How to protect your knees when running?

People often tell me that their knees hurt after running or playing football. What are the specific causes of knee damage? How to protect your knees during exercise? Let's talk about this.

In order to protect your knees, you must first know the causes of knee damage and pain. Generally speaking, there are the following reasons:

1. Patellar softening. During exercise, the knee (patella) and the cartilage tissue connecting it will be subjected to resonance and pressure. The greater the weight, the higher the intensity of exercise, and the greater the probability of injury.

2. Meniscus injury. Meniscus injury is mostly caused by external force of knee joint twisting. When the calf of the load-bearing leg is in semi-flexed and abducted position, the body and thigh suddenly rotate inward, and the medial meniscus is subjected to rotational pressure between the femoral condyle and the tibia, which can easily cause the meniscus to wear or even tear.

3. Patellar tendonitis. The patella, as the largest floating bone in the body, can protect the knee joint. It offsets the friction between the quadriceps tendon and the femoral condyle cartilage surface, preventing excessive adduction, abduction and extension and flexion of the knee joint. If the patellar tendon is over-fatigued, the fibers are torn or otherwise damaged, the tendon will become inflamed. When the joint is constantly moving, the injury will further develop, and the pain will become more obvious or even worse.

4. Osteoarthritis, which is a non-infectious inflammation caused by overload. Long-term excessive exercise and incorrect running posture can lead to osteoarthritis of the knee.

Now let’s talk about protection measures. In fact, many people understand them.

First of all, before each running exercise, you need to move your knee joints, especially in winter. Warm up before running. This can allow the knee joints to have a certain adaptation process and allow the muscles and knees to "warm up". This will not only help you run in better condition, but also effectively reduce or even avoid sports injuries.

The second is the running posture. To complete a complete running action, the first step is to put your feet on the ground, the second step is to keep your body balanced and move forward, and the third step is to lift your body up. Only with the correct posture and a good rhythm can you ensure effective exercise without getting injured.

Finally, after running, you need to stretch, which can not only relax the knee joints but also relax the tense muscles after running, promote the discharge of metabolic waste after running, and reduce the damage to the human body. Of course, you can massage your legs and apply hot compress for a while before going to bed, which can better protect and promote the repair of knee joint wear.

So, although exercise is good for health, there must be a limit to exercise. In many cases, it is recommended that moderate jogging can achieve the purpose of exercise. If you want to meet other requirements, you must make more suitable details. Your body is your own, so exercise should be moderate.