Healing from any injury requires action. It's not as easy as waiting for time to pass. This is especially true as you get older. You have to eat well, drink an adequate amount of water, perform wound care, physical therapy and more. People don't realize that making the body better again takes work and dedication. This is true for knee injuries too. 

Walking

One of the things you need to do is get adequate blood flow to your knee. 

When your blood circulates, it can relieve swelling and provide nutrients to your knee to allow for healing. Exercise allows for increased circulation, increased range of motion and healing. Walking can be highly beneficial for knee injuries, but you need to use some caution. For example, if you had knee surgery and were given "the okay" to walk, you should walk on level surfaces and avoid hills or rocky ground. A treadmill can be good to walk on, but you need to either set it on low speed or you need to have an emergency switch on it. Any sort of leg injury can cause you to be imbalanced or stall. You want to avoid additional injury in the event the treadmill keeps going while you fall. 

Cardio

If enough time has passed from your knee injury or it's not a major injury, you might be able to do some cardio, but you should limit yourself to low impact cardio so that you don't put too much pressure on your knee. Don't let the name "low impact" fool you. It's an excellent form of exercise. It's good for your heart, helps to provide the body greater stability and alignment, strengthens your muscles, provide weight loss and more. Low impact cardiovascular exercise can be any exercise where you are not pushing your feet or hands against something with a high amount of impact. 

Yoga

Yoga is a good form of exercise, but if you are not use to it, you should not do complicated poses that can twist or overextend your injured knee. Yoga can help an injured knee by strengthening the muscles around it. Working out your inner thigh can help to relieve knee pain. There are several yoga poses you can do sitting or standing that won't twist your knee or overextend it. The Warrior and Triangle poses are excellent for strengthening the inner thigh. Go at it slow, and don't forget to breathe deeply. With every pose, focus your mind on providing healing nutrients to your knee and helping your entire body. 

Exercise in the Pool

Swimming is one of the best things you can do for your body while it's injured. The body is buoyant in water, which means your knees won't bear the weight of your body. You want to avoid strenuous kicking while swimming, but any other form of swimming is perfectly suitable. Even if you just want to walk around the pool. Resistance from the water helps to strengthen your muscles without putting strain on your knees, but you still need to use caution and move slowly. You can also do water aerobics in the pool. Water aerobics are highly beneficial for healing. It helps to get your heart rate up and increase circulation. It's okay to bounce around in the pool too because you won't have a lot of pressure or weight on your knees. You need to be careful not to try this in a pool with varying depths. You need to stay in an area where the water comes up to your shoulders. 

Many professional sports teams now have pools in their training facilities. For example, Thabo Sefolosha, a former basketball player for the Oklahoma City Thunder and current player on the Utah Jazz Roster, underwent knee surgery last year to repair an injury. By working out in the pool in Utah’s training facility, he was able to speed up the recovery time for his leg, and he is now back on the court a year later.

Conclusion

Healing from anything can be scary at times, but have confidence in your healing process. Some of the healing you need to do is emotional too. It's not easy getting used to an injury and fighting your way back up. If you do what you need to in order to heal and keep a positive mindset, you will recover before you know it.