Knee pain is the most common musculoskeletal complaint that brings people to their doctor. With today's increasingly active society, the number of knee problems is increasing as well. Knee pain has a wide variety of specific causes and treatments.
Knee injuries are very common, especially for people who play a lot of sports. Injury can affect any of the ligaments, bursae, or tendons surrounding the knee joint. Injury can also affect the ligaments, cartilage, menisci (plural for meniscus), and bones forming the joint. While running outdoors offers you excellent health benefits in addition to the wonderful feeling of the wind in your face, it is also an activity that is prone to the most hurt knees.
You can avoid knee pain and injuries by doing the following:
- Maintain a healthy weight to reduce stress on the knee. Obesity increases the risk of degenerative (wearing) conditions such as osteoarthritis of the knee.
- Warm up: Before starting any exercise, warm up and then do stretches. If you stretch muscles in the front and back of your thighs, it decreases tension on your tendons, ultimately relieving pressure on the knees.
- Increase slowly: A common mistake is to increase your workout too soon. Jumping up too soon can add stress and strain to the knees, which can lead to injury. Make sure that you build it up slowly. It is suggested that you only add 5 to 10 percent to your running distance each week in order to avoid injury.
- Do low-impact exercise: At the gym, opt for a rowing machine or a cross-country skiing machine. Both offer a strong workout with low impact to your knees.
- Range-of-motion exercises help maintain normal joint movement and relieve stiffness. This type of exercise helps maintain or increase flexibility.
- Strengthening exercises help keep or increase muscle strength. Strong muscles help support and protect joints affected by knee problems.
- Aerobic or endurance exercises improve function of the heart and circulation and help control weight. Weight control can be important to people who have knee problems because extra weight puts pressure on knee joints.
- Do flexibility exercises: Yoga, Tai Chi and similar range-of-motion exercises improve flexibility and balance. This helps the knees operate more efficiently and reduces wear and tear.
- Don't decrease your activity: A decrease in activity will lead to weakness, increasing your chances of injuries. Don't suddenly change the intensity of your exercise. Build up gradually to avoid knee pain.
- Weight train: Strengthen your leg muscles to better support your knees and avoid injuries by working out with weights. Strength training builds muscle and helps maintain bones. Exercises such as leg curls and leg presses, which strengthen the upper leg, are most beneficial for knee arthritis.
- Check your shoes: Having the proper gear is crucial. If your shoes are extremely worn and no longer provide the proper cushion, get rid of them. The cushion in your exercise shoes helps to absorb the impact of running, if there is no cushion that impact goes directly to the legs and knees. A great way to make sure you have gear that is in shape is to replace your shoes every 500 miles or 800 kilometers.
