Best ways to avoid knee injuries while exercising

With 25% of adults experiencing it, knee pain is an extremely common complaint from exercising. It might be from running, bending, jumping, or even stretching, but there are plenty of ways doing sports can strain or impact the knees – and sometimes, knee surgeries to fix these problems can don’t quite go as planned. However, it is possible to avoid knee injuries while exercising and make sure you don’t do any damage to this crucial part of your body. 

Common knee injuries

Unfortunately, there are plenty of ways you can cause injury to your knees. Common knee injuries include spraining or tearing collateral ligaments, damaging your anterior cruciate ligament or posterior cruciate ligament (often one of the most serious types of knee injuries), or other soft tissue injuries like cartilage injuries, tendon injuries and prepatellar bursitis.

Complications from knee injuries 

With a record number of people waiting for NHS care – and this number very unlikely to fall – many are beginning to go elsewhere for surgery to fix a knee injury. However, complications from knee surgery still exist inside and outside the NHS operating table. Indeed, complications from surgery or even complications from medical negligence include fractures, infections, and vascular and neurologic complications. 

Avoiding knee injuries

It may sound easy, but the best way to avoid the pain and inconvenience of a knee injury is to simply prevent it. If you’re an adult that regularly exercises, keep in mind these 3 top tips to prevent a potential knee injury:

Work to maintain a healthy weight

Since extra weight can put more strain on your knees, being above the recommended weight for your age group can increase your risk of knee-related injuries and osteoarthritis. Keeping your weight at a healthy level can decrease the amount of stress your knees experience.

Always warm up before you exercise

You may be keen to just get started, but make sure to warm up before practising any sport relieves the overall pressure on your knees when you’re exercising. To decrease the tension on your knee’s tendons, all you must do is stretch the muscles in the front and back of your thighs; this simple stretch will go a long way when you start really getting into your workout. 

Strengthen your knees

Making your leg muscles stronger is a guaranteed way to support your knees, and most importantly, prevent any knee injuries. And it’s easy to do this. By simply incorporating some weight training into your workout, you can quickly build up your leg muscles – just be sure to ask a professional trainer about the right lifting method so you don’t do more harm than good.

It’s true when they say you don’t realise just how important your knees are – until something goes wrong. That’s why actively preventing knee injuries and taking the above precautions when working out really can’t be understated.