5 Steps to Keep Your Knees Healthy

zainab quadri

May 7, 2015 2:00 PM

Keeping the knees healthy during exercise is very important, and these key steps would ensure your knees are balanced and stable.

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Keeping the knees healthy during exercise is very important, and these key steps would ensure your knees are not only balanced but stable.

1. Warm-up and stretch before exercising. Warming up and stretching can help the knee joint in many ways, including increasing the circulation of the blood and lymph fluid into and out of joint structures and the adjacent soft tissues and ensuring that the muscles and the ligaments attendant to the knee joint are not too tight. As a result, tension on the tendons is reduced, and pressure on the knee is relieved.2. Avoid doing too much exercise. Some individuals hurt their knees because of the overuse syndrome. Simply stated, cumulatively, they place excessive demands on their knees.3. Avoid sudden increases in the intensity of exercise. Allow your body to gradually and progressively adapt to the demands that you impose on it. Doing too much too soon can injure your knees. Keep in mind that some actions that alter intensity level are not as obvious as others. For example, changing your approach to exercising (i.e., running hills instead of jogging on a flat terrain) may unduly increase your level of intensity.4. Use exercise equipment properly. Improper use of exercise equipment can cause knee problems. For example, if you exercise on a stationary bike, check the position of the pedal crank relative to the seat post. If the crank is not relatively close to the seat post, you will place undue stress on your knees while exercising.5. Listen to your body. Pain is your body's signal that you may be placing too much stress on your knees. Reducing or stopping whatever is causing the stress is the primary step in ensuring that your actions don't lead to a more serious injury.

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zainab quadri