Knee pain is one of the most common reasons people walk into the clinic, and it covers a lot of different problems. The knee is a simple hinge carrying a lot of load, and it tends to complain about what is happening above and below it as much as about itself.
Where your knee pain probably fits
Most of what we see falls into a handful of patterns.
Pain around or behind the kneecap, worse on stairs, hills and after sitting for a long time. Often runner’s knee, and it is not limited to runners. Desk workers get it too.
Pain on the outside of the knee that builds through a run or a walk and eases when you stop. Usually the iliotibial band and the tissue around it, and usually a hip and glute problem showing up at the knee.
Pain just below the kneecap, sore to press, worse with jumping or squatting. Typically the patellar tendon, which responds well to loading done properly and badly to rest alone.
Pain on the inside of the knee, sometimes with a catching or locking feeling. This one needs assessing properly before anyone treats it.
General stiffness and ache, worse in the morning or after sitting, easing with movement. Common with wear and tear changes, and movement and strength work usually helps more than people expect.
Why it is often not the knee’s fault
The knee sits between the hip and the ankle and has very little say in how it moves. If the hip is weak or stiff, or the ankle does not bend well, the knee absorbs what is left over.
That is why we assess above and below the painful joint rather than only treating where it hurts. Rubbing the sore knee can feel good and change nothing. If the cause is a glute that is not firing or an ankle that has been stiff since an old sprain, the knee will keep complaining until that is addressed.
What happens at your appointment
We start with an assessment. How the pain behaves, what makes it worse, what you have already tried, and then watching you move. Squatting, stepping, walking, and depending on what you do, running.
Then hands-on work where it is needed, which may be the knee itself and is often the thigh, hip or calf. That might be sports massage, deep tissue massage, medical acupuncture into a trigger point, or joint mobilisation where a joint is genuinely restricted.
Then the part that decides whether it stays fixed: a rehabilitation programme you actually do. Knee pain responds to loading. It rarely responds to rest alone.
What you can do before you come in
Keep moving within what does not aggravate it. Complete rest tends to make knees stiffer and weaker, which makes the next attempt worse.
Cut the aggravating activity down rather than stopping it. If running hurts after 5km, run 2km. If stairs hurt, take them one at a time for now.
Do not stretch into sharp pain. Stretching a painful knee harder is a common instinct and it usually is not the answer.
If it is swollen, warm and you cannot put weight through it, that is a different situation. See the section below.
How long it usually takes
It depends entirely on what it is and how long it has been going on. A few honest guides.
Something that started a fortnight ago and has an obvious cause often settles in two to four weeks with treatment and the right exercises.
Something you have had for six months will take longer, usually six to twelve weeks of consistent work, because the strength and movement changes that came with it also need reversing.
Tendon problems are slow by nature. They respond well to progressive loading, but the timescale is months rather than weeks, and anyone promising faster is guessing.
When to see a doctor rather than us
We would rather turn you away than treat something we should not.
Book with your GP or urgent care rather than us if your knee gave way suddenly and swelled within an hour, if it is locked and you cannot straighten it, if it is hot, red and swollen and you feel unwell with it, if you cannot bear weight at all, or if there was a significant impact or twist and you heard or felt a pop.
If you come to us with any of that, we will tell you and send you on. That is part of the assessment, not a wasted appointment.
Book knee pain treatment in Bromley
Start with a free ten minute posture analysis or an initial consultation at 35 pounds. Treatment sessions start at 45 pounds for 30 minutes, and full prices are listed separately.
We are at Carlton Chambers, 5 Station Road, Bromley BR2 0EY, entrance through the red side gate to the right of the building, a three-minute walk from Shortlands station. Open Monday to Friday 10am to 6pm and Saturday 10am to 5pm. Call 07896 257328 or book online.
You can see the full list of conditions we treat if your problem is not a knee one.