Help! My knees hurt!

[missblonde4878]

I'm hoping that you guys can give me some advice on this subject.

Since November, I have been doing Interval Training, Intense Cardio w/weights. In November and December, I was working out 3-4 times per week. In January, I upped that to 6 times a week consistently.

Doing this showed great results and I couldn't be happier...BUT...my knees are freakin killing me! They don't hurt while I'm working out (well, on occasion they do - but not bad enough to prevent me from working out), instead I notice it when I go up and down steps, get out of car, first thing in the morning when I get out of bed. And the pain is so bad I almost buckle and fall over.

My boyfriend thinks that I should take an entire week off of exercise all together to let them heal themselves, but I really don't want to do that. I've thought about doing lower impact exercise, but I have no clue what to do in order to still burn calories.

In my workouts, I don't do an extreme amount of jumping or running, mostly step aerobics with a few jumping jacks and a jog.

I don't have medical insurance due to not working or else I would be asking my doctor these questions - but if anyone has gone through this..or has any suggestions on good low impact workouts, please let me know!

 

[kgirl]

Hi
I injured my knee a few months ago. I was doing a slim in 6 workout and all of a sudden my knee would have a sharp pain when I bent it while putting pressure on it. What I did was I would do the workout but the lunges and stuff that required major knee bending I wouldn't do. I also noticed (at least for me) that the low impact version of the turbo jam 20 min workout was easy on the knee. I also did not want to stop working out in fear of loosing my "groove". Maybe you could try working out every other day for a week or 2 and just use the treadmill (at a slower pace) and with weights you can concentrate on the upper body and give the lower half a rest while you recover. If you really feel you need to workout every day then do the treadmill everyday and weight training every second day, if it still hurts after that maybe you should take a little break from working out, and just be extra careful with your food intake and you should still loose (what I did when I had a really bad pulled muscle).

 

[maleficent]

In my workouts, I don't do an extreme amount of jumping or running, mostly step aerobics with a few jumping jacks and a jog.

Those are all pretty high impact...

6 days a week is a lot.. cut back to a 3 -4 days a week and do weight training on alternate days...

Read the stickied threads in the exercise forum you'll get lots of different ideas..

 

[Invariant]

Because you're young and extremely active, my best advice would be that you're suffering from Chondromalacia. It effects mostly young, otherwise healthy females, who exercise persistently. It's when the cartiladge under your petalla blisters due to the strain you're putting on your knees. What I've had to do is wear a neoprene brace and rest for 1-2 days a week. I would suggest you tone down your extreme routine for a week or so and buy a slim, band that wraps around your knee. Chondromalacia heals itself with rest and NSAID's (Non-steroidal anit-inflammatory drugs. Such as Naproxan, ibuprufen and aspirin.) You'll continue to get better if you don't irritate your knees. I've had to tone down my work-out routine. I use to run on an incline and I've since transitioned to a mere slope. Now, I'm working on strenghtening the muscles surrounding my knees and it's really helped take the strain off my patellas.

 

[erakoci]

Hey guys! I had the same thing as listed above by Invariant. Chrondromalia was medically diagnosed to me and I sound just like you, doing the high impact step, running, jumping jacks, etc. I teach aerobics 5x/week, so you can do the math as to what that all involves. The pain in the knees in the mornings and up/down steps was a killer for me. They do suggest rest and strengthening exercises.

It can be very frusterating. I thought to myself, why in the he** would I need to do quad exercises when I work out regularly, but apparently that does help. We'll see. Keep me updated. it is hard to find people with this condition who will "spill their beans" about what has actually worked for them.

I'm going to give up running and step aerobics, and "jumping" as much as possible and am going to try to use the elliptical maybe like 3x per week to let it heal. I guess that is key. I hear weight training is really the most benefiical anyway for keeping the metabolism up and running.

Good luck & keep us posted Nice to hear we can help support each other.

 

[Invariant]

Hey guys! I had the same thing as listed above by Invariant. Chrondromalia was medically diagnosed to me and I sound just like you, doing the high impact step, running, jumping jacks, etc. I teach aerobics 5x/week, so you can do the math as to what that all involves. The pain in the knees in the mornings and up/down steps was a killer for me. They do suggest rest and strengthening exercises.

It can be very frusterating. I thought to myself, why in the he** would I need to do quad exercises when I work out regularly, but apparently that does help. We'll see. Keep me updated. it is hard to find people with this condition who will "spill their beans" about what has actually worked for them.

I'm going to give up running and step aerobics, and "jumping" as much as possible and am going to try to use the elliptical maybe like 3x per week to let it heal. I guess that is key. I hear weight training is really the most benefiical anyway for keeping the metabolism up and running.

Good luck & keep us posted Nice to hear we can help support each other.

Like yourself, I'm a huge runner. My chondromalcia first acted up when I began run/jogging on an incline. Turns out the incline was way too high and I was jogging for way too long. I've since began running and jogging and on a MUCH lower incline and sometimes no incline at all. This has REALLY helped my knees. They're not completely better yet, and more than likely won't be unless I remain sedentary for a whole week, which I CANNOT do because I love exercise.

But do keep us updated hon. I'm interested to hear if it's working for you. I'm thankful to be able to still burn 500+ calories in a workout and have it be low impact on my petellas.

 

[erakoci]

Hello! I'm impressed that you've been able to continue the running at ALL. Unfortunately I let mine go way too long, I thought it was just "arthritis" and shrugged it off. Now I'm working to very lightly just work the elliptical.

Did they ever mention getting your knee scoped? My doc talked about scraping some of the cartilidge away possibly to help. Have you heard at all about this?

 

[Invariant]

Hello! I'm impressed that you've been able to continue the running at ALL. Unfortunately I let mine go way too long, I thought it was just "arthritis" and shrugged it off. Now I'm working to very lightly just work the elliptical.

Did they ever mention getting your knee scoped? My doc talked about scraping some of the cartilidge away possibly to help. Have you heard at all about this?

Unfortunately no. I really do wish I could be more of a help to you, hon. All I can say, is that I was fortunate to catch it soon. Today in fact, I've had practically no pain at all. I do believe the reason why mine was flaring up was the excessive incline I was running at. When I started running again on a level surface, I was fine. At the same time, because I've been running uphill so long, my legs are quite muscular. This may have something do with my decreased pain. The muscles of my legs are doing all the work and not my knees.

I have however heard of knee scoping. It worked for a friend of mine, and I'd say, because of the length of time you've suffered from chondromalacia, perhaps you should give it a shot. I would suggest you try physical therapy and decrase the intensity of your workouts first. Of course, if you've done this for an extended period of time already with no results, I'd say you take your doctor's advice.

I'm really sorry I can't be of more help. I really do hope you're not in too much pain.

 

[WineDeer]

I've been diagnosed with this, and I was about to post a thread, when I saw this one.

I'm going to be doing physical therapy and the therapist has told me already to stop going to the gym. He wants to monitor me during the sessions and then slowly introduce the gym again.

You may want to consider working on strengthening exercises, rather than cardio until the knee heals.

I've already had knee surgery -- it's a bitch. You don't want to go through it.

Good luck!!!!