Knee problems

Werner1950

I don't have a pain in the butt.. but I do have a pain in the knee. I am 61. I was hoping that doing treadmill work (fast walks, no jogging, no impact activities) would work the issue out. I have been doing this for about 30 days now, but the knee seemed to take a turn for the worse. I am afraid it is going to begin cramping my style. There were no injuries, just a lot of couch potato-ing. I assumed I got the bad knee from the inactivity.. before complaining to the doctor about it, I thought I would ask here.. do I just "power through it" and hope it goes away with weight loss and exercise?

kairisika

Do NOT 'power through' knee pain, or you will be needing to do so for the rest of your life. If it's consistently occurring from exercise, it is well worth it to visit a physiotherapist, figure out what's wrong, and get a program to help fix it and avoid doing further damage.
Doctor won't be of much use. But an assessment from a tissue-and-joint guy is well worth it.
It's easy to end up with majorly screwed knees, and far better to take a break (or get alternatives) than to keep damaging it.

How does it feel about cycling? A lot of people with knee issues find cycling good cardio that doesn't hurt the knee (as long as your bike seat is at the correct height).

I say these things as a person who has dealt with a lot of recurring knee stuff. It won't get better on its own, and it's very worth the attention.

Werner1950

I will switch to cycling for a couple of days.

lcedmond

Seriously, find a good PT. Rehab, biomechanics, evaluation, postural awareness, biomechanical & mechanical function including force vectors and joint mechanics. This is where they live.

KageyKat

I also have knee problems and do pt at home everyday...I have a recumbent bike and it gives me a great work out and no knee pain...I'm 60. Good luck!

kairisika

See if cycling can work for a replacement for the time being, awesome in the short term. But seriously, go to physio to figure out what is wrong and fix it for the long term.

Werner1950

I am totally bummed out about this. Knee and hip. It feels like inflammation now. If I take an antinflammatory it goes away for a few hours. BUt I will see a PT, thanks for all the advice.. I will lay low for a few days so as not to irritate it any further and I will just maintain the diet without exercise for a week.. :grumble:

nuffexercise2012

I also have knee issues. Physical Therapist tells me no treadmill to use cycling or elliptical for cardio, with knee brace.But have a professional exam your knees and see what their recommendations are for you...Way to go from couch to exercise:drinker:

kairisika

anti-inflammatories and ice are excellent interim helpers!

Cycling works to avoid knee issues for most, but I'd contradict the above poster and suggest staying off the elliptical if you've had any hip issues. Elliptical trainers are great for low impact, but they force you into a single-sized stride which is a fair bit off a natural movement for many people not right in the average. That can REALLY mess up your hips.
Swimming can be a nice change-up too if you're careful about which motions you do.

khall9228

Do NOT take knee problems lightly! I injured my knee and tried to power through it and now I need surgery cause basically everything in my right knee is messed up. I'll probably have problems the rest of my life now. Its frustrating to not be able to do some of the things u may want to do like run on a treadmill or do squats or whatever it may be, but trust me, accept the limitations and find ways to lower the stress on ur knees. I run on elliptical/low impact machines and have still seen great improvement in my weight and cardio! It's not worth risking serious injury trying to push urself. For me, it resulted in patellar instability and a messed up LCL, and omg it HURTS when the kneecap dislocates. Zero impact exercises will solve any knee problems.

lkcuts

stationary work outs with weights. side.straight leg excersise and on my back lifting my legs off the floor, sit ups, upper body weights, stretching and stretch bands... I do those and eliptical. Since I have lost a little, on the days my hip,lower back, knees and feet feel better , I walk.. I figure the more weight I get off, the easier it will get to do more..actually the more I sit, the worse those things get.. I think its because of no circulation or blood getting to the legs. when I started, I walked with a slight gate and sometimes shuffled as my knees ,feet and hips hurt so bad I could hardly get up a few stairs. Thats when I knew I need to do something about my weight.
I also started liquid trace minerals and a good multivitamin. Aleve is my friend. I can't afford a doc or any of the tests they might put me through as I have no health insurance..so I decided to do my own thearpy. I have also heard that water excersise is really good as no weight on the joints and the resistance of the water burns cals. Good luck in what ever you do and keep going..non activity is heading towards an electric hub around..something i see mostly over weight people use because they can't get around anymore..keep logging your food and eat healthy most of all keep a postiive attitude even on the bad days..the more you lose the better its gets....Good luck!

glynfreeman

Get yourself referred to a specialist. I've had knee problems and have temporarily given up running and heavy leg workouts, reverting to bike and upper body. You'll need to get them x rayed at your stage in life probably got some wear and tear, I endedup with bakers cyst and have slight wear on cartilage, some sort of acid was injected into one of mine and seems to have helped. Good luck, the key is to only load gently under medical advice and reduce the day to day load through weight loss program. Meantime an external support may help but get professional advice.

BrianSharpe

+1 on not taking knee problems lightly.

There's a good chance (especially as you mention hip discomfort) that your PT will be able to address the problem with hip & glute exercises (quite often muscular imbalances manifest themselves as knee pain) but it could also be something more serious.

Werner1950

Thanks all. Well, I went to a chiropratctor, and he gave me some hio and glute exercises. We will see how that goes. he says the cartilage is simply beginning to wear, and so he's got me on glucosamine chondroiten.

kairisika

ohh, a chiro?
NOT the educated source.
Good luck.

StrongSandra

I see chiros as being a solution for the short term, but physical therapy for long term.

