Do Your Knees Feel Stiff In The Morning?
Do you struggle just to get out of bed after sleeping and hobble to the bathroom?
Watch this video to learn one really simple trick to relieve morning knee stiffness without having to do exercises before getting out of bed.
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What Causes Stiff Knees After Sleeping?
When you've been lying in bed all night with your knees in one position, it's easy for your muscles and joints to get stiff.
If you've been lying with your muscles in a shortened position hours, you can start to develop trigger points in your muscles.
What To Do For A Stiff Knee After Sleeping
Many physical therapists will advise doing exercises in bed before you even get out of bed, and that actually is a pretty good idea if you have that luxury.
However, if you're like me, usually when I wake up, I'm still half-asleep with a full bladder.
The first thought on my mind is getting out of bed without waking up my wife and getting to the bathroom... not doing exercises.
Furthermore, you wouldn't think you should have to "warm-up" just to get out of bed.
In fact, getting out of bed should be the prerequisite to doing warm-up exercises.
How To Get Out Of Bed With A Stiff Knee After Sleeping
So, how can you get out of bed if your knees are stiff in the morning?
Often when people have a stiff knee after sleeping, they notice it when they first stand up from bed and start walking.
As they start to move around they get some blood flow and circulation to their muscles and joints and their knees gradually feel less stiff.
When you move, your knee cartilage releases a lubricating fluid called synovial fluid.
This helps your joints feel less stiff.
Your Calves Affect Knee Stiffness In The Morning
However, another really common problem is that you get calf stiffness if you've been lying with your toes pointed all night.
When you get out of bed in the morning, your ankles have to be at a 90° angle for your feet to be flat on the floor.
If your calves have gotten stiff, you can get extra movement from your ankle by pronating at the subtalar joint.
But when you pronate your feet, your knees knock inwards.
Here's how to loosen up your calves in order to decrease knee stiffness in the morning.
Getting Out Of Bed In The Morning Without Knee Stiffness
Once you've sat up at the side of the bed, it can be helpful to move your knees around a little bit, pump your ankles back and forth, roll your ankles if you have a few minutes to do so.
But if you have a full bladder and you have to get to the bathroom quickly, here's a tip you can use to make those first couple of steps a little bit easier:
Scoot to the side of the bed until your feet are flat on the floor. Then dome your arch.
You may have to curl your toes a little bit in or der to do this.
Then stand up keeping your arches domed.
If your calves have gotten stiff, this may mean your hips will be behind your knees, and that is OK.
You'll likely also have to lean your trunk forward a little bit to counter-balance your hips.
This can also be helpful if you have back pain in the morning.
Take short steps with your arches domed, and as you do this, you're stretching your calves with each step.
After a few steps, you'll probably notice that you can start to stand up straighter and take longer steps.
So you're actually warming up as you're starting your day.
That should allow you to get your day started on the right foot without knee pain or stiffness in the morning.
Need More Help For Knee Pain or Stiffness?
If you live in the St. Louis area and need more help for knee pain and stiffness, we'd be happy to help you here at More 4 Life.
Just tap the button below to request an appointment with one of our specialist physical therapists.