One of the biggest hurdles for a runner is to run when their knees start paining and prevent them from running. You become helpless, and even sometimes, you cannot walk a short distance when your knees are bad.
It becomes a harrowing experience for the runner to run with bad knees. But specific solutions make it possible for you to run even with bad knees. You can choose shoes that help you to run with bad knees.
But the question, running with bad knees what shoe is the best? Well, to reveal the secrets, we are here to help you with some possible exercises.
What are bad knees?
You can feel pain in your knees due to some problems, such as strained ligaments, tendonitis, cartilage tears, sprained ligaments, and arthritis. There can be many different types of bad knees issues that can cause pain in your knees and stop your running career.
Some common arthritis problems are
- swelling and tenderness
- Locking and buckling of joints
- Loss of space between joints and
- Deformities of the knee and some sudden shocks also make your knees painful.
If your knees start paining when you walk and run due to any of the above or any other reasons, it is called bad knees.
It makes your physical activities painful and complex, and you need immediate solutions to get rid of such pain.
Knee pain in both knees: An Overview
Pain in both knees:
Sometimes things become more painful when there is severe pain in both knees, making it impossible to run and even walk. It happens in common with old age people, but sometimes it also happens with young adults.
It is also known as bilateral knee pain, which happens due to many reasons. In that situation, both of your knees hurt at the same time.
These conditions are primarily simple and easily managed with rest, doing proper exercise, or wearing the best shoes. But if it becomes serious, you need to take medical treatments with all the above precautions.
Reasons for knee pain:
There are many reasons for knee pain. These are including:
- Osteoarthritis
- Trauma in your legs
- Patellofemoral pain syndrome
- Torn meniscus
- IT band syndrome
- Pes Anserine Bursitis
- Osgood Schlatter disease etc.
N.B. But some rarely occurring reasons for pain in both knees are gout, coping, dislocation of the knee, and sudden shocks.
Solutions and Suggestions:
When you feel severe pain in both knees, you need to take proper care and treatment from a physician. It is better to check it from the doctor because they will diagnose pain in both knees and help you determine the proper treatment according to the situation.
How to improve bad knees?
Facts about improving bad knees:
In young adults, due to an accident or any other reason, if a lousy knee problem happens, they can quickly recover from it with some medical treatment or proper rest for some days.
On the other hand, if you are an older adult or an athlete and you feel it continuously, you can take some simple actions and medical treatment to improve your bad knee.
Exercises to improve bad knees:
You can do some specific exercises like knee extension, knee flexion, heel and calf raises, swimming, and wall squats. These exercises will improve your bad knees and facilitate medical treatment to work faster to reduce knee pain.
If you can’t do exercise due to aging problems, then you can also take the help of different shoe pairs to improve your bad knees. Physicians recommend many shoe pairs according to knee condition, which will help you to run and walk , even with bad knees.
When you feel pain in your knees, don’t do too much physical activity, keep your posture in proper balance, and wear appropriate and recommended shoes for early relief.
Tips: In a chronic situation, visit your doctor to find better treatment to get rid of bad knees.
What are some recommended exercises for bad knees?
Physicians recommend many exercises with bad knees, which improve your knee’s condition and help you maintain your health with physical activity.
Top 10 best recommended exercises for bad knees:
1. Walking
If you feel severe pain while running in your knees, then walking is a better option to maintain your health with a low-impact cardio workout.
But make sure you wear the right shoes as recommended by your experts. Do not walk on rough roads; start walking on flat surfaces and then move toward rough paths with improvement.
2. Sitting for knee pain.
It is also an excellent exercise to sit on the bed or mat and extend your legs forward and put your hands behind by keeping your palms flat on the bed surface. Now slightly lean back, squeeze quads, hold this pose for two to three seconds and repeat this twenty to thirty times.
3. Heel and calf stretch
Stand with a wall and place both your hands on the wall; bend your body towards the wall but keep your feet one to two feet away from the wall. Now bend forward your one leg and stay for thirty seconds, then next leg and repeat that exercise.
4. Swimming
Swimming is also one of the recommended exercises that provide a physical movement to your body but also helpful for early healing of your bad knees. But do not swim too fast or with too much force it may hurt you.
