Sore knees

emma1488

Hi guys,

I started on MFP a week ago today and since then, i have done at least 30mins of cardio exercise a day which usually is either skipping, boxing, running or a combination as a circuit.

The last few days i've had some bad pain in my knees which i've never had before and am worried of doing myself any damage.

So i've since then cut out jump squats (which were hurting them the most) and am trying to think of different ways of doing cardio that is more gentle on my knees.

It's also getting quite chilly here now, so i'm not keen on swimming:O

LittleSpy

Alternate high impact days (running, jumping, etc) with low impact days (bicycling, walking, etc). That will definitely help. You may want to cut out the high impact until you have no pain in your knees if the alternating days doesn't eliminate the day-to-day soreness.

mhotch

I have sore knees also. I have read to strengthen thigh muscles will help the knees. I have been doing squats, lunges, and weight machines to strengthen my legs. I also broke down and went to a specialized running store and had my gait analyzed. I pronate {sp?} my foot in when I walk/run. He gave me 5 different "stability" sneaker to try on. He did suggest that I wear at least 1/2-1 size larger than what my foot measured, because your foot normally swells up while working out and the sneaker should have enough room for this. The sneakers were no more expensive than what I have seen in sport chain stores.

With my new sneakers, and a new HRM, I headed to the gym, excited to try out both of my new fitness items. I strained my glute muscle doing lunges. I didn't get to see how much better the sneakers felt! Today is a muscle pain free day, so I will try again!

emma1488

I have sore knees also. I have read to strengthen thigh muscles will help the knees. I have been doing squats, lunges, and weight machines to strengthen my legs. I also broke down and went to a specialized running store and had my gait analyzed. I pronate {sp?} my foot in when I walk/run. He gave me 5 different "stability" sneaker to try on. He did suggest that I wear at least 1/2-1 size larger than what my foot measured, because your foot normally swells up while working out and the sneaker should have enough room for this. The sneakers were no more expensive than what I have seen in sport chain stores.

With my new sneakers, and a new HRM, I headed to the gym, excited to try out both of my new fitness items. I strained my glute muscle doing lunges. I didn't get to see how much better the sneakers felt! Today is a muscle pain free day, so I will try again!

oh no! I hope it improves! I've been doing squat galore n my knee was hurting whilst doing them, so I'm giving myself a break from them. Today my knees aren't too bad but I went for a walk just to make sure it recovers properly:)

Iceprincessk25

If you are having pain in your knees you may want to check out your form. Make sure that you are keeping your knees in line with your ankles when you squat down. If you are squatting and you look down and can't see your feet you need to move your butt backwards more when you squat. Same thing with lunges.

Jump squats are definitely not recomended for someone who is just starting out with a work out. Save those for later. Too much stress on your kness.

To help with the pain try icing them for 20 min a couple times a day and DEFINITELY AFTER your work out. You can take some sort of anti-inflamm. like advil or aleve also.

tipusnr

I would see a doctor soon. Two years ago I hurt my left knee on a treadmill and self-diagnosed the injury. I determined that it was just an old guy getting back in shape. I toughed out 3 5K runs and 2 4-mile runs during the summer until my knee clicked loud enough for my daughter to hear it as we walked in the hardware store.

By the time I saw a specialist, the initial tear of the medial meniscus was highly aggravated and the surgeon expected to find arthritus as well. What he found was no arthritis but a tear in the other disk as well.

It was repairable and I'm running again but why chance it?

Iceprincessk25

Meniscal tears are EASILY repaired. So that's good news. An easy test to see if that's the problem is to try and duck walk. Squat down with your butt almost all the way down to the ground and try walking that way. If it feels like the knee is going to give out then it's probably meniscal.

Where is your pain located? Under the knee cap? Below the knee cap towards the shin??

emma1488

If you are having pain in your knees you may want to check out your form. Make sure that you are keeping your knees in line with your ankles when you squat down. If you are squatting and you look down and can't see your feet you need to move your butt backwards more when you squat. Same thing with lunges.

Jump squats are definitely not recomended for someone who is just starting out with a work out. Save those for later. Too much stress on your kness.

To help with the pain try icing them for 20 min a couple times a day and DEFINITELY AFTER your work out. You can take some sort of anti-inflamm. like advil or aleve also.

I think thats interesting that you say to ditch the jump squats, which i agree with...however i tell ya a little story....

I just finished a 5 week group fitness program my uni that was lead my by a so called 'qualified' PT. (Im sure she was, but she was just an idiot). On our first group training, she had us all run laps around a tennis court (all of us being a variety of women with greatly differing weights and fitness levels) then she had us face a partner; both partners would jump squat to 20 then. then one partner would run to the other end of the tennis court and do leg steps, while the other one held a squat...We then did 18 jump squats, do the run, then 16 etc until down to 2. This was soooo painful, and i considered myself to be the fittest person there...

So thats where my jump squat idea came from, they burned and so i figured they were working, but since having this pain i've stopped doing them...

Btw, the pain seems to be in my knee cap towards the outer top part, my BF reckons its my cartlidge and to take glucosamine tablets.

I think i have pretty good form with my normal squats and have done plenty of exercise before...so i'm either putting it down to the jump squats or the amount of running i've been doing (which is a first for me:grumble: :noway: