Hurt my knee :(

86rollyb

So I've been running for a few months & have managed to stay injury free. No knee pain, shin splints, nothing! I ran 5 k yesterday & felt fantastic & I can honestly say that I enjoy running now! Well, last night I reached into my daughter's closet & managed to twist my knee ( In the past, when I've done this it's taken at least a week before it stopped hurting to walk & since I've never been a runner before I have no idea how long it will be before I can get back on the track. So my questions are - what knee friendly exercises can I do in the meantime? On days that I'm not running I usually do bodyweight type strength training but all the routines I use are very squat & lunge heavy and usually involve a lot of jumping jacks/jump rope/high knees etc. can anyone direct me to a routine that will be easier on my poor knee? I don't have a gym membership so I need a home workout please! Second question - what can I do to strengthen my knee once it's better so that i don't get this injury again? Do you think the running caused it, even though I wasn't running at the time? Should I be wearing a brace or something? Any stretches that I should be doing after my runs? I'm frustrated b/c I'm only 26 & in relatively good shape & I feel like I shouldn't be having trouble with my &$&@%# joints!!

sc1572

First off, NO RUNNING for awhile! I injured my knee back in March through a car accident, and am STILL having issues with it. I was out of running for months, went through PT, and each day is different. During that time, walking was my best friend. It still is! If you have access to a gym, elliptical is great, as well as swimming, but if you don't, walking is the way to go. Definitely stay away from stuff like squats for awhile as well, and any kind of movement that would twist your knee, such as Zumba, dancing, etc. I hope it gets better soon! Ice and heat are your friend! As far as a brace goes, it depends. When I sprained my ankle doing high knee runs in a boot camp class, a brace helped. When I hurt my knee, a brace made it worse. And ditto on the age thing...I'm only 20!