Exercising with knee pain

Hi guys! I’m a twenty-year-old female who’s had knee problems for a while (nothing really specific, just pain when I do too much running, jumping, etc.). I like to exercise every day, and I know that for my knees it’s a good idea to switch things up and incorporate low-impact activities like swimming and elliptical. But this summer I’ve been traveling a lot, and I’m finding it’s really inconvenient to try to work in exercises like swimming. When I’m at a hotel or staying with a friend, it’s so much easier just to go jogging. (I can jog a couple days a week without pain, but anything more than that gets problematic.) Any suggestions for other workouts that would be convenient to do while on the road but not too hard on my knees?
Thanks so much!

I often travel with work and rely on body weight exercises (push ups, squats, lunges), plyometrics and my skipping rope- although impact will be an issue with the last two.

I also down load classes onto my i pad from an app. Means that I can have a heap of different workouts that don’t require equipment that I can complete in my room. I have a killer Push Up and Abs one that involves 30 mins of various ab and push up exercises- a killer!

Thanks so much, I’ll give those a try!
Any ideas about outdoor workouts? (Right now I’m rooming with two other people in tight quarters, not much space to do squats and lunges—although I could probably squeeze them in somewhere, I will definitely give it a try.)

I would avoid weight bearing cardio when having knee pain. Chances are there is a swelling in there and it will only cause more damage to irritate that. I suggest letting it heal and then train knee stability, as that is probably the primary cause for your knee pain. – Important. Keep swelling down, with ice and perhaps ibuprofen. Swelling causes damage by it self and also increases the time the body needs to heal after working out. So nr.1 kill the swelling.

Thanks for the advice arnthoria- i will try to focus on reducing swelling after workouts. If my knees are not hurting now though, any kinds of cardio you think i could do without aggravating them? (I know the ideal would be swimming or elliptical, but something that doesn’t require a lot of equipment, since I’m traveling?)

Thanks for the advice arnthoria- i will try to focus on reducing swelling after workouts. If my knees are not hurting now though, any kinds of cardio you think i could do without aggravating them? (I know the ideal would be swimming or elliptical, but something that doesn’t require a lot of equipment, since I’m traveling?)

Thanks for the advice arnthoria- i will try to focus on reducing swelling after workouts. If my knees are not hurting now though, any kinds of cardio you think i could do without aggravating them? (I know the ideal would be swimming or elliptical, but something that doesn’t require a lot of equipment, since I’m traveling?)

Well basically if your knee hurts afterwards it is aggravating it. I guess the only way to know what works is to try it out, if the knee hurts afterwards it is aggravated by that activity.
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Chances are that when you stand on one leg and bend your knee it will move quite a lot to the sides. That is some thing you should try to eliminate by building strength in the legs. Knees should not move to the sides at all! Should be rock solid.
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A good way to build that strength is to do leg presses with one leg, on the leg press machine for example. Just keep the knee stable at all times, no side ward movement at all. If you allow it to move to the sides you are not training stability. But never train unless the knee is healed, and if you get pain afterwards try to kill the swelling (but as you are training to strengthen the knee it is ok, aggravation is to be expected in that case, but with greater strength you should be able to get over that). Just start with a light load, but you must feel it. – Standing on one leg and bending while keeping knee stable (must be stable always!) is also a way to train this stability.
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Once you have built up your stability you should be able to do any activity with out aggravating your knees. (Because your knees should not wobble any more. But of course you must have managed to eliminate that wobble by stability strengthening first.)

Finnie- have you bothered to go and find out what the problem is? If you are only 20 you shouldn’t have reoccuring knee pain.

And any equipment free exercise can be done outside. Personally prefer it- wakes you up more in the morning.

arnthoria- thanks for the detailed suggestions!
breebreerocks- yes, I’ve talked to a doctor who said i have patellofemoral syndrome, apparently a fairly common condition especially among women. The doctor advised that I do squats to strengthen the muscles supporting my knees (similar to what arnthoria was suggesting) and said that if a particular exercise was causing pain, I should stop when the pain started (e.g., if I can jog for half an hour and feel ok but then my knee starts to hurt, I should stop at that point). The doctor recommended lower-impact workouts like swimming, cycling, elliptical—basically, whatever anything that doesn’t make my knees hurt is fine. When I’m at home I have access to a gym with a pool, so I can maintain a routine that incorporates stuff that’s easy on my knees, but when I’m traveling and don’t have a pool, a bike, or an elliptical machine, I have trouble coming up with alternatives.

Do you do any foam rolling? Have you considered physical therapy?

I second coskigirl. I was having knee pain and went to a PT. After 5 sessions my knees feel great. I had tendinitis, probably caused by adding weights too fast during squats. I am back to doing squats with no weights and foam rolling…no pain.

I used to have bad knee pain when running. I went to a PT. No help. But, when I stopped running for a while and did a lot of lower body strength training (particularly squats and deadlifts) my knee pain almost completely disappeared.