Best exercises for someone with bad knees

The best advice I have is to check with your doctor, especially if the pain is from an injury or disease.

Swimming might be a good option if you access to water. Also, things like non-standing calisthenics like pushups, crunches, leg lifts, etc. Walking is usually good. You might try a knee brace to help lessen pain. Yoga or Pilates.

It's really hard to advise without knowing what is causing the knee pain and how severe it is, but basically I think you'd want to stick to low/no impact exercises.

Biking is a great exercise. My knees are iffy and I bike all the time. But the caveat is you need to make sure that you are seated properly on your bike so you're not stressing your knees. If you go to a spinning class the spinning instructor can set you up properly also

NotSoPerfectPam wrote: »

Biking is a great exercise. My knees are iffy and I bike all the time. But the caveat is you need to make sure that you are seated properly on your bike so you're not stressing your knees. If you go to a spinning class the spinning instructor can set you up properly also

+1, especially being seated properly. I hurt my knee hiking this summer and was able to use the stationary bike while that healed as long as the seat wasn't too high.

My doctor and physical therapist suggested exercises for my bad knees. Building strength around the area does help with the pain. However, you have to make sure you are doing the right exercises. Some of the machines at the gym can actually hurt your knees.

Talk to an orthopedist about the best thing to do for your situation. There are many different types of knee problems and any advice you get about knees might not be the right advice for your circumstance. Bad knees could be arthritis, an ACL problem, tight IT band, meniscus problem.

I have arthritis, tight IT band on left leg and Meniscus problem on right leg. The exercises for each injury are different. Only consistency is to add strength to help support the knee.

As for exercises that I would recommend:

Swimming
Water Aerobics
Pilates on the mat

I found Pilates, Yoga and Ballet taught me how to control and pay attention to my body. If you do try Yoga, make sure its with an instructor and you tell them you have a knee problem so they modify accordingly.

Swimming can be dangerous. Properly executed freestyle kicks should be OK as the knee stays stable but most people do a "lazier" breaststroke/frog kick which pushes the knees out and, depending on the knee issue of course, can make it worse. People assume that because the water acts as a support it is ok, but it's not always the case at all.

I had ACL reconstruction and swimming was the very last form of exercise I could get back into other than high impact stuff.

I was surprised when the physio told me, so I went against the advice, gave it a go, realised he was absolutely right and learned my lesson! It was them some time until I went back in the pool and just focused on the bike instead, even though it bored me to tears!

2 years later and my knees are as strong as ever...the patience and perseverance paid off.