Prevent and Relieve Knee Pain

Prevent and Relieve Knee Pain - 7 minutes read

As we get older, one of the more common problems we may face is knee pain. Luckily, there are steps we can take to prevent knee pain before it becomes a problem, and easy exercises we can do to alleviate knee pain. However, you should see a doctor is you want to effectively cure knee pain, particularly if it is the result of a serious injury.

Quick introduction to my ‘Prevent, Cure and Adapt’ series:

Many ‘older’ people reminisce about their morning jogs or being on playing tennis on weekends ‘when they were young’. When I ask them why they don’t continue, they’re usually respond with saying, “I can’t, I’m getting old. Everything hurts.”

But even if you might be experiencing some difficulty in going the same exercise you have been doing, I still don’t think that that should be the reason for not getting your daily dose of exercise. Even if you can’t play tennis anymore, there must be something you can do instead of just letting yourself be less active.

So, I’ve created a mini series with some tips on how to alleviate and deal with pain for bad backs, knees, neck and ankles. Enjoy!

How to prevent knee pain:

#1 Strengthen your knee joint

Doing exercises to strengthen your knee is a long term solution to help prevent knee pain when you’re older. There are plenty of exercises you can do to strengthen your knees. Here are some great exercises to strengthen your knees, all of which you can even implement into your workout routine, or do while you are watching TV.

#2 Avoid overuse

Doing too many high impact exercises like jumping and running that takes a toll on your knees. If you’re unsure of how much is ‘too much’ high intensity exercise, perhaps you’d like to check out this guide here. Although bear in mind, there is no ‘perfect’ amount of exercise for any individual, the best is to listen to your body and realise when you are straining yourself too much.

#3 Warm up

Warming up before working out or exercising is extremely important. Warming up helps get your blood circulation flowing, and makes your body get ready for a higher intensity of exercise. Not warming up makes your knees more susceptible to injury, particularly for high impact exercises. I suggest you do some dynamic stretching to warm up!

#4 Stretch after exercising

Stretching after exercising releases tension, soothes your muscles and quickens your body’s process of recovery. If you have strained your knees during your workout, the best way to prevent further injury is to stretch it out. You can use some of the stretches below as guidance.

What to avoid with knee pain:

#1 Squats and lunges

If you have knee pain, try avoiding squats and lunges of any form, especially with weights. Squats and lunges basically puts puts added pressure to your knees, and is even worse when you add extra weight on top of it.

#2 Running and other high impact exercises

High impact refers to any exercise where your feet leave off the ground at the same time. This includes running, jumping, skipping and hopping. The impact on your knees can be extremely damaging. You can prevent long term knee pain by not overdoing high impact or high intensity exercises.

#3 Walking up the stairs

Typically as we get older, the layer of cartilage that surrounds your knee gets worn off. This is one of the activities that may make your cartilage wear off faster.

How to relieve knee pain:

#1 Stretches:

Like always, there are some great stretches to relieve knee pain. These stretches won’t necessarily cure knee pain, but it is a simple and practical way to keep your knee healthy. Some simple stretches include:

Standing quadriceps stretch: standing straight, take one foot from the outside and press your foot to your glutes. Make sure your knees are together. You can also hold on to something for balance.

Hamstring stretch: great exercise to relieve knee pain

Hero pose: Sit down with your legs on either side of you. Press your knees together. If this is already a stretch, stay in this position with your back straight. Or, if you think you can make it more of a stretch, come down to your forearms or even fully lie down. It is best to stay in the pose for at least one minute.

#2 Massage:

It might be more effective to cure knee pain by visiting a therapist. However, you can also alleviate knee pain through by massaging yourself. The areas you want to massage are around the kneecap and the sides of your knee. Here are some ways you can self-massage:

Pound your fist at your lower thigh near your knee and the area just below your knee several times.
Use your thumb and massage the area around your knee cap in a circular motion.
Watch this follow-along video for simple ways to massage your knees.

#3 Apply Heat or Cold:

To cure knee pain after a recent injury and the pain is fresh, the best is to apply something cold on your knee. It helps reduce swelling and numbs the pain.

However, if you are experiencing pain from a long term injury, the best remedy is heat. Heat improves your circulation and soothes your muscles, making it more mobile and ready for exercise. Here are some great cold and hot treatments for your knee.

Recommended Exercises to prevent knee pain:

For knee pain, you might like to avoid any exercises that focus are high impact. However, there is still a variety of exercises you could do both to strengthen your body and get your cardio.

#1 Boxing:

Boxing is a great way to get cardio without straining your knee. However, if you’re new to boxing, it may be better to hire a personal trainer or join a class in order to ensure you have proper form. Not having proper form could risk a back or wrist injury.

#2 Upper body strength training

As long as the strength training routine doesn’t involve straining your lower body, it should be perfectly fine. Strength training is also a great low impact exercise for increasing your metabolism without straining your knees.

#3 Walking:

It won’t necessarily cure knee pain, but walking is a great form of exercise whether you have any pain or injury or not.

#4 Barre or Pilates:

Barre and pilates are great low-impact toning forms of exercise, and is a great way to tone your lower body without squats and lunges.

#5 Swimming:

This is a great low impact, full-body form of cardio. Swimming has many benefits, so it might be a good idea to start incorporating swimming into your regime.

#6 Using the Cross Trainer:

If you don’t know what sort of cardio to do when you hit the gym, try the cross trainer for a low impact alternative. Whilst it doesn’t burn as many calories as the treadmill, it is a low impact form of cardio which is much less likely to affect your knees.