What I did to recover from knee pain

I injured my left knee for the third time few years ago.  At the time I lacked a clear awareness or perspectives of why I exercise and over did it on a spin machine at the gym.

This was an useful experience, as I am now of the new perspective that what my body needs exercise to maintain good health.  This maintenance of good health does not require me to qualify for the Boston Marathon, become as flexible as the yoga teacher at the gym or being able to compete at a body building competition.  By the way, I do not claim to have made any effort in above endeavours, but from time to time, I find myself mindlessly behaving as if I am.  Alas! the injuries to my back, my knees and all the time in front of the mirror.

Anyways, back to my knee injury.

One of my teacher once taught me that the knee is intrinsically an unstable joint.  The shoulder, hip and elbow all have some sort of "ball and socket"; the knee is different in that it is a "ball on plateau".



The stability of knee joint hence depends on the strength of quadriceps and hamstring.
The challenge is that during convalescence many leg exercises that might strength these muscle groups can also further damage injured ligaments and injured miniscus.  The exercise I used for my knee during recovery is the “horse stance”.  This is also know as an “Isometric” exercise where the joint structure is placed under stress without motion and less risk of further damage.