knee pain with lunges

Grimmerick
Grimmerick Posts: 3,342 Member
edited September 30 in Fitness and Exercise
I have never been a big fan of lunges but I know they are an excellent and necessary exercise, my problem is I get knee pain with them. I do not let me knee go past my toes, and I make sure to sink down into the lunge and try to maintain posture, any thoughts on what it could be or alternative ways to do a lunge?

Replies

  • Mrs_TrimWaistFatWallet
    Mrs_TrimWaistFatWallet Posts: 486
    Maybe try to address the knee pain first? Where does it hurt? Sides/center?
  • Grimmerick
    Grimmerick Posts: 3,342 Member
    it's medial pain almost behind my patella but a little more medial than that. My knees are normally fine, just with lunges I notice after 2 or 3 I start to have pain.
  • Atlantique
    Atlantique Posts: 2,484 Member
    Can you try wall squats and see if that's any better?
  • arkenny
    arkenny Posts: 125
    i get the same thing! usually more so with lateral lunges...
  • tropicalicyicy
    tropicalicyicy Posts: 83 Member
    the same thing happens to me! my workout video has them and i noticed my knees hurt after i do them so i have been skipping that part but tonight i tried just my left knee and it is bothering me now. i'll probably just continue to skip that part because i don't need knee problems =\
  • natskedat
    natskedat Posts: 570 Member
    They're not necessary. You can build your muscles with squats, leg presses, hamstring curls, calf raises, and BOSU ball exercises.

    If it hurts, don't do it.
  • Collinsky
    Collinsky Posts: 593 Member
    I've had the same situation with lunges and knee pain, and I was really careful about form from day one, and modified so that I wasn't going down all the way since I knew I wasn't at that level yet. I still ended up hurting my knees.

    I read somewhere (I was looking for what to do about it) that sometimes, a person will work so hard to stop their knee from going over their toes that they end up jarring the knee. I wish I could find that again, because I'd like to check that out some more. It got me thinking though, that overthinking form was perhaps my problem.

    My husband walked me through a bunch of shifts, and I realized that when they say "keep the weight in your heel" I was REALLY keeping the weight in my heel - my toes had no weight. I also was keeping my back VERY straight and tall. So - perfect form, right? Some things you might want to try are doing the lunge (not all the way, just to the point it stops being comfortable) and then shift your weight forward a little, and then back. Just tiny little adjustments can make a huge difference. Shifting just slightly forward so that the weight was more evenly distributed across my feet, and allowing my chest to dip forward a tiny bit when I went down, made a huge difference in how my knees felt. I was concentrating so much on trying to have "good form," that I was actually stopping my body from doing what it wanted to do naturally, and it was hurting me. So there's a balance to be had there.
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
    don't do lunges they are horribly bad for your knees. do squats instead, place your toes straight forward or out toward the corners according to what is more comfortable.

    make sure you squat straight down and up without leaning forward. you can hold dumbells on your shoulders for extra weight if you like, or a body bar.

    good news: squats are done in half the time of lunges!

    blessings.
  • sleepytexan
    sleepytexan Posts: 3,138 Member
    If you continue to have knee pain, even with squats, you can do the following non-impact quad strengthening exercise.

    SEATED LEG LIFTS:

    Sit on the floor, legs straight out in front of you. Sit against the wall or against a step bench with a couple risers underneath (back straight, hands on the floor beside you, or hold a dumbbell on your thigh to add weight for the lifts.

    Flex your feet so that your heels lift off the floor. With quads fully engaged, alternate leg lifts (you won't be able to lift very high--that is the point!). Don't touch your heels back to the ground.

    As you get stronger, try doing 2 on the left, 2 right, then 4 and 4, then 8 and 8 -- don't touch the leg down to the ground when you are working one side. Also you can just hold one leg up and pulse it up to 16 times, then switch.

    blessings.
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