Knee Pain

[deeboo]

Cathe,

I have been doing your step DVDs for about 3 months now and love them. But in the past week I have noticed my knees aching. I went and bought Ryka aerobic shoes today and hopefully those will help. Any other suggestions or comments if this could be serious or will go away.

Thanks

 

[amhess]

I'm not Cathe and not a doctor, but I have knee problems. If the shoes don't make a difference, I'd still suggest going to your doctor. They may send you to an orthopedic specialist, but my 'aching' turned out to be osteoarthritis in my kness and I'm only 36. In my case they think it's from overuse. I was in a lot of sports as a kid through high school and running/v-ball as an adult. They also swell quite a bit, which is common when you have osteoarthritis. Best to just get things looked at by a doctor if they don't get better to be sure it's not anything serious. Or you may just have to take it easy on the high impact stuff.

Best of luck,
Anne

 

[Tonilah]

I"m not cathe but here's some things to consider.

1st - check your neck, spine, hips, and ankles for any stresses. Un aligned hips or an unsupported back could cause knee issues. When i have knee pain, i try to pop my spine from neck to hips ...and sure enough, i usually hear bubble wrap pops. Alot of pple think that knee pain is a knee problem...i tend to believe that alot of knee pain starts with a stressed spine and core.

2nd - Palpitate (feel) the area around the knee and see if you feel any tenderness or inflamation. Feel around the shin area.

3rd - If you do alot of step, you probably have a little bit of a muscle imbalance in that you probably have strong tight quadriceps and weak hamstring muscles. THis is very common with women, making them suseptible to ACL problems. High step exercises and plyo metric exercises can help, just make sure you *REALLY REALLY* focus on controlling, tightening the hamstring as you work.

4th - Make sure your are adding lower body stretching into your workout routine - especially for the quads and hamstrings.

5th, when doing hops, turnsteps, hop turns, richocetts, etc...make sure you are really unloading off of that foot, and you're not twisting your knees at all.

6th - Go easy on the cardio for a week, and focus on strength training workouts.

7th - has it been damp or rainy lately? Maybe you have a touch of joint stiffness or mild arthritis in the joint? I know my knees tend to get sensitive on damp/rainy days.

Hope that helps for now...of course, if the pain persists, see a doctor.

 

[deeboo]

Thanks so much for your responses! I have taken off a couple days and my knee already feels better! I am going to concentrate very hard on my form and see if that may have been the problem.

Thanks again!

 

[kathryn]

Also make sure to crosstrain and not do step two days in a row. Some people can tolerate step more often, some can only tolerate it 2 days a week. Do what's best for you.