Your Knees: How to Keep Them in Shape

Experts offer tips to keep and prolong the health of your knees

By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant

 

Few physical activities don’t involve the knees. Once your knees “go bad,” it’s tough to find joint-friendly exercises that can help keep you moving and vibrant. If you still have good knees, count it as a blessing and try these tips to keep them happy and healthy.

“If your knees are good and you’re active, stay active,” said Taylor Wood, physical therapist at Wellness 360 in Rochester. “If you’re not necessarily active and your knees are great, try to become more active. Start carefully; don’t do anything crazy.”

With a doctor’s approval, exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knees can help stabilize the joint.

Wood recommended several:

• Straight leg lift. Lie flat on your back, engage the quadriceps and lift the leg up.

• Bridge. Lie on your back with your knees bent. Place your palms on the floor shoulder’s width apart and behind your head. Lift up your body so all your weight is on your feet
and hands.

• Side leg lift. Lie on your side and lift the leg up and down.

• Clamshell. Lie on your side with both knees are bent. Keep the hips stacked on top of each other and not rotated. Keep your feet stay together as you move your knees apart and together.

Activities such as yoga, dance and tai chi can help improve flexibility throughout the body and help reduce strain on the knees.

Carrying too much body weight stresses joints, including the knees, which can increase your risk for knee problems.

“Your knees are weight bearing joints and the more you weight the more stress is put on that joint,” said Nancy Alexander, physical therapist and credentialed fitness professional at Professional Movement Solutions in Canandaigua.

In addition to helping the body maintain a healthy weight, exercise can also help the knees feel better, even in people who are beginning to feel joint pain.

“It’s a synovial joint,” Alexander said. “It has synovial fluid. It lubricates the joint and provides nourishment to the joint surfaces. By moving it, you are providing health to the joint. Straighten and bend the knee. Do it with exercise. If you have arthritis, use a floor bike or a stationary bike.”

Movement also helps counteract the effects of too much sitting. Alexander said that other muscle groups can affect knee pain. Keeping them all flexible and moving more can help prevent knee pain.

Alexander warned that anyone experiencing sudden, sharp pain that is not easily resolved should be seen by a healthcare provider. Most people feel muscle soreness the day after exercising. However, that usually goes away with rest.

“Know your normal,” Alexander said. “You know day in and day out what’s normal. But one day you go to do a squat and you can’t get all the way down on your left knee like you did, you should wonder what’s going on.”

Exercise can help create a higher threshold for what their joints can do. Kali LaRue, physical therapist with STAR Physical Therapy in Fairport, said that regular exercise can increase the stress tolerance of bodily tissue, including joints.

“The only way to maintain the strength is to gradually apply loads, which makes it stronger,” LaRue said. “If you gradually stop applying loads, that threshold gets lower and you’re more reactive to stress on that tissue.”

The more one exercises — providing that it’s gradually increasing in intensity — the more stable joints can become.”

Once you’re regularly exercising, it’s important to “pay attention to your shoes,” Staffan Elgelid, physical therapist and professor at Nazareth University’s physical therapy department. “Replace them as needed. Most people wait too long.”

It’s not a matter of how they look, but how they feel.

“As soon as you start having little aches in your knees, hips or ankles, get new shoes,” Elgelid said.