There are a plenty of exercises you could do to improve your knee cap pain, but, some are better than others.
See the video below to choose the more effective exercises.
Why is it important to complete exercises targeting my hip muscles?
People with knee cap pain generally have weak and poorly functioning hip muscles.
It is thought that this weakness and poor function may not be the reason as to why you develop pain in the first place. Instead, your hip muscles may become weak because you have changed the way you move, or move less to avoid pain.
Weak and poorly functioning hip muscles are
thought to put more stress onto your knee cap during activities like running, walking on stairs and squatting. This is because the muscles can no longer control your thigh well enough, allowing it to roll under the knee cap.
A good way to understand this, is to think of your knee cap as the train, and your thigh as the tracks. If the train (knee cap) moves or tries to derail off the tracks (thigh), this can be because your thigh muscles don’t control the train well enough. However, when the hip is not controlled well enough, the tracks (or thigh) may move underneath the train, having the same derailing effect.
A number of good research trials report that hip targeted exercises are effective in reducing knee cap pain. In the longer term, combining both thigh and hip muscle targeted exercise is the most effective approach to reduce pain.
How to monitor your knee cap pain
during exercise?
Pain can often cause someone to become fearful of exercise.
However, complete rest is not helpful and it is common for you to have knee cap pain at the beginning of your exercise programs designed to help your knee pain.
Having some pain with exercise and rehabilitation is ok and not dangerous. Here we have 5 tips for you monitoring your knee cap pain during exercises.
Supporting articles
Barton 2013. Gluteal muscle activity and patellofemoral pain syndrome: a systematic review.