Knee problems and step aerobics?

Sherri C.

Sherri C.

Cathlete
Cathe (or anyone that has had the same problem and knows a solution),

When I do step aerobics I get a pain right above my knee. I've been careful to try and not let my knee go in front of my foot when I'm stepping up, but it still seems to be happening. At first I couldn't figure out if it was a good pain, like just a sore muscle, but it doesn't seem to be getting better, so I'm thinking it might be a bad pain. I do all of your workouts on Fit TV, so I'm in pretty good shape, but am wondering if there is some specific exercise I could do that I'm not doing that would help the pain go away.

Thanks,
 
Hi!
Not Cathe, but I just wanted to say that everyone is different in regards to knee problems. I am not an expert, but I would say to see a Dr. first! I started to have alot of knee pain when I bumped up the intensity of my cardio workouts. What I found to be helpful (once again, everyone is different) was using knee protectors (braces), when I did cardio. I found them at CVS, and my knee pain is so much better. I really notice a difference if I don't wear them during high impact moves. You might want to see what your Dr. thinks. Hope this helps!! ~~Nancy J.~~
 
Knee pain

I get more of an ache in my knees after doing aerobics sometimes and so I never do aerobics two days in a row. My knees have never bothered me otherwise and, like you, I'm very careful to keep proper form so I never injur myself. The paiin is never intense or causes me to limp or anything so that's why I call it an ache and it always goes away.
 
Hi Sherri

Not Cathe - hope it's okay to throw in my two cents. I have a history of bad knees for the last few years. I love step aerobics and I'll probably keep doing it no matter what. However, during times when I have knee pain, I have lowerd my step or done the workout on the floor. Sometimes you just have to take time off (even if you really don't want to). I would also say knee pain is never good pain as in muscle soreness. If you don't feel better soon, you better get to your doctor. Hope this helped you. Take care.

Sharon
 
I don't know if this will help, but it's worth a try:

1) What kind of floor are you exercising on? I thought our carpet was enough cushion, but my knees would kill me after stepping. I went out and bought Ironman puzzle mats, and the knee pain went away.

2) See if Pete Egoscue's book Pain Free is in your local library. I found it via the Search function here, and I literally just started working with it (I over did the high impact stuff recently, and now I'm hurtin' ). It's too soon to tell with me, but I've read that others have had great success with his exercises.
 
LaughingWater said:
I don't know if this will help, but it's worth a try:

1) What kind of floor are you exercising on? I thought our carpet was enough cushion, but my knees would kill me after stepping. I went out and bought Ironman puzzle mats, and the knee pain went away.
Click to expand...


Do you put your puzzlemats over the carpet? I was considering getting some because on some moves it is hard to pivot on my carpet but wasn't sure if I could put them over the carpet.

Thanks
 
Yes, I put them right over my carpet.

They don't shift during regular step workouts, but they do shift slightly when doing Drill Max. I don't fill up my whole room and have them butt up against the walls though, just a 6x8 area. A heavy dumbbell in one or two corners fixes that problem during DM.

One warning: They can be a little slippery in the beginning. It goes away in time, but at first it makes exercises like static lunges too hard. I had to step off the puzzle mat area and do those on the carpet.

In addition, whatever that slippery coating is, it gets on your shoes, making your step a little slippery as well (Talking about pivoting!). What I did was cover my step with a towel ~ worked great. Now the coating has worn off, and I can step without the towel.

I tried cleaning the puzzle mats, but that didn't work. It seems the coating works itself off on its own timetable.
 
I have been having a lot of knee pain lately - more so than usual. When I do squats or lunges - or some step stuff - I am getting a sharp pain in my knee cap. I went to a Sport Medicine Dr yesterday and with doing a few resistance moves - he showed me that I my quads and glutes on that side were much weaker than on my right side. He said that is quite common with knee cap pain - that it is more the surrounding muscles. He also pointed out that I should see a foot insole specialist as on that same leg - I tend to lean in and that an arch support would be really helpful and might take away a lot of the pain.

This morning I realized that - hey - it is summer - I have been wearing shoes with NO arch support for a few months - and hey - my knee pain has been bad for a few months - so that might have something to do with it. So I am going to explore that avenue as well and might try to wear structured shoes a bit more than thongs and sandals all the time.

Obviously everyone knee issue are different - but I did think it was interesting that he noted that knee cap pain has a lot more to do with the strength of the muscles around it that anything structurally wrong. He was very confident that with some Physical Therapy I would seem some great improvements.

So - just my 2 cents on a possiblity. :)
 
After alot of trial and error I found out that the pivoting on my carpet not the impact was hurting my knees,since i've taken all the pivots out I haven't had a whisper of pain.
 
I put in a 6 x 8 cushion tile floor since I was jumping on concrete, bought a good pair of shoes, but what really allows me to do high impact everyday are these babies: Cho Pat Dual Action Knee Braces. I mountainbike several times a week, and my knees can really take it when I'm climbing and then combining that with kickboxing.
 
Sherri,

What step height are you using? I used to use a 10" step and occasionally had knee problems even though I followed the recommendations about step height. After I switched to an 8" step I don't have the problem any more. Have you tried different heights?
 
Cathe posted a message last week that said, "You all rock"... I just want to second that. Thank you guys for taking the time to help me out. I exercise in my unfinished basement on the concrete floor, and never even thought that it might be a problem, but now I think it is! I'm considering getting knee braces and will make sure to pay attention to my step height. Thanks so much guys... YOU DO ROCK!
 
Wow, Cataddict, you must me very tall! I'm 5'7" and have tried 10". I feel like it's way too high for me and am alway afraid I'm going to injure myself. My usual height is 8" but on the IMAX workouts I go down to 6".

Sharon
 
Hi Sharon,

I'm not extremely tall (about your height) but I have long legs. Cathe herself used to use a step height that was higher than she uses today--check out the original IMAX! I think the general sentiment now is that higher isn't necessarily better. The 8" step works fine for me and sometimes I switch to the 6" in the middle of IMAX3.
 
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