Your Own Knees'. This slender book richly deserves the accolade of a five star good read. Jim Johnson has put together a short no-nonsense guide to treating your own knee problems, based on extensive clinical experience. What is best is that the advice is not only simple but backed throughout by double-blind clinical trials which are all fully referenced. Indeed, Jim Johnson makes it clear from the start that he will not be giving any advice for which there isn't research evidence. This makes the book not only fascinating (knee pain is not corrrelated with arthritic degeneration for example) but authoritative.

Homeopaths, chiropractors, witchdoctors, etc, take note!

[carl theaker]

This is a useful, well organized book, and I plan to follow
the exercise program the author describes.

The author is a physical therapist, and the book was purchased
for me, the one with the creaking knees, by my occupational
therapist spouse. A doctor prescribes treatment, but as
therapists will tell you, and they will tell you, they are
the ones that do the actual work and observe firsthand or
knee as the case might be, the effects of treatments.

So author Jim Johnson, P.T. has put his experiences into
this short, readable, format. What therapists will
also tell you: almost no one does the exercises the
doctor/therapist has them do at home. Johnson does
give you exercises to do - but he keeps them all to
30 seconds or a set amount of repetitions, and gives
you a options for each one.

I think this is key in getting people to follow
treatment plans. He suggests 6-8 weeks and then
some easy maintenance. I plan add a report on
how things went for me, so far, so good.

[Rabin Rai]

Short book that contains useful information and recommends basic physiotherapy. However, im an athlete so I have my own resistance exercises to work on. Nonetheless, the explanations given by the author of the basic exercises gives me new appreciation of the higher level exercises I am doing.

Secondly, the book gave me an understanding that we have to focus on regaining back the function of the knee rather than worrying about the structural problem of the knee, which is where physiotherapy comes in.

Also gave me insight of how psychological factors like depression and anxiety can cause knee pain. To tackle this mental obstacles to full recovery, relaxation and meditation exercises have been recommended.

Most importantly, research papers were shown to prove that the severity of structural knee problems like the degree of arthritis has no correlation to knee pain but what affects knee pain is the weakening of quadriceps strength, proprioception, endurance and flexibility of knee joint.

[Daniel Schulte]

This is the absolute best health book I have ever read. It's short, focused on specific audience, explains what to look for when thinking about research reports, gives great do it yourself advice, and did I mention that it's short? This book could've easily been over 300 pages, but I so appreciate that the author condensed it to the bare necessities. Jim Johnson, I approve. I'd read anything he writes.

[Ester]

This book goes into detail about possible knee injuries and what happens to other leg muscles when there is an injury to the knee. Very enlightening in that aspect, but the most helpful parts were the exercises that you can do to strengthen your knee and get back to normal. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who has injured their knee!

[Brian]

A short guide from a physical therapist that gives general information about his experience in treating knee pain. Basic exercises are given with a simple plan. Some research is shared that opens the argument that the pain is not always caused by injuries, but may be due to other factors like muscle endurance in the quads.

[Ramu Ramamurthy]

simple and to the point

The author breaks down knee health to its basics and suggests a simple regimen that anyone can do at home. I found many interesting nuggets that made this book a worthwhile read.

[Carol]

Small book, simple exercises, but they do seem to help.

[Malia]

Nice little book helps with the small stiff.

[Alix]

crossing my fingers as I start putting into practice the simple to-do's of managing my knee pain....

[peter d rice]

Good advice

Some good common sense advice and some surprising tips that will hopefully help me recover from the issues I am having with my knees.

[Minka]

It could have been a short article in a magazine / newspaper. No need to write a whole book and waste beautiful trees. It's cool though.

[Holly]

A great little book that I'll refer to often.

[Miss J]

easy to read and exercises really clear. I guess I can on,y give an honest review after a few weeks of following the advice!