Pain on stairs settles
Usually the first functional change, and a reliable marker that patellar loading is improving.
Physiotherapy
Knee Pain Treatment
A hinge caught between the hip above it and the foot below it.
- 45 minutes
- Session length
- 8 to 12 sessions
- Typical course
- 10 to 15 minutes daily
- Home work
Overview
The knee is rarely the culprit. It is a simple hinge sitting between two joints that rotate, so when the hip is weak or the foot collapses, the knee absorbs the twist neither of them controlled. That is why knee pain so often responds to hip work, and why treating only the knee tends to produce short-lived relief.
Assessment covers the joint itself, patellar tracking, hip strength and how you load the leg in the movements that actually hurt — stairs, squatting, standing from a chair, walking downhill. Treatment addresses the joint and the chain together.
Consider this if
- Pain on stairs, especially going down
- An ache at the front of the knee after sitting for a long time
- Swelling or stiffness after activity that settles overnight
- A feeling that the knee might give way
What it does
Knee Pain Treatment
Hip strength built
Gluteal and hip abductor loading, which controls the inward collapse that overloads the knee.
Joint mobility
Manual mobilisation for stiffness, particularly for osteoarthritic knees and post-injury restriction.
Confident loading
Graded return to squatting, stairs and walking distance without the flare that follows guesswork.
Inside a session
Assess
Joint range, swelling, patellar tracking, hip and quadriceps strength, and a look at how you actually move.
Settle
Manual therapy and, where useful, electrotherapy to bring down pain and effusion enough to start loading.
Build
Quadriceps and gluteal strengthening scaled to what the knee tolerates that week.
Progress
Stairs, squat depth and walking distance advanced deliberately rather than by trial and error.
Common questions
I have been told I have arthritis. Is exercise safe?
Yes, and it is the best-supported treatment there is for knee osteoarthritis. Appropriately loaded exercise does not wear the joint out; it strengthens what supports it and reliably reduces pain.
Why are you working on my hip?
Because the hip controls the position the knee is loaded in. Weak hip abductors let the knee drift inward under load, which is one of the most common drivers of front-of-knee pain.
Do I need to stop walking?
Almost never. We adjust distance, gradient and frequency so you keep moving at a level the knee tolerates, then build back up.
This page is general information, not a diagnosis or a treatment plan. What is right for you is decided at assessment. If your symptoms are severe, worsening quickly, or follow an injury, seek medical care first.
Also in this discipline
Not sure this is the right one?
That is what the first consultation is for. Ninety minutes of assessment before anything is recommended — including recommending nothing.