If you are someone who is suffering from knee pain, you know just how devastating this can be. You can go from feeling great and doing your workouts as you wish, to becoming sidelined entirely. What is worse, much of knee pain is chronic. Once it occurs, it could be weeks, if not months, before you are finally starting to feel better again.
The good news? There are steps you can take to prevent knee pain from occurring. If you just take the best preventative measures, you may be able to side-step this problem entirely.
Let us go over what you need to do…
1. Always Warm-Up. First, make sure you are not skipping over those warm-ups: a warm-up prepares your muscles for vigorous action. Warming up is integral to improving knee health because it is during the warm-up you can get the blood flowing throughout your knee and increase natural lubrication.
If you have ever tried to exercise cold, you know how stiff and achy your knees can feel.
2. Consider Knee Sleeves. In addition to doing a good warm-up, you might also consider using knee sleeves as well. These are tight knee braces you put around your knee and are designed to keep it warm and lubricated as well. They can help reduce joint pain while also adding a little stability to your knee.
3. Strengthen Your Gluteal or Glute Muscles. Strengthening your glute muscles is another must-do to prevent knee pain. Those who have weak glute muscles often find their knees are not tracking correctly over their toes, which can be a significant cause of knee pain.
Doing exercises such as…
- seated hip adductions,
- leg raises, and
- clamshells
can all help prevent knee pain down the road. Do not underestimate the power this can have. You may not even realize that you have weak glutes until you start doing these exercises.
4. Replace Footwear Regularly. Finally, do not neglect to get new running shoes when you need them: this is another big mistake many people make that can land them with one injury or another. If it is not your knees, it may be you are starting to suffer from shin splints instead.
Good shoes are crucial in almost any form of exercise and even more so for people with Type 2 diabetes. Know your foot type – flat or wide, and buy shoes that feel good immediately. You should never have to break in a pair of exercise shoes.
Keep these four points in mind. The sooner you can get started with them, the sooner you will be off to maintaining those knees safe and healthy.