A unique and novel way to keep your knees pain-free

Do you know that your knee joint (the point where your thigh joins your leg, medically called a patella-femoral joint) is an area that bears the greatest stress while you walk, jog and run? At times, this pressure becomes unbearable and eventually leads to fatigue and pain in your knee joints. No wonder that, today, 1 out of every 3 Americans aged 45 or more suffer from some form of knee pain. Likewise, it’s one of the commonest reasons why men and women visit their doctors with complaints of joint pain.

What causes knee pain?
The most common causes of knee pain include obesity (being overweight), excessive use of thigh and leg muscles (as mentioned above), structural deformity of your knee joint and the way you normally walk. Similarly, at times, weak hip muscles also cause severe pain in the knees.

Following is a simple but time-tested method to keep yourself moving and yet take the additional burden and stress off of your knees.

                                                                         Marching Backward (Backward March)

All you need to do for this one is put one of your feet exactly behind the other one and then start walking in “reverse” direction, following a straight line. This way, you will be putting lesser stress on your knee joints.

How it works?
When you walk in reverse direction, your quadriceps (the muscles in front of your thigh that straighten your knee and hence, extend your leg) contract entirely in a different way than they do when you walk in a forward direction. It also causes a concentric contraction on your anterior cruciate ligament (the most frequently injured ligament in professional athletes).

Where to do it?
Obviously, you can’t do a backward march in a congested, thickly populated or high- traffic area. Also, to perform this exercise, you need to have an “even”, smooth ground and a safe and sound area that you’re already familiar with.

How to start?
You will probably have to start slowly and gradually until you get used to the backward march. Also, never try practicing it for the first time on a treadmill! Keep your pace slow and watch out for any obstacles at your back. There’s no restriction to your neck movement. Just make sure you keep walking on a straight path, in a backward direction.

                                                               Some more valuable tips to avoid knee trouble

Stretch and straighten
According to a recent study, stretching and straightening exercises that were performed regularly for 6 weeks resulted in significant reduction in pain of knee joints.

Sweat it out
If you perform cardio exercise regularly, it can increase the quantity of protective cartilage (a strong and flexible tissue) present in your knees and other joints. Hence, your joints will be able to bear more stress. In addition, do remember that stronger cartilages reduce the risks of osteoarthritis (a severe disease involving bones and joints).

Strength training
Strength training does a lot more than just making your bones and muscles stronger. It actually buffers your joints by making them more pressure resistant.

Straighten your hips
Experience has shown that strengthening your hips may significantly decrease even severe knee pain.  

Conclusion
In short, whenever you walk, run, jog, swim, jump or sit for a while and your knees start hurting, you should try the above-mentioned simple workouts to get things back to normal. However, if the pain still doesn’t go away, you should consult your physician immediately to rule out any possibility of an underlying disease.