March Fitness #4: Knee Injury Prevention and Care

We all inherit something from our family.  I got lucky and inherited my dad’s bad knees.  Yea, me!  About two weeks ago, I was holding my son while he slept at a baby shower, and I had my left leg crossed over my right…with knee bent….for an hour.  Needless to say, my knee tightened up and actually became bruised.  Walking anywhere was a huge task, especially going up and down the stairs at home.   During the day, the school where I work has a huge campus, and I average walking about 2.5 miles a day.  It took me FOREVER to get from one end to the next in time to start class. 


I finally had it, and began researching ways to care for the injury I had, and prevent more from happening.  I just had a baby! I HAVE to exercise! I even researched how to shorten the healing time. This is what I found, and what has worked for me. As always, don’t take my word for it….check with your doctors to find out what is the best thing for you.

1.       Knee Brace: No matter how goofy you think you will look…..wear a knee brace when you are doing anything active.  I even wear one when I do Zumba Fitness because of all the twisting and turning. I wore one at work…had it on all day…. And the next day, my knee felt great! I looked like a doofus, but not as much as when I was hobbling around.

2.       Supplements: Glucosamine with Chondroitin – I just started taking this recently, and I have seen such a great improvement. Here are two reference sites: 

• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/glucosamine/NS_patient-glucosamine
• http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chondroitin-sulfate/NS_patient-chondroitin

3.       Exercises: Link to exercises I found that strengthen the knee and the areas that surround the knee from About.com http://orthopedics.about.com/od/physicaltherapy/p/kneerehab.htm I have done these myself, and so far, they have helped.   To me…doing something is better than doing nothing.