Introduction

If you find your inner knee is feeling sore, you will need to pay close attention to the medial collateral ligament (MCL) because that’s the ligament that is to be found on the inside of the knee. The inner or medial knee refers to the part that is closest to the other knee.

Our knees are made up of ligaments, bones, muscles, and tendons. We have two major tendons in our knees, the quadriceps tendon and the patellar tendon[1], and four major ligaments in the knee.

The knees support our body weight, and that’s a big job. There will be a variety of injuries or conditions that can cause pain in this area. Take heart; there is a good range of inner knee pain treatment solutions.

What Is Inner Knee Pain?

Inner knee pain occurs in your knees, such as a dull ache or sharp stabbing pains. You might even hear a cracking or popping sound when your knee joint moves.

However, this depends on the cause of your pain. If you have inner knee pain, you can also experience redness, bruising, increased warmth, and swelling.

If your symptoms improve during the day, you might have a knee that is inflamed. It is known as knee bursitis.

If the pain gets worse in the day, it might mean you have a degenerative disorder, like arthritis.

What Causes Inner Knee Pain?

Causes Inner Knee Pain
There are many causes of inner knee pain. See which one you think you have and what you can do about it:

  • Injury – Pain occurs if the injury to your knee is from sports or exercises, like running, which all put a strain on the knee. The pain can also result if you fall on your knee or if you were in an accident.

  • Bursitis – You get bursitis because of inflammation in the tissue of the knee, called a bursa. The bursae are small sacs that are filled with fluid, which prevents the muscles, bones, and tendons from rubbing together. When the pes anserine bursa[2] becomes inflamed, you could experience inner knee pain caused by injury or overuse of the knee joint.
  • Sprain or Tear – This can occur to the MCL ligament. It’s when you excessively use the knee for twisting the MCL. Your knee could have suffered from a blow to the outer part of the knee – spraining could be experienced along the inner part of your knee.
  • Torn Meniscus – The knee joint has protective cartilage called the meniscus. If the medial meniscus experiences a tear, you will feel inner knee pain. As you age, the meniscus can also wear down and cause pain as you move.
  • Knee Osteoarthritis – This is a degenerative condition that causes the cartilage to wear down. The knees are very vulnerable to this happening.
  • Medial Plica Syndrome – You will probably experience inflammation of the plica (which is present inside the knee) when you have this syndrome. It usually occurs after you have been active.
  • Rheumatoid Arthritis – Rheumatoid Arthritis autoimmune disorder causes inflammation in the body, and you will then experience severe inner knee pain. The pain is usually worse in the morning but gets better throughout the day.

There are plenty of home remedies for inner knee pain. You may use them to help you manage your symptoms.

What Are the Symptoms of Inner Knee Pain?

The intensity of your inner knee pain, as well as the location of the pain, could vary. This will depend on what caused the knee to become injured or painful.

Usually, the signs and symptoms that can accompany inner knee pain will include:

  • Stiffness and swelling – You will feel swelling, stiffness, and pain, which means you might have torn your meniscus. You might feel sharp pains when you twist or rotate your knee.
  • Redness and warmth – It will be swollen and will feel tender when you apply pressure to it. This could indicate that you have inflamed bursa or bursitis, and you will feel pain when you move your knee even when you are not using it.

  • The knee feels weak and unstable – You will notice inner knee pain when you are active, but you will still have stiffness, swelling, and decreased mobility.

    This means you probably have knee osteoarthritis. You might notice creaking and crackling sounds when you move the knee as well. It will feel warm on your knee joint.

    Osteoarthritis makes it difficult to get in and out of your car, use the stairs, or even when you are just walking.

  • Popping or crunching noises – You will hear a pop at your knee area and feel pain on the inside of your knee, which means you probably tore your MCL.

  • You can’t fully straighten your knee – You will likely feel inner knee pain with locking of the knee. You might hear a clicking sound.

    This could indicate that you have medial knee plica syndrome[3], and your knee might not feel stable during activities. It will be painful to walk up and down stairs or when you run. Your knee might ache at night. Squatting, bending, and getting up will also cause pain.

Fortunately, inner knee pain exercises may help you deal with many symptoms at home.

Inner Knee Pain Treatment Options

1. Home Remedies for Inner Knee Pain

Home Remedies for Inner Knee Pain

For most causes of inner knee pain, home treatments might resolve the problems. These treatments can include:

  • Using an ice pack. When you apply ice to the injured area 3 to 4 times a day for around 20 minutes each time, you are helping to reduce the inflammation and pain. You can purchase ice packs[4] at pharmacies or online.
  • Resting the knee. If the injury is caused by sports or other activities, the knee will need to rest until it is healed.
  • Anti-inflammatories. You can find plenty of different over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications at your pharmacy, like ibuprofen or aspirin. If they don’t work, your doctor will prescribe other pharmacologic interventions.

