Knee pain is often caused by a variety of things either acute injury or repetitive motions that stress the knee over time. When it is not treated it becomes chronic such as rheumatoid arthritis, bursitis or joint inflammation. Living with knee pain does not only limit your routine activities but also affects your quality of life. Avoiding knee pain in the long term requires taking care of your body and adopting healthy lifestyle habits. Here are eight ways to avoid knee pain and injuries recommended by specialists:
1- Maintain a Healthy Weight:
People who are overweight are at a greater risk for knee problems. Obesity is one of the major causes for knee pain. Obesity causes extra strain on the joints and ligaments in the knee. A maintained and ideal weight can relieve the knee pain and reduce the risk of arthritis. So maintain your body weight according to your height and age.
2- Exercise:
Adequate exercise that strengthens the knees is undoubtedly helpful to avoid knee pain. High impact exercises should be avoided. Mix low-impact exercises with high-impact exercises to give your knees a break. Warm up and stretch your body before doing any sort of exercise sudden change in the intensity of your exercise can cause knee pain.
Appropriate exercise decreases the risk of many diseases, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, and osteoporosis. You can consult our physical therapist to discuss about the safe exercises about your suitable condition.
3- Walk, a simple solution to all disorders:
Running puts extra stress on your knees. Instead of running down an incline, walk is the best solution but always walk on paved flours. Rough walkways may be dangerous to your knees health. It will lead you towards a stress free life by saving you from life threatening diseases and major health issues.
4- Use proper equipment:
While participating in exercise, make sure to wear protective sports equipment such as braces of bands and properly fitted shoes that aid in protecting your knees. Change your running shoes frequently to ensure they are giving you proper support and cushioning your feet. Proper footwear will help you maintain balance and leg alignment.
5- Weight lifting:
You can strengthen your leg muscles to better support your knees and avoid injuries by working out with weights. Lifting weights offers numerous benefits to help manage arthritis pain. It keeps muscles around affected joints strong, it decreases bone loss and helps control joint swelling and pain. But do not use more weight which stresses your knees.
6- Don’t decrease your activity:
A decrease in activity and too much rest will weaken your muscles and thus decrease the flexibility increasing your chances of injuries. In case of any minor injury or pain don’t ever shy from using a walking aid as it can take off your knee stress! Less movement will jam your muscles and can give you a painful or an unstable knee.
7- Whether you are active or not, stretching is good for the knees.
Doing stretching exercises that target the calf, hamstring and the quadriceps muscles withdraw pressure off the knees and kneecaps. Researchers say that most people believe stretching has no aerobic value and they see it as a waste of time. And that if the body is healthy and well-conditioned it is not going to have problems with overusing knees.
To protect the knees, these stretches are recommended: step-ups, hamstring curls and straight-leg lifts. Moreover, stretches including a butterfly stretch and a standing hip flexor with a resistance band, that mainly focus on enhancing flexibility in the hips, can aid in reducing knee pain.
The people who dislike stretching prior to workouts are suggested to slowly ramp up to top speed rather than going full speed into the workout from the start. This will protect their knees.
8- Wearing the proper shoes is important for healthy knees.
Using supportive and comfortable shoes can aid in removing pressure from the knee joints because they make the legs properly aligned and balanced. Thus, it should not be a surprise that one common source of knee pain is wearing high heels.
To lessen the knee damage from heels, strength training and stretching can be carried out to develop muscles around the knees. Still, it’s a good idea to save the stilettos for exclusive occasions.
During exercise, wearing proper shoes is critical. Researchers say that for people who are just starting to run on a regular basis or people who are beginning a new form of aerobic exercise, it is highly recommended to get fitted shoes from a professional at sporting goods or running stores. This will aid in any knee problems and decrease their chances of having overuse problems due to footwear.
Follow the above listed measures to alleviate any future concerns. Ignoring the pain can worsen the problem. Don’t leave your pain unnoticed and speak to our medical professionals to diagnose your actual problem properly so you can have the best treatment for your healthy and energetic life. You can book an appointment with a Psychologist in Islamabad, Karachi and Multan through oladoc.com. You can also call our helpline at 042-3890-0939 for assistance to find the Right Doctor for your health concerns
