“Be kind to your knees. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.”
I run quite a bit, about three miles a day, and I am worried about what I might be doing to my knees. Sometimes after running they will feel “irritated” and this worries me. I am still quite young and would like to start working now towards a lifetime of happy healthy knees. What should I do to keep them disintegrating as I get older?
all I can say is good luck, I have allready had many knee surgeries and I am told I have to have both replaced soon, and I am only 39
Ugh.
You describe my knees and my running habits to a T.
I’m going to see my orthopedic surgeon on Wednesday to chat about knees (hopefully the word “surgery” will never be mentioned in the discussion).
The physician’s office staff displeased me when I set the appointment, so I got it off my chest in the pit the other day.
I symphethize with you.
Quit runnimg now. Use a bike or better yet swim if you can get to a pool (YMCA or spa).
Sorry if it isn’t very helpful, but:
I used to run, but the complaints from my knees & ankles eventually became too loud to ignore. I now swim, ride a bicycle and walk, and the grumbling has ceased. My doctor’s view was that some people have joints that can stand the stress of running long term, but a good many don’t; I seem to be in the latter group.
Jeepers!
I was expecting more responses along the lines of “Buy these expensive shoes” and “Take this supplement” not “Weep now, for there is no hope among our doomed kind my sweet son”.
Bicycling done properly (low enough gear/fast enough spin rate) strengthens knees. Furthermore, it doesn’t entail the impact that running does. Trade some running time for cycling time.
For what it’s worth, when my knee started hurting after high-impact aerobics, my doctor suggested I take glucosamine/chondroitin supplements, and my aerobics instructor suggested I do strength training focusing on my quads (the most effective exercise consisted of almost sitting down to a count of eight, then standing again to a count of four). I believe the exercises helped more than the supplements, but I’ve been taking them anyway, just in case. The knee has improved immensely.
You might try finding someone to evaluate your form when you’re running, just in case there’s something you can change in order to take stress off your knees.
I swim, do bicycle (stationery), treadmill, and various weight machines. I was interested in helping my hips, but all this has benefited my knees as well and I no longer have any pain in them. Only rarely do you hear of cultures where people run for any practical purpose, except in some south American countries where runners were part of a communications system. Only in America would we take something that seems to be a short-term emergency type physical act, and against common sense run miles and miles for “exercise”. Personally, I don’t believe the human body is meant to do this. We aren’t cheetahs after all; we have large brains and can get our food and evade our enemies in other ways. Just my personal opinion. :eek:
Squats and glucosamine will do wonders for your cartilage. As of this point, there’s not a whole lot of evidence that chondroitin is worth taking as well, but it is significantly more expensive to do so.
I’m surprised that nobody’s mentioned the old faithful - if you’re overweight, loose weight. (Although, you’re proably not overweight if you run three miles a day.)
I used to work with a guy who ran a few miles a day. He said he couldn’t run on pavement or sidewalk because of the impact when the ground doesn’t give. He recommended for daily runners to run on dirt paths if possible.
I would switch to a bike. Just as in running, you can push yourself on a bike. You can do fast sprints or long endurance. If you buy a used bike do not get a bio-pace (sp?) gear set. They were popular 10+ years ago but they were blowing out the knees of racers. You can identify this type of gear by spinning the foot pedals and watching those gears. If they are not round it is a bio pace gear.
The advantage of a bike is that you can literally push yourself until your legs lock up and then just coast. You’re already sitting down so you can rest in style while your legs catch up. You also have an easier way to measure your performance. Being able to sprint through all the gears requires a lot of hp and endurance. If you can hit 35 mph in a sprint you will get a hell of a workout in the seconds required to do it.
So far there is no effective method of regrowing knee cartiledge. Run as if your knee cartiledge has to last you the rest of your life. How should we then run? Rarely.
When my knee became sore from my walking/jogging habits, I read a book in the library about common running injuries. After that, I visited a chiropractor, and from that I learned abit about preventing further knee injury.
-Don’t run everyday. Alternate with simple walking, biking, swimming, whatever.
-Visit a chiropractor, and tell them what you told us. I learned from my chiropractor that my knees are misshapen, and my knee caps were wearing away cartilage. However, by wearing braces on my knees when I walk or run, I’m able to prevent further destruction.
-Use weight training to strengthen leg muscles. Most people need to work thier quads, but it depends on the person.
-And look into taking a supplement, they can stop knee damage from occuring.
After you go for a long run, eat 3-4 Mallomars, those marshmallow and chocolate cookies you can get at most grocery stores, along with a big glass of milk.
It won’t help your knees, but Mallomars are good! Yum.
[sub]Just because it’s neither helpful nor relevant doesn’t mean it’s not good advice. Unless you don’t like Mallomars.[/sub]
I used to run a lot more, but I’ve become a wuss about running on wintery sidewalks. My even better excuse is that I have kids now, and can’t leave them alone in the house–though they are getting older now, and that excuse is about to expire.
However, when I was running daily my knees gave me some trouble. I talked to the people at a local shoe store, one that is owned and operated by runners, changed shoe brands to one they recommended, and my knees began to feel normal again. I was running about two miles a day, sometimes double that if I was feeling good or had the time.
I also quit my practice of running in the same shoes until they were held together by mere molecular memory. I decided that new shoes were my friend.