How do I workout with bad knees?

I hear all the time from people that their knees are “bad”.  In fact, I had a patient tell me that just last week. She even had knee replacement surgery and was still complaining about her knee pain. I started to ask her more about what on her knees hurt, when her knees hurt, and then I asked questions about her daily life and what activities she was able to do and what she was missing out on. 

​She was able to point where the pain was, she told me it was the same pain from before her surgery and it never went away. “I wish I never had the surgery.” She isn’t able to shop for long periods of time because standing and walking increase her pain, She is cautious of the type of seats she sits on because when they are to low she has difficulty getting up from them. She isn’t able to participate in any of the group fitness classes she wants because of her “bad knee”.   

After the evaluation and small treatment was done she gets up and says, 

“Oh my! My knees haven’t felt this great in years!.” 

She walked around for several minutes with her mouth open, eyes wide, simply in shock.

The remainder of her sessions with me will be learning how to keep her knee feeling good without having to come to my clinic. The first phase will be stop her pain, then work on the form or activities that caused the knee pain and the last phase will be to progress her being able to shop til she drops (from being tired), workout with her friends and sit on whatever chair she wants. 

The big question and fear can be that if you workout or move your “bad knee” the pain will get worse. Why wouldn’t you think that since they hurt to move? 

Really the trick to working out with bad knees is that your knees take on a lot of stress from your hips and ankles. 
 
Your hip and ankle could be moving in one direction and forcing your knee in the other direction which causes constant stress...then pain. 

There are many causes for bad knees so giving a clear path for how to workout with bad knees is hard. 

However, I do have a few tips for anyone that wants to workout with bad knees.

1. Stretch before your workout - stretching help to loosen up your muscles allowing them to move more freely during your activity. 
   
2. Move what you can! Meaning if your knees are having a really bad day then maybe you move another body part and keep your knees out of the workout.
   
3. Move when you can! Some people find they move better at certain parts of the day. The time of day or location of your workout is not important. What is important is that you simply do something. Over time you be able to more. 
   
4. Move how you can! If a certain motion or certain point in the movement of an activity is painful then simply do not do that movement or go that far into it. When you are working out as long as you are moving you are getting a benefit; there is no need to increase your pain with each repetition. 
   
5. Ice after your workout - When you workout your body naturally rushes blood to your arms and legs to assist in doing the work they were doing. If you have arthritis or joint pain simply having more blood in an area can cause discomfort which ice will help reduce. 
   
6. Find a physical therapist - Why should you try to find out how to workout with bad knee without a little help? Do this on your own can be frustrating and painstakingly slow. A physical therapist can find the route cause of your bad knees and help create and teach you a program that will get you on your way to shopping, working out, and all your other favorite activities.​
   

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