Hot answers tagged knees
37
When you're walking you apply about 1.2 times your body weight to the ground in Newtons (Fz = 1500N in your case). When you start running, this rapidly increases to two times or more. Furthermore, when you're walking you have bipedal phases, which means your body weight is carried by both legs. But jogging is characterized by going from bipedal to unipedal, ...
9
Being overweight in general is bad for your knees. Stressing that and adding the intense of shock of running to the already overweight state is just asking for trouble. The amount you are overweight definitely has some to do with this as well, as 5 extra pounds is obviously going to be less damaging than 50. I would seriously consider starting with a brisk ...
9
Ideally, your knees travel out directly in the same line as where your toes are pointing, and your toes should be pointing out at somewhere between 20° and 45° from a line drawn perpendicular to your torso straight out in front of you.
If your knees are collapsing in, yes, it is poor form. It indicates that you have relatively weak leg abduction. ...
7
Heavy barbell squats.
A lot of people are very wary of squats, thinking that they will damage their knees. The truth is, properly performed squats do the opposite - they strengthen the muscles around the knee, providing more strength and stability. Bonus: proper heavy squatting will help you build muscle all over your body, even your arms!
The dangerous ...
7
Doctors are always good options when necessary. BUT all doctors will tell you to take time off. Often you will and then resume training only to find the issue is still there. Ugh!
There are 4 reasons why knees hurt from running. They are
Weak Hips
Weak Thighs (Quads)
Tight Hamstrings
Tight IT Band
By strengthening the hips and thighs and ...
6
While there are several injuries related to the patellar tendon, the most likely one is that you have a Jumper's knee (basically it's just inflamed), which needs rest to recover like everybody sensible will tell you.
However, there are several things you can or should do to prevent the injury from returning:
train the balance of your lower limbs. While ...
6
I have osteochondritis desicans(sp?) in my left knee. Basically a nerve is pinched when my support muscles tire and sometimes the pain is bad enough that my knee buckles. My physio initially recommended movements like swimming (breast stroke) and cycling. This was good at first.
But what really helped was lots of squats and bar bell training (deadlift, ...
6
Since you said you had it checked out:
I hate to say it, but one of the best exercises for your knees is the squat. I'd check out this video with Mark Rippetoe (a respected coach) for good information on proper form to get the most out of it.
That said:
Only squat with free weights. The machines don't let your stabilizing muscles do any work, which is ...
6
Taking ibuprofen or other NSAIDs (anti-inflammatories that reduce pain and swelling) before for exercise can mask pain. Pain can be a warning sign to stop an exercise to prevent joint or soft tissue damage. Therefore, if you take it before exercise, you risk aggravating a problem.*
However, if you have painful joints that prevent you from exercising, ...
6
When your knees hurt after running, it's usually an indication that your thigh/hip muscles are not strong enough, and your knees are bearing the brunt. You have to systematically strengthen your various leg muscles. Here's what has helped me (non-exhaustive list but covers the major categories)
For the glutes
Walt Reynold's ITB special (really important - ...
6
The exercise famous for being hard on the knees is the leg press - not squat. If the squat is done with the correct depth (hip lower than the knee) so that the change of direction is NOT done while the knees are at right angles, it shouldn't hurt the knees. If you get some soft knee wraps you might be able to convince her to squat with those.
If not - I ...
6
I will say that I have had more stress on my knees from martial arts training than I ever had from heavy squats. The book Starting Strength has some good information on why this is. The important and critical factor is getting the hips below the knees before changing directions.
The depth causes certain things to happen that protect the knees:
Posterior ...
6
As a 22 year old former college football and track player who is suffering from previous injuries, including a fairly severe back injury, I would advise that unless you are going to seriously compete in athletic events, I would stay away from very heavy lifts even if you didn't previously get injured.
What I have learned over my 16 years of athletics and ...
5
Since you don’t have room for a bike, you won’t have room for an elliptical trainer which is usually a good way to burn calories and is easy on the knees. Rowing and boxing are good and have already been mentioned.
Aquatics: Even if you can’t swim, you can still run in water (with or without resistance bands), or participate in an aquatic exercise ...
5
Running long distances as a newbie (even when not overweight) will put stress on your knees. Issues such as correct footwear and running form will affect this. You need to consider what your goals are.
