Avoid Knee Injury
02/24/2012 Leave a comment
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| Photo Credit: Nevit Dilmen CC-BY-SA-3.0 2010 |
Your knees take a pounding every day. Every step you take, climbing stairs, walking through the grocery store, pressing the gas and brake pedal in your car, and standing up and sitting down all require movement of your knee joints. Running, jogging and jumping are high-impact activities that can cause injury if your knee muscles weak or the joint not as flexible as it should be. You can avoid knee injury by strengthening your knee muscles with exercise and taking a few common sense precautions.
Take care of your joints by drinking plenty of water, eating healthy foods and keeping your weight under control. Extra pounds can take a toll on your knee joints. Losing weight can help you avoid acute injury and long-term chronic pain due to deterioration of the joint. Extra stress is placed on the knee joint, muscles and tendons with every step when you are overweight. Regular exercise, rest, hydration and a healthy diet can help you lose weight and save knees.
Most knee injuries can be attributed to weak muscles in the leg. Exercises that strengthen the hamstrings and quadriceps muscles can help prevent knee injury and pain. Balance exercises also help promote knee health. Use a balance board to exercise and strengthen the leg muscles. Simple exercises that you can do just about anywhere, any time include standing on one leg for 60 seconds, standing on your toes, shifting your weight to your heels for 30 seconds or more and swimming. Swimming is an excellent whole body aerobic workout.
If you are already experiencing knee pain, stiffness or weakness, see your doctor to rule out injury or a condition, such as gout or osteoarthritis. Consult a personal fitness trainer to help you develop an exercise and diet program to improve your knee health.
Robin's One Stop Fitness 