How to Save Your Knees When You Exercise

Other than not having the motivation to exercise, what’s the reason most people find a reason to stay away from the gym?

“It’s going to hurt.” Or, to be more specific, “My knees can’t handle it.”

I know you’ve heard the counter-argument many times before – exercise can help reduce joint pain, arthritis, etc. But regardless of what people say, it’s a problem for you. There’s no need to worry though. Try out these tips and you’ll see a dramatic reduction in knee pain.

Warm Up

This is, by far, the most important tip. It’s why it’s #1. A lot of people like to just jump right into working out, but it’s a terrible idea. Your body is not a sports car. It can’t always go from 0-60 without potentially hurting something. Warming up gets blood flowing to your joints and prepares them for exercise. It will also help you lift more weight and make your cardio a lot easier.

To warm-up your knees, bike at an easy-going pace for 10 minutes.

If you stretch (you really should stretch), make sure it’s dynamic and not static. Static stretching is where you hold a pose for several seconds. It’s beneficial for when you’re cooling down, but not during a warm-up. Dynamic stretching involves you moving in and out of a stretch relatively quickly.

Improve Your Balance

Your knees are near the center of your legs. They’re a pivot point that often buckles if you don’t have good balance. Knees can also take the brunt of the punishment from running and other activities if you don’t have good balance.

If you’re at the beginner level, work on standing up on one leg from sitting on a chair. As you get more advanced, progress to standing up on uneven ground (put a pillow on the ground and stand up on that).

If you’re more advanced, stand on top of something (a bench at the gym works well). Stand on one leg and lower your other leg until it’s in front of the bench, but lower than it. Stand back up. Repeat 10x on each leg. You can also do the same thing, but with your leg going behind you.

Use Correct Form

Proper form can be one of the most difficult aspects of an exercise to get down. But it’s vital that you’re continually working to perfecting your form. I don’t want to speak for all trainers in the world, but I am going to anyway. They would all rather see you do lower weight and less reps with good form than they would like to see you do more reps with higher weight.

Using incorrect form is a great way to injure yourself. If you’re unsure about how to properly do an exercise, ask a trainer. Or, ask someone who looks like they know what they’re doing. Everyone at the gym is trying to do the same thing – better themselves. So don’t be shy. Most people will be more than willing to help you out.

Build Up Your Entire Leg

The joints are the weakest part of any system. It’s best to think of your legs as an entire unit instead of being separate. To reduce your risk of knee injury, you need to build up your quads (front of the leg), hamstrings (back of your leg), calves, and hips.

For your hips, side raises can be effective. Get a resistance band to make it even more effective. They’re best done lying on your side.

Squats are beneficial for your quads, but you need to balance them out with deadlifts or kettlebell swings.

Calf raises are the best for your calves. However, be careful that you don’t do too much weight. It’s better to do higher reps and low weight if your knees aren’t that strong yet.

That’s really the simplest way to make sure you don’t hurt your knees during exercise. I want to stress the importance of proper form and warming up again. If you don’t do anything else, please do just those two things.