Your exercise guide
Explore simple exercises for your knees, hips and back. Explained step by step, with movement illustrations and exercise sheets for home.
What would you like to do again in everyday life?
Your exercises at home
Nine exercises for your knees, hips and back. With pictures that show each step and exercise sheets to take with you.
Choose suitable exercises and the amount of exercise together with your clinical team or physiotherapist. The repetitions are a guide. Start slowly, without momentum, and within a comfortable range of movement. Use a firm chair without wheels and a non-slip surface.
Stop the exercise and seek advice if pain is sharp, new or clearly increasing. After an operation, or if a joint is acutely swollen and hot, ask your treating team first.
Three exercises · A stable chair and a mat
Sitting, lying down and standing up: three movements that are easy to explain and perform with attention.
Keep in mind: Keep your upper body upright.
Up to 10 repetitions on each side
Keep in mind: Keep your heel on the surface.
Up to 10 repetitions on each side
Keep in mind: Make sure the chair cannot slip.
5 slow repetitions
Three exercises · A stable chair without wheels
A chair provides support. Focus on a slow movement and an upright upper body.
Keep in mind: Do not lean to the side.
5 repetitions on each side
Keep in mind: A small movement is enough.
5 repetitions on each side
Keep in mind: Keep your upper body still.
5 repetitions on each side
Three exercises · A comfortable, non-slip mat
Three gentle movements on the mat. Take your time and keep breathing evenly.
Keep in mind: Use only a gentle tilt; do not lift your buttocks.
Slowly in both directions
Keep in mind: Keep the range of movement comfortably small.
Gently from side to side
Keep in mind: Rest your head comfortably and do not pull on the knee.
One side after the other
Print & take with you
One sheet for each group, with three exercises, pictures and space for your personal exercise plan. These PDF sheets are currently in German.
The movement instructions were compiled from these patient information resources. Texts and illustrations were created for this exercise guide. Content date: 22.09.2026.
General movement exercises, not an individual treatment plan. The back exercises do not imply any use of Crespine Gel in the spine.
Osteoarthritis can leave you feeling powerless: the cartilage is worn, nothing can change that, and treatment is in someone else’s hands. That is only part of the story. The best-supported part of osteoarthritis care is the part you do yourself.
This is not an empty reassurance. It is where the German S3 guideline is clearest — clearer than for any injection, including ours.
The guideline distinguishes between “we recommend” and the weaker “we suggest”. For exercise therapy, it states:
We recommend exercise therapy adapted to the individual needs of patients with knee osteoarthritis.
The guideline recommends starting regular strength and mobility training early, after receiving guidance. Early means before the joint starts to dictate your everyday life.
The guideline suggests supervised exercise therapy. It then explicitly recommends continuing helpful exercises you have learned independently, with occasional reviews of the results.
Exercise therapy should suit individual needs. Which exercises fit you depends on your condition, your muscles and what you can keep up in everyday life.
The guideline explicitly says patients should be told that joint pain can increase when starting exercise therapy — and that regular movement is still good for their joints.
Mild, temporary discomfort can occur at first. Sharp, new or clearly increasing pain is a reason to stop the exercise and seek advice. If a joint is swollen and hot during a flare-up, have it assessed by a clinician before continuing.
The guideline suggests aquatic exercise therapy to reduce pain, improve function and enhance quality of life. Water takes some of the body’s weight off the joint — for many people, the difference between a movement feeling impossible and manageable.
The guideline is unusually specific here. After recommending weight reduction for people who are overweight, it states:
Any weight loss towards a normal weight means less pain, better mobility and slower progression of osteoarthritis.
Any weight loss. Not only after losing ten kilos, and not only on reaching a normal weight. This may be the most effective measure on this page — and the hardest to put into practice.
The guideline recommends physical activity for people with knee osteoarthritis. At the same time, it recommends avoiding activities that place unnatural or excessive strain on the knee in everyday life, at work and in sport.
The distinction is between movement and overloading. Where that boundary lies is individual — something to discuss with your practice.
Not everything offered for osteoarthritis is recommended. The guideline explicitly addresses three options:
We do not recommend routine use of shoe modifications or knee osteoarthritis braces.
The same applies to taping (recommendation 32). The guideline describes exceptions where exercise therapy alone has not been sufficient and there is significant joint instability or abnormal loading.
Walking aids are assessed differently: the suggestion to consider them for reducing load is supportive. A walking stick can provide relief.
The guideline recommends learning exercises with guidance, then continuing independently. The pictures and sheets above help you remember the movements selected together with your care team.
Write down the answers together with your treating practice or physiotherapist.
The appointment checklist has space for your questions. You can tick it and print it.
This deserves an honest explanation, even where it does not favour us. For intra-articular hyaluronic acid, the German S3 guideline cannot make a recommendation because the evidence is conflicting. That differs from recommending against it, but it is not a recommendation in favour either.
The same guideline recommends exercise therapy. An injection does not replace your exercise programme. At most, it can be an addition.
Source: German Society for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, Prevention and Treatment of Knee Osteoarthritis, S3 guideline, AWMF register 187-050, version 5.0 of 15 July 2024. Quotations are our translations from German. This page does not replace a medical consultation or guidance from a physiotherapist.
Understanding your joints
Symptoms & movement
When your knee hurts, it is understandable to want to move as little as possible. But appropriate movement is part of treatment for knee osteoarthritis. It can ease pain and improve function. The key is to find a level of activity that suits you and your symptoms.
Watch video
Symptoms & movement
Build a realistic activity plan around your symptoms, your routine and a suitable alternative.
Watch videoYour next step
Use our checklist to collect the topics that matter to you. Tick, print and take it to your practice.
