How to Keep Your Knees Healthy as You Age – 8 Effective Ways

As you age, so does your body. Knees are part of it. With age, your knees weaken, causing pain and making even routine movements challenging! Pain while climbing stairs, standing up after sitting for a long time, or even normal walking are signs of weakening knees. Lately, if you’ve been experiencing all of it, you must listen to what your knees are saying and do what it takes to strengthen them. So, here are eight effective ways to help you keep your knees healthy and functional.

• Maintain a Healthy and Appropriate Weight

Those additional pounds don’t merely affect your health but also stress your knees, causing cartilage wear and pain. Thus, losing those extra pounds can relax the knees, reduce the pain, and make you more agile. Of course, the results would be gradual. However, losing only 10-12 pounds can also make a significant difference.

• Stay Active and in Motion

Knee pain makes routine movements challenging. As a result, most people minimize their movements. However, being stationary can further worsen the condition. Joints are designed to stay active. Thus, you must indulge in the right physical activities to prevent stiffness and muscle atrophy (reduced muscle size and wastage of muscle tissue) and limit knee injury. Additionally, staying active can reduce pain and strengthen muscles.

• Perform Low-Impact Exercises

While it is crucial to be active, you must choose your activities carefully. One of the keys to keeping knees healthy, particularly when you have knee pain, is incorporating activities like cycling, swimming, or walking into your routine. These low-impact exercises are gentle on your knees and also offer cardiovascular advantages.

• Avoid Exercises Through Pain

Listen to your body. If you experience pain, rest and allow your body to recover. Ignoring the pain and continuing to exercise even through pain can aggravate the pain. You must consult your doctor to prepare an action plan.

• Follow a Healthy Diet

Diet plays a crucial role in keeping your knees and other joints healthy. Accordingly, you must include vitamin C, vitamin D, green leafy vegetables, fish (with Omega-3 fatty acids), and many other doctor-prescribed foodstuffs to maintain healthy joints.

• Quit Smoking!

Smoking doesn’t do anything good to your body but only adds to your health concerns. It weakens the joints and exacerbates the pain. Thus, you must quit smoking. Of course, it isn’t that easy. But not smoking can benefit you in the long run!

• Improve Your Body Posture

Over time, incorrect body posture stresses your joints unusually, resulting in excess cartilage wear and damage. Hence, you must also focus on enhancing your body posture. A physiotherapist can help you in this case. They help improve your posture through exercises, suiting your body’s needs and condition. Additionally, consulting an occupational therapist can help you arrange your workspace to enhance your workplace posture and avoid stress on your joints while working.

• Use the Correct Footwear

An often ignored, yet significant aspect is choosing the right footwear. Wearing the wrong shoes can hurt the joints and damage your posture, resulting in joint pain throughout the body. One of the most common footwear-related causes of knee pain or joint pain is high heels. Such shoes may look stylish. However, it is up to you to decide, whether to prioritize looks or health. If you choose the latter, you must select shoes with low or no heels and look for supportive shoes with square or rounded toes, allowing you to move around easily.

Age brings some inevitable changes in your body. However, you shouldn’t necessarily let them take over your life and ruin your happiness! Knee pain is a problem confronting millions in India. So, you don’t have to feel alone. However, you shouldn’t ignore it either! The above can prove a starting point. But we recommend visiting us, getting your case diagnosed, and receiving a personalized plan, to help you strengthen your knees. Call us at +91 – 20 – 24261530 to schedule a consultation appointment with our doctors.