2. Other Inner Knee Pain Treatment Solutions

  • Draining of fluid build-up – Fluid build-up is one of the causes of inner knee pain and pressure. Removing excess fluid is done by aspiration.
  • Bracing – This is made by supporting the knee in the form of a brace[5].
  • Physical therapy – This therapy helps to strengthen and stretch the muscles of the knee, which will be tailored to the individual to ease inner knee pain.
  • Corticosteroid injections – For any of the causes of inner knee pain, corticosteroids are administered, especially for promoting comfort and ease of movement.
  • Surgery – It may be required to remove or repair the damaged part of the knee tissue like the meniscus or the bursa. A doctor will usually recommend the other inner knee pain treatment options before proceeding with invasive treatment like surgery.

Inner Knee Pain Exercises

Inner knee pain exercises stretch and strengthen the knee, which helps reduce inflammation and discomfort. The 4 fantastic inner knee exercises are:

1. Inner Thigh Stretch

Lie on your back. Take a stretch strap and loop the band around the bottom of your right foot. Bring your toes up toward the ceiling (keep your knee relatively straight).

Stop before feeling your hamstring stretch, adjusting your hand position so that your right hand is higher toward your foot. Your left hand will be lower near the strap end.

Now, let your thigh fall outward away from the body – you will feel stretching in your inner thigh.

Allow your bent left leg to fall away from the body as well for counterbalance. Do 2-3 sets, holding for 30 seconds, and then repeat on the left side. You will notice relief of inner leg tension.

2. Supine Hamstring Stretch

Get a stretch strap again with a towel, then lie on your back. Bend both your knees with your feet on the floor.

Place the strap around the bottom of your foot, and use your arms to guide your thigh up toward your chest.

Don’t hyperextend your knee – keep it straight. Then continue moving until you feel strong stretching in the back of your knee and thigh. Hold for about 30 seconds. Do 2-3 sets on each leg.

3. Side Lunge Stretch

This exercise stretches and strengthens. When standing, shift your weight away from the leg you are going to stretch.

Bend the weighted leg into a slight squat, shifting your butt back. Stretch the opposite unweighted leg out to the side, keeping your knee straight.

You should feel the stretching of the inner thigh. Hold for 20 seconds for 2-3 sets on each leg.

4. Seated Butterfly Stretch

With this exercise, sit on the floor with your knees bent and the bottoms of your feet together.

It is important to keep your spine upright and in good posture the entire time. Try to be as comfortable as possible. Then hold for around 60 seconds for 2-3 sets in total.

Seated Butterfly Stretch

FAQs

For the best inner knee exercises, you have to keep your upper body good and straight. Then, you will lean forward with your hips until you feel yourself stretching. Then, hold the stretch. Watch this video for excellent resolutions.

Cycling is not considered a sport to damage your knees. It’s because your knees don’t impact on the ground as the feet do, for instance. However, the continuous repetitive motion of pedalling can lead to the knee being overused and, therefore, possibly causing injury.

One autoimmune disease that can cause inner knee pain is rheumatoid arthritis (RA). RA causes inflammation in the joints. If you do have it, you could experience pretty severe inner knee pain in the morning, with the pain decreasing as the day wears on.

When you have knee strains and pains, you can expect to get relief in about 2 to 4 weeks. If you have suffered a major injury, you can expect healing to take much longer, around 4 to 12 months. We have mentioned excellent home remedies for inner knee pain you can use.

When you experience crepitus in your knee[6], it is probably harmless. But take note that it could sometimes indicate other health conditions developing. Your first line of action is rest and doing inner knee pain exercises because they strengthen the knee and reduce the pain.

Conclusion

Our knees are essential for living mobile lives every day. What would we do without our knees? They enable us to be active and enjoy running, walking, bending down, and sitting.

Many people don’t understand just how important they are and how they need to be taken care of.

We all know that exercise does wonders for our body, so how come jogging could be bad for our knee joints? All that bending for sometimes over 20 minutes and maybe even more can damage the knees over time.

We are all recommended to take 10,000 steps everyday, so that means already that our knees will bend 10,000 times a day! It’s not that you mustn’t do these exercises; you just need to prepare the body with exercises that can help you avoid the causes of inner knee pain that builds up.

Remember to keep your knees in mind when you exercise, doing stretching before and after your workouts. Stretching is ideal for recovery.

And we have included good home remedies for inner knee pain that work. Avoid kneeling on your bare knees. Use a cushion to kneel on as a knee rest.

Timing is vital too when it comes to knee use. Never overdo it without giving your knees a rest in-between.

Treat your knees with the utmost care, remember it is your knees that give you the power to be independent and live your life to the fullest.

Inner knee pain can certainly impede your ability to carry out the activities you enjoy. That’s why we’ve given you some fantastic inner knee pain exercises to try.

It makes no difference whether you are young or young at heart, if you don’t look after your knee health with the right inner knee pain treatment, then the pain and problems you experience with them won’t be ‘fun-knee!’