Are your knees aching? You aren’t alone! I get asked often about how to address aching knees, something that will probably affect a LOT of us as we get older. The good news is you can help to address and prevent knee pain with some simple steps. These will help you to keep your knees healthy, so you can lead a healthy lifestyle that is free of knee pain! Check out my tips below, and try the exercises in my all new video about knee health!

Why Do Knees Ache?

With every step you take, your knees absorb a lot of pressure – about 1.5 times your body weight! Over time this can lead to wear and tear on the muscles and ligaments of the knee, leading to pain, swelling and stiffness. So what causes this? A variety of factors: Osteoarthritis is one, so if you have a family history of this, make sure you are protecting your knees starting today! Being overweight can also lead to knee problems – if this is the case, consider devising a plan to help you lose weight (a free trial of my DeniseAustin.com membership is a good place to start! I have low-impact workouts and eating plans that can help you lose weight!)

Here’s some tips for preventing knee pain and aches:

Keep your knee muscles healthy. Watch this video for ways to strengthen your knee muscles and make your workouts work for your knee, to help keep them heathy.

Stick with low-impact exercises. Aim for workouts such as cycling or swimming – both are low impact and are less hard on your knees.

Avoid squatting for long periods or time, or standing on hard surfaces. You may want to consider one of those cushioned mats in front of the sink, and gel inserts for your shoes if you stand all day.

I hope these suggestions help YOU keep your knees healthy!

Let’s get fitter, together – inside and out,

Denise

Video Transcript:

Here are the best exercises to protect your knees, to give you healthy knees without doing exercise that might hurt you like a squat. So alternatively, here’s the best exercise that you could do to strengthen your knees. First of all, sit up nice and tall. One foot. Lift it up and lower the leg. This is now strengthening all the muscles surrounding your knee, keeping your knee healthy. You first have to work around the kneecap. That’s it. Keeping the tendons, your muscles and ligaments. Strong. Lift and lower. Now to work on the inner knee, just turn your toe out, lift up and lower. You will start to feel this. Your legs will really feel great. This is a fabulous exercise to really strengthen all the muscles around your knee, keeping your knees healthy and happy. All right, and release. And now to stretch your knees slowly relax the body.

Bring that knee towards your back and hold that stretch. This is a simplified way of getting a quadriceps stretch. It’s important to keep it strong, flexible, and healthy. And you hold the stretch for about 20 seconds. Don’t tug on your knee. Just hold it there in breathe. It’s a fabulous way to lengthen and keep the flexibility in the quadriceps so it doesn’t get tight. The second exercise is very important to strengthen and tone the back of your thigh, so lie on your back and hold the leg up. Hold the leg to strengthen it. Quadriceps lifted and stretch the hamstrings. Oh, all of this really helps to incorporate a good stretch and tone to get healthy. Knees. Hold that stretch. 20 seconds. Breathe. That’s the key. I don’t care if you’re way down here, try to keep it straight. That way you really feel the stretch behind the knee. These are all the best ways to strengthen your knee and keep it healthy.

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