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I have been having knee pain after I do running, cycling, or any cardio workout that uses my legs. How can this be solved?
The duration for which I do cardio is around 20-30 minutes, and I also do not strain myself too much. Is wearing knee caps during workout a solution for this?
It's smart to get an assessment by a medical professional in cases where you have pain. However, it's also good to do basic maintenance on yourself.
If you want to do some troubleshooting on your own, take a look at this article by Mike Robertson on knee pain. (I've linked to the first part; make sure to read all three.)
To summarize what he says, as the articles are somewhat lengthy (but very worthwhile), in many cases knee pain is not caused by anything wrong with the knee but by some other issue above or below the knee. For example, tight hip flexors can cause an imbalance in the thigh that results in knee pain. This is something that's been a problem for me because I work from a chair all day.
Mike has some great recommendations on how to correct common problems like this. Another worthwhile resource is Kelly Starret's MobilityWOD (Workout of the Day). I've been doing these exercises for a bit and have seen some real improvement in my knee pain. Start at the beginning.
These exercises are generally safe if you don't have any other specific problems that your doctor has pointed out. (As always, consult with your physician and stop if something is really painful.)
As it stands, your question is way too vague to diagnose. The pain could be due to the ligaments in the knee, the muscles around the knee, bad form, bad equipment, muscular imbalance, tibial plateau fracture, etc etc.
I would advise against any kind of knee caps (Not sure what they are) or sleeves or other structural adjunct without a sports doc saying "do this". I've seen people that had knee pain, wore sleeves that caused their kneecaps to track out of line and caused worse problems.
It's also possible that it isn't actually in your knee, but is referred pain from somewhere else. Pain is a funny thing in the body, it doesn't always occur where the injury is. Get a good checkup from a sports doc, and go from there.
