Knee pain plagues many people, but it can be avoided.
Knees are one of the biggest problem areas for many people. It doesn’t matter whether you run 100 miles a week or the only walking you do is into a store. Furthermore, it doesn’t matter whether you’re high school track star or heading into retirement. Knee pain can plague anyone at any age, no matter their condition.
Furthermore, increasingly more often today, people are undergoing the knife to take care of knee pain through knee replacement surgery. However, knee replacement surgery is almost entirely avoidable. Before you hit up your orthopedic surgeon to take care of your knee pain, try these things first which will not only protect your knees but also help you avoid surgery entirely.
Don’t Skip The Warmup
One of the leading causes of knee injuries is skipping the warm up and cool down period. Knees need to warm up slowly in order to be lubricated. To avoid pain during your workout or practice, you need that lubrication. Warming up circulates fluid, called synovial fluid, into the knee and improves muscle elasticity. These reduced the risk of not only knee pain but also the chance for injury. Make sure you’re not only warming up properly, but also stretching and cooling down to save your knees from pain, injury, and surgery.
Strengthen The Right Area
Muscle weakness is a big contributor to injuries. It seems intuitive that if your knees are giving you problems, then strengthening your knees is the answer. For sure, you should work on strengthening your knees. However, there are major supporting muscles that if not working properly because of weakness could lead to knee injury. Weaknesses in the core and especially the hips can lead to misalignment and improper movements, which contributes to knee pain and injury. Continue to strengthen the knees, but do so by also strengthening the hips, glutes, and core.
Lose Weight
It’s a touchy subject for many people, but the reality is that packing on the pounds leads to pain in many areas of the body, not just the knees. Being overweight can lead to back pain as well as hip and foot pain. If you’re overweight and have knee pain, the first thing you’ll want to do is lose weight. However, you’ll want to do it safely and slowly. Having overall health means not only exercising, but also being at a healthy weight and eating a nutritious diet. By eating healthy and starting out slow with workouts until you lose weight will help you avoid future injuries.
Don’t Overdo It
Another way you’re possibly wrecking your knees is through overtraining. By not giving your body the necessary rest to recovery properly from a workout will only to injury. These injuries are typically overuse injuries, which can be entirely avoided by gradually increasing training and work intensity. Listen to your body and take note when you start feeling some lingering pain. It may be time to take a break and let your body fully recover before you wreck your knees entirely.
Tackle Knee Pain Right – Seek Physical Therapy
Sometimes, you may be doing everything right on your own and yet you’re still experiencing pain in your knees. In that case, it would be beneficial to contact someone who is an expert in diagnosing pain, finding the cause of the pain and then fixing it. A physical therapist is not only trained in diagnosing an injury, but can determine why you got that injury to begin with. Once they determine that, they can set you on a course for not only a full recovery, but also future injury prevention so that you can stay in tip-top shape.
