The Sore Knee Catch-22

Being overweight causes you to have sore knees. Having sore knees makes you avoid exercise. Avoiding exercise causes you to gain weight. Being overweight…

You see where I’m going?

Australian researchers studied 297 adults aged 50-79 for over 2 years. During that time, they found that patella (knee-bone) cartilage volume was lost at an annual rate of 1.8 percent. Being overweight or having a high body fat percentage increased the rate of knee cartilage breakdown.

I see the “sore knee catch 22” in a lot of clients. They come to me needing to lose weight, but complain that they can’t exercise because it hurts their knees.

Sure, you will need to avoid certain types of exercise at first (squats, lunges, running, jumping). But there are lots of other exercises that you can do to build the muscles around your knees – for support and to burn calories. Plus, you can always improve your diet – the number one way to kick-start a weight-loss program.

To burn calories, you can do interval training on “cross-trainer” or “elliptical” machines. These are low-impact exercises, and still allow you to work at a relatively high intensity. Swimming is another good interval-training option.

To strengthen the muscles around your knees, lie on the floor and do hip extensions, 1-leg hip extensions, and stability ball leg curls. Any personal trainer will be able to show you those basic exercises.

Eventually, as you lose weight and gain strength, you can progress to bodyweight squats, and then try a variety of single-leg exercises. So while your knees may be sore now, they can get stronger with less pain as you lose weight and strengthen the supporting muscles.

[Ed. Note: To lose weight, you need a proven exercise system that can help you burn fat and build muscle. ]