There are still people out there saying that running or squatting will ruin your knees, and this bullshit needs to stop. That isn't how knees work. That isn't how anything works.
Runners are less likely to get arthritis in their knees because of the running angle. The types of knee pain that they get most commonly, like the syndrome known as Runner's knee, are often treated with more exercise and strength training.
Squats are inherently harmful because they don't include deep squats or squats where your knees go over your toes. It's important to make sure you're doing it correctly and your body is prepared for the amount of work you're asking it to do. That applies to running mileage, the weight of the barbell when you squat, and the type of squat you do.
Why do so many people think exercise will ruin your knees? Exercise, like diet advice, is a place where people like to feel good about their choices and criticize others.
G/O Media may get a commissionOne major reason for knees is the way that arthritis has been described. Half of all adults will experience Osteoarthritis in their lifetime, and it tends to occur in older people. For a long time, the standard narrative was that you wear your joints down little by little, and if you don't, you have arthritis and your knees hurt.
The implications would seem clear if you accept that story. The more impact the better. Once your knees start hurting, you better stop using them. Accept your fate, give up exercising, and sit down.
The story doesn't hold up to scrutiny. Scientists who study osteoarthritis have a lot of theories about what might be happening, and they don't believe that the cartilage just wears down like old tires. The disease process involves things happening in the bone and the joint capsule. Exercise seems to help.
Exercise is strongly recommended for people with osteoarthritis of the knee and hip, according to the American College of Rheumatology and Arthritis Foundation. People who exercise see an improvement in their symptoms. Most studies on exercise involve walking and other cardiovascular exercise, but strength training and neuromuscular exercises have been shown to be effective too. They recommend that patients choose an exercise they enjoy and that it isn't too painful to start.
Does that mean you won't hurt your knees when you exercise? Pain and injury are part of life, even if you don't exercise. You could twist your knee by stepping in a hole in the ground while you are running, but then again you could decide not to exercise or do anything to hurt your knee.
One thing that is accepted is that a strong body is less susceptible to injury. Running or swimming will strengthen your muscles. Strength training does the job well, as the name implies, and there is plenty of research linking strong legs to better joint health. One thing that strong muscles can help with is stabilizing the knee joint.
You may have more options than you realize. If your knees hurt, you should stick to swimming or cycling since they are considered to be lower impact than running. One idea about why exercise helps osteoarthritis is that the repeated impact of running helps the knee get the vitamins it needs to repair itself. Cartilage doesn't have blood vessels like most of our tissues do, but repeated footsteps may be squeezing it like a sponge, bringing waste products in and out.
Another type of exercise that is worth trying is neuromuscular training, which strengthens muscles around the knees while also giving your body opportunities to practice moving quickly and adjusting to changes in movement. Jumps, lunges, and squats are included. Fittoplay has exercise routines for people who play different sports. There are beginner-friendly exercises in the program that may be more appropriate for people who are starting from scratch. They recommend that you seek guidance from a physical therapist or other professional to figure out what will help you the most.
Even if you take care of your knees, they may hurt. One funny thing about pain is that it isn't just a sensation of damage to our bodies, it's a perception, and it's shaped by a lot of other things. Think about times when you hurt yourself and didn't realize it until later, or the other way around, where you were worried about an injury only to realize it hurt less after a doctor looked at it.
If you experience pain or other negative sensations, don't freak out and think about all of the things that must be wrong. If your knee doesn't hurt, but you get weirded out by it making noise, that goes double. The crackle of the knees is not a problem in itself.
If you have knee pain, treat it like any other ache or twinge you might get while exercising. If there is any movement you can do without pain, you need to check that there is nothing catastrophically wrong. Maybe you need to take a few days to get used to it.
It makes sense to use the knee pain as a wake-up call to see if you should be doing things differently. I don't mean that you should switch to swimming instead of running, but that maybe you've increased your running mileage too much recently, or that you haven't been doing strength training you promised. There is a whole guide to dealing with injuries as a runner here. It's going to be a lot better for your long-term health if you don't throw your shoes in the trash and tell all the runners that they're going to ruin their knees.
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