If you're only considering running to lose weight, then you might want to consider other options (such as focusing on your diet (80% of the battle) and ...
5
The very first thing to do is to make sure your form is correct. Nerd Fitness has a very excellent article on doing squats that you should check out. Here's a short summary, but I definitely recommend reading his full post:
Squat down until your thighs are at least parallel to the floor
Try not to extend your knees past your toes
Don't arch your ...
4
I started running at about that sort of "build"- it certainly is something to be careful about, and I did injure myself a few times but never ended up doing anything really bad to myself (at least, as far as I know).
Being tall and being overweight both mean you have to take "build up slowly but surely", so if you're both tall and overweight then it goes ...
4
As an ACL reconstruction patient, I was told to always stretch before you do anything. Work on hamstring, calf, leg extension, and knee bend stretch before you do anything physical. These are the exercises that i do to strengthen my knee back to 100%:
Static, side, split-squats, ploymetric lunges:
Static lunges are great for working all the major ...
4
Any time you perform an activity that causes joint pain or soreness, you're doing long-term cumulative damage to your joints. Typically, soccer (football) should not cause knee joint pain. There are a few different things that can cause this:
Incorrect or badly fitted footwear. Try some different shoes.
Incorrect technique/balance/weight. If you're ...
4
It could be that you're standing with bad posture. That is, if you're standing for long periods of time, you may become tired and let your weight sag inward on your knees. When you're exercising, you're obviously moving around so the weight isn't constantly on your knees. Even if you do certain exercises that put pressure on them (like running), you're still ...
4
That sounds like a ligament or tendon issue, which could be serious. I would worry about your squat form: perhaps your knees are tracking forward, or your stance is too narrow, or you're coming off your heels, or perhaps something else is going on that no one can figure out through the Internet.
Whichever one it is, it doesn't sound like a muscle problem. ...
4
If you feel any form of discomfort when you start running, then it is a good idea to extend your warm up a bit to properly warm the affected joints or muscles.
Exactly which type of warm up you should use, depends on many different factors, and the easiest way is simply to google for warm up before running. As a rule of thumb use dynamic rather than static ...
4
We will lose this argument
Let's assume you're not going to convince her that squats are good for her knees. They are, but you can only lead a horse to water. What, then, should you have her do instead?
First, get the idea of StrongLifts out of your head. If you're not squatting, you're not doing StrongLifts. It's essential to programs like this to squat ...
4
This problem is called "valgus" knee. Its is more common for females due to the anatomy - wider hip and slight larger Q angle. However, here are some very common problems for most people with valgus knee, especially during squatting and landing:
Weakness in hip abductors
Weakness in hip external rotators
Pronated feet (flat feet)
Weakness in posterior ...
3
Note, I'm assuming that you've already dismissed the idea of cycling.
My suggestion would be in-line skating, aka roller-blading. Great cardio workout and easy on the knees. The only downside is that it won't burn as many calories as running though.
You may also look into:
Swimming
Boxing
Rowing
3
I can't give you a definitive answer, but I dug up some info that might help you decide how concerned you should be.
Joint heat may be a sign something is wrong. Heat is one of the cardinal signs of inflammation, so hot joints could indicate something in there is starting to act up. Inflammation could be exacerbated by high-impact cardio, especially if ...
3
In my opinion, there is nothing "beginner" about exercises in sets of 10 and explosive movements...even if it is only a 16 minute workout. When you train your body, you tear muscles so that your body can repair them in the time between workouts. It's great that you're not usually sore, because that leads me to believe that you are recovering properly. ...
3
Non technical answer:
Yes it's bad for your knees, but everything in life is finite. What's worse is the damage your doing to the rest of your body by being overweight. Running is the quickest way to burn calories. Combined with a small caloric deficit diet and you have the ingredients for losing weight.
Will you have bad knees when your eighty? Maybe who ...
3
PFPS (patello-femoral pain syndrome) is usually caused by the knee cap tracking off to the lateral side instead of keeping centered in the femoral groove. The causes can be from muscle weakness (the VMO as you mentioned), tightness (muscle and fascia) esp. laterally, and/or faulty lower extremity alignment.
If you haven't already consulted with a sports ...
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