Chronic Knee Pain: Why It Won’t Go Away
You’ve rested. You’ve iced it. You’ve tried physiotherapy. Maybe you’ve even taken anti-inflammatories for months.
And yet, your knee still hurts.
You can’t climb stairs without wincing. You avoid activities you used to love. You’re starting to wonder if this is just “part of getting older” or something you’ll have to live with forever.
Here’s the truth: Chronic knee pain doesn’t happen because your body has given up on healing. It happens because something is preventing your body from healing properly.
As a Registered Kinesiologist who works with people dealing with stubborn knee pain, I’ve seen the same patterns over and over. Let me walk you through the five common reasons knee pain becomes chronic, and what actually works to resolve it.
1. You’re Treating the Symptom, Not the Cause
The problem: some treatments focus on where it hurts, not why it hurts.
Your knee might be painful, but the root cause could be:
Weak glutes or hip muscles (forcing your knee to compensate)
Tight hip flexors or IT band (pulling your kneecap out of alignment)
Poor ankle mobility (changing how force travels through your leg)
Movement patterns that put excess stress on the knee joint
If you only treat the knee itself with ice, rest, or pain medication, you’re ignoring the dysfunction that caused the problem in the first place.
What actually helps:
A comprehensive movement assessment that identifies where the breakdown is happening.
At Sparke Wellness, I don’t just look at your knee. I assess how your entire body moves. Your hips, ankles, core, and movement patterns during functional tasks like squatting, stepping, and walking.
Once we identify the root cause, we can address it. That might mean strengthening weak stabilizers, improving mobility in tight areas, and retraining movement patterns alongside treating the pain and inflammation in your knee.
2. Inflammation Has Become Chronic
The problem:
Acute inflammation is good. It’s your body’s natural healing response. But when inflammation persists for months or years, it becomes chronic inflammation, which actually prevents healing.
Chronic inflammation:
Breaks down healthy tissue
Reduces blood flow to the area
Creates a cycle of pain and re-injury
Makes the tissue more sensitive to pain signals
Rest and ice might reduce symptoms temporarily, but they don’t address the underlying inflammatory process that’s keeping your knee stuck in a pain cycle.
What actually helps:
BioFlex Laser Therapy is an effective treatment for chronic inflammation because it works at the cellular level.
Red and near-infrared light:
Reduces pro-inflammatory markers in the tissue
Increases circulation (bringing nutrients and oxygen to damaged cells)
Stimulates cellular repair and regeneration
Helps break the chronic inflammation cycle
Unlike medications that mask pain, laser therapy addresses the inflammation at its source, allowing your body to actually heal.
3. You Returned to Activity Too Soon (Or Not Soon Enough)
The problem:
There’s a delicate balance between rest and movement when healing from an injury.
Too much rest (complete inactivity for weeks or months):
Muscles weaken and atrophy
Joint stiffness develops
Movement patterns deteriorate
When you finally resume activity, your knee isn’t strong enough to handle the load
Too little rest (returning to full activity too quickly):
Tissue doesn’t have time to heal properly
You re-injure the area repeatedly
Inflammation never fully resolves
Pain becomes chronic
Both extremes prevent proper healing.
What actually helps:
A gradual, progressive return to activity. This means:
Appropriate rest in the acute phase (days to weeks, not months)
Gentle movement to maintain mobility and circulation
Strengthening exercises that progress as tissue heals
Monitoring pain levels to ensure you’re not overdoing it
Clear criteria for advancing to the next phase
At Sparke Wellness, I create personalized protocols that balance tissue healing with maintaining function. You’re not benched indefinitely, but you’re also not thrown back into full activity before you’re ready.
4. Scar Tissue and Adhesions Are Limiting Movement
The problem:
When tissue heals, it often forms scar tissue, a fibrous tissue that’s less flexible and less functional than the original tissue.
Over time, scar tissue and adhesions can:
Restrict range-of-motion in the knee joint
Create pulling or tightness sensations
Alter how your kneecap tracks (leading to pain)
Prevent full healing by limiting circulation
If you’ve had knee surgery, a significant injury, or chronic inflammation, scar tissue is likely part of the problem.
What actually helps:
Laser therapy is effective at reducing scar tissue.
The light energy:
Stimulates collagen production (improving tissue quality)
Increases flexibility in scar tissue
Reduces adhesions that restrict movement
Improves overall tissue health
Combined with targeted stretching and mobility work, this helps restore normal movement patterns and reduces the mechanical stress on your knee.
5. Your Pain Perception Has Changed
The problem:
When pain persists for months or years, your nervous system can become hypersensitive. This is called central sensitization.
Essentially, your brain and nervous system start interpreting normal sensations as painful, even after the tissue has healed.
This doesn’t mean the pain is “in your head”. It’s a real physiological change in how your nervous system processes signals.
Signs this might be happening:
Pain seems disproportionate to the actual injury
Touch or pressure that shouldn’t hurt feels painful
Pain spreads to areas beyond the original injury
Stress or anxiety makes pain worse
What actually helps:
Treatments that calm the nervous system and retrain pain perception.
Laser therapy can help by:
Reducing actual tissue inflammation (which decreases pain signals)
Stimulating endorphin release (natural pain relief)
Improving tissue health (giving your brain accurate “you’re healing”) signals
Combined with movement retraining, education about pain science, and gradually increasing activity, you can retrain your nervous system to stop overreacting to normal sensations.
What You Can Do Right Now
If you’re dealing with chronic knee pain, here are three things you can start today:
1. Stop relying on rest alone
Gentle movement is healing. Try:
Walking (start with 10-15 minutes daily)
Gentle knee bends (partial range, this should be pain free)
Ankle pumps and circles (improves circulation to the knee)
2. Address inflammation naturally
Anti-inflammatory foods (fatty fish, leafy greens, berries, turmeric)
Adequate hydration
Quality sleep (7-9 hours. This is when tissue repair happens)