Azdak

Thanks all. Well, I went to a chiropratctor, and he gave me some hio and glute exercises. We will see how that goes. he says the cartilage is simply beginning to wear, and so he's got me on glucosamine chondroiten.

Tendinitis from overuse is much more common than arthritis, or even cartilage wear. The hip and glute exercises will be helpful, but if they are the typical things handed out by chiropractors and other docs, you will outgrow those exercises fairly quickly.

Get started w/the exercises, but if things don't clear up soon, I would recommend seeing a sports medicine physical therapist. I still think your long-term outlook is positive.

TheRoseQueen

At 65 plus, I have two bad knees (but from old injuries that occurred when I used to dance hard core about 15 years ago). I was told at that time to hold off as long as "could" (when I was 50ish) as the surgeries would get better and better - from orthopedic specialists/surgeons. I am now at the point where holding off is no longer an option. Over the last couple of years I have tried glucosamine (sp?); injections of Supartz (a viscous joint fluid therapy); and just limiting over-use of the joint. Because of the type of injuries I had incurred, the first two options did not help....and by limiting over-use of the joint, of course, that meant limiting exercise....which in turn became detrimental to weight control - especially when you don't cut back calorie consumption, or watch diligently what you eat on a daily; weekly; monthly basis.
Anyway.... my suggestion would be to go see a true specialist (orthopedic knee surgeon specialist) and get the x-rays to see what is going on.....certainly NOT a chiropractor!!! Then, go from there. I am now at the stage in my life where I need a total replacement of both knees....and currently am working on building up both the strength in my upper body (as I know I will need this) from weight strengthening machines....and in my lower body (legs, hips, glutes) utilizing both weight machines and the Elliptical. I tried the recumbant bike for several months....but it aggravated my knees more than helping them.... I started working out on the Elliptical about 4 1/2 - 5 months ago (slowly at first - and in the beginning 5 minutes was horrendous) --- and now am up to about 45 and sometimes 50 minutes. Only a few times a week, alternating with weight machine strengthening and elliptical -- and not pushing myself like a maniac as some people at the gym have a tendency to do.
I think you need to find someone who is a "good" personal trainer who can give you some exercise modifications (I was lucky as my daughter is in that field....and she set me up with a program that is working for me) ---- BUT "definitely" find out what type of issues are going on with your knees from a professional orthopedic surgeon - and see what they suggest. You may be fortunate enough to get by with glucousime --- or, Suprex type injections may help. Definitely weight loss management AND proper total body strengthening is going to do wonders for you.....as long as you don't do the wrong exercises for what ails you.....or you don't overdue to where you do more bodily injury.
Funny how when we hit the 60-plus area of our lives....all those things we used to do as 'youngsters", and never thought injuries could "hurt us" come back and haunt us when the bones and muscles and body suddenly stops us in our tracks. You are not alone, my friend.....but exercising will be something you are going to want to work back into your weekly schedule --- that you can count on, for sure.

Laddiegirl

Do not "power through it"! I injured my knee a little over a year ago (50% patella tendon tear) it happened at work and due to dumb workers comp issues I had to wait two weeks to see a normal doctor who diagnosed the injury right away, but it took another 4 weeks to get me into an ortho. The ortho refuses to consider surgery and after a ton of PT I'm left with chronic pain (that sometimes is so bad I cannot sleep), cannot do ladders, stairs normally (I have to go up or down one leg at a time) and no squatting, lunges, running, ect. The list goes on and it sucks. I'm 32 and some days walk like my 85 year old grandmother (I actually have a cane for the really bad days, sigh). Oh and right now I have a raging case of tendonitis in my opposite foot because my right leg is still adjusting to how I limp on my left.

Don't mess around with your knees and go to a doctor pronto! If its nothing then you're good. If it is something, its best to get on the right course of treatment and make sure you aren't doing any exercises to aggrivate any injuries right away!

mccbabe1

I don't have a pain in the butt.. but I do have a pain in the knee. I am 61. I was hoping that doing treadmill work (fast walks, no jogging, no impact activities) would work the issue out. I have been doing this for about 30 days now, but the knee seemed to take a turn for the worse. I am afraid it is going to begin cramping my style. There were no injuries, just a lot of couch potato-ing. I assumed I got the bad knee from the inactivity.. before complaining to the doctor about it, I thought I would ask here.. do I just "power through it" and hope it goes away with weight loss and exercise?

try water aerobics if possible.. very low impact.. and loosing wt is 80% how you eat anyway...
but execise is important!!! also vitamin/joint vitamins out there with controinton ( i know i spelled that wrong)
:happy:

djsupreme6

I used to have knee problems as well, I however did power through it and lost weight and now I don't have those problems anymore. What I done was limit the high intensity stuff at the beginning and used knee sleeves which are great for circulation, but of course its according to what the problem is in there

rfsatar

Agree with a lot of posters.
First stop - Doctor and/or Physio to see exactly what is the issue.
Like many here, I have knee issues from years of being a track hurdler. Also back issues - all connected.
I will eventually have to have ops on both knees but manage now through conditioning exercises and I run/even do Wii Active exercises with knee braces to shore up both patellas.

I now follow a rehab session set by my physio, augmented with strength and conditioning set by a PT at my gym.

I manage the pain and the tweaks as best I can and try and focus on improving the efficiency of the muscles around the knee to help strengthen everything.

Good luck with it all and hope it all improves soon.