The 3 Secrets to Improving Your Knee Health (aka Want less knee pain?)

Are your knees holding you back? 

Are you trying to avoid knee surgery or maybe recovering from one?

You shouldn’t have to worry about pain on every next step.

You might even feel frustrated, disheartened, even hopeless and don’t know what you CAN do to help your knees.  In this article you will learn the 3 most important things you can do that will help reduce knee pain and make you stronger.

Living with knee pain for most of my life, I’ve become passionate about helping others who suffer as well.  I was born with a crappy pair of knees, ultimately had 12 knee surgeries (including replacements on both knees), yet I figured out a way to stay fit and healthy.

I researched studies, medical techniques, exercises, and therapies to put together the formula for reducing knee pain and helping you to soothe, strengthen, and stabilize your knees. 

Since 2015, we’ve tested this formula with our Healthy Knees Programs at the Bellingham Training & Tennis Club and have helped hundreds of clients to feel better.  I’ve written three books on the subject of Healthy Knees that includes cycling, strength, and total knee replacement.

I’m hosting free online Healthy Knees Workshops from November 4-11 – you can register here: https://www.healthykneescoach.com/HKWorkshopRegistration.  We’ll do a deep dive into each of these subjects with exactly what to do and you’ll want a pen and paper to take notes for sure!

In the meantime, get started with the 3 key elements of the Healthy Knees Formula:

1. Train the Chain: Its About More than Just Your Knees

You can prepare for surgery, or possibly even avoid it all together, by improving your knee strength and stability.  Your recovery from surgery does not stop at the end of physical therapy.  The key to having strong knees comes through consistent training. 

 Your knee is about more than your knee!  The muscles that act on your knee are like pulleys on a hinge.  What happens at your ankle/lower leg and at your hip/upper leg also affect your knee.  What happens at your feet affects your ankles; what happens at your hip affects your core.  Now you get the idea… the kinetic chain from feet to core is all important to your knee health.  We’ll talk about all the exercises to include during the Healthy Knees Workshop.

If you have a weakness in one place your body is smart and compensates in another.  That is why when one knee hurts you may start to have low back pain or opposite hip or ankle pain.  So when you are strength training, you need to Train the Chain and include toes to core to make your knees (and all of your joints) as strong and stable as they can be. 

 2. Motion is Lotion – Why Moving Your Knee The Right Way is Good

Does your knee feel like a rusty hinge?  That’s totally understandable because when your knees hurt, it seems like moving them more is a bad idea.  Hold the bus!  The opposite is true!

 Knees are designed to move and the movement actually helps stimulate production of a viscous substance called synovial fluid.  Synovial fluid is like oil for your joint.  It reduces friction (thus reducing a source of pain) and helps to nourish your cartilage.

 But not all motion is created equal.  When we are talking about repeated motion in a cardio activity, your sore knees will benefit most from no impact, no weight bearing, and possibly no lateral movement. 

My favorite?  Riding a bike!  Both indoor stationary and outdoor cycling. There are definite do’s and don’ts for setting up your bike and we’ll share all of that information in the upcoming Healthy Knees Workshops

 3. The Secret Sauce

There are 3 elements that are key to your success in soothing, stabilizing, and strengthening your knees:  Mindset, Fuel (food, water, and sleep) along with Consistent Action (how many times per week).  We’ll talk about this in detail in the Healthy Knees Workshops

To wrap it up – you CAN make a difference to your knees with the right kind of strength training, the right healthy movement, and the Secret Sauce to put it all together.  I’m excited to share more with you in the Healthy Knees Workshop and hope I’ll see you there. https://www.healthykneescoach.com/HKWorkshopRegistration

~Robin Robertson
Founder:  Healthy Knees Coach
Author: Healthy Knees Books (Cycling, Strength, Total Knee Replacement)
Owner/Manager: Bellingham Training & Tennis Club