Stupid knee pain...

57rainbows

Alright, does anyone have good ideas about why some exercises cause pain in my otherwise perfectly good knees (actually mostly just the left one) and how I can strengthen it?

I've experienced this pain when doing the elliptical, but never with a treadmill. That led me to believe that maybe the forced gait width (how far apart your feet are, since they have to stay on the paddles) was not good for my particular build somehow, whereas on the treadmill my feet can fall naturally. However I've also experienced this same sharp pains in a step and tone class, during an exercise that did a lot of lunges (forward, sideways, and backwards). There were mirrors so I *know* my knee didn't go in front of my toes, like they talk about with proper form.

Have you had knee pain during exercising and what helped? Do you think exercises that strengthen the muscles around the knee would help stabilise it and if so what exercises?

Thanks!