5. Sitting march
Sit on a chair comfortably and place your feet on the floor in a flat position. Now move your affected leg slowly forward and backward but in a gentle way. But if you have pain in both knees, you can do it for both legs one by one.
6. Straight leg raises
Lie on your bed, keep both your legs straight, now pull your one leg upward, keep it for two to three-second in that position, then move it down and repeat that for ten to fifteen times for both legs.
7. Assisted calf raises
Stand straight with the support of a chair; put your one hand on the chair and the other hand on your waist. Now pull both your heels up in a gentle way, remain in that pose for three to five seconds, and repeat that fifteen times.
8. Climb stairs
Stairs climbing is also the best exercise with bad knees; slowly climb the stairs but keep your hand on your stairs grill for support and gently do that exercise.
9. Ride stationary bike
Stationary bikes do not need much force to ride; it is also good exercise while you feel pain in your knees, then ride the stationary bike for ten to fifteen minutes in routine but in a gentle way.
10. Move your legs in warm water.
You can heal and exercise your knees simultaneously, stand in a warm water pool and walk in the water. But keep your hands on the sides of the pool for support and walk gently.
How to exercise with bad knees to lose weight?
Suppose you are struggling with weight loss but cannot do your physical exercises properly due to bad knees. There are no worries still; there are many exercise options to lose weight when you suffer from bad knees.
Exercises with bad knees to lose weight:
· You can run by wearing specific shoes to lose weight. But if you cannot run due to a severe injury, you can walk after wearing supportive shoes. There are many other exercises to lose weight but without impacting your knees.
· Try water aerobic exercises when you feel pain in your knees. When you do swimming, it will give strength to your muscles and help you burn your calories without harming your knees.
· Riding on stationary bikes is also helpful to lose weight to burn calories without hurting your knees.
· Tai chi is also a good exercise that gives your knees relief and helps you lose weight.
· Yoga is one of the most recommended exercises for different joints pain issues; it improves your knee pain condition and relaxes your body, mind, and helps you reduce your body weight without hurting your knees.
· Some gym exercises that you can do by sitting on the chair in a gym for the upper parts of your body are also helpful to reduce weight but without hurting your knees.
What shoe is the best for bad knees?
As we have discussed, some of the recommended shoes can also help you run even with bad knees. But the question arises in the mind when running with bad knees what shoe is the best? You should try to find the best shoe for running when you feel pain in your knees.
Many athletes experience knee pain for several reasons, such as running in unbalanced form or running on rugged and rough paths. If you run too much, it can also lead to knee pain, and the most common that happens with age is the weakness of muscles.
Picking shoes that make your body postures balanced:
But you can mitigate that situation by picking shoes that make your body postures straight and balanced. You can select shoes with soft and smooth interior materials to keep your feet comfortable and protect your knees from bending.
- Soft and flat shoes help you maintain your body balance when you run on rough and uneven paths.
- High arch shoes support your feet ‘back heels and help you reduce the pressure on your feet and knee when running. Also this type of shoes can give a push to your feet when you are running without exerting much force and stress on your knees. Besides, it keeps your knee protective from hurting and makes your experience smoother and effortless.
Does running strengthen knees?
Running is one of the exceptional exercises suitable for health. It shows many positive impacts on human health, strengthens your legs and knees muscles. Running is pretty easy exercise because there is no need to have special equipment for running.
Knee pain complains that it is common among runners that people wrongly perceived that knee pain occurs due to running, but they are wrong. Even the experts also say that running is the reason for your knee pain, which makes people afraid, and they do not try it again to run with bad knees.
But the primary reason when pain in the knees feels is arthritis or any other type of issue that hurts when you run forcefully. But it is wrong that running causes knee pain.
Running can strengthen your joint muscle (knee areas):
Running is good to strengthen your muscles because it gives proper movement to your joint muscles.
But sometimes, due to inconsistent running flows, you may face knee pain. So start with short patterns with gentle running manners and increase stress with improvement. It will not just strengthen your knee and muscle but also helps to early relief from pain.
Suggestion: You should run to strengthen your muscles even when you feel pain. But do not forget to wear the best shoes before running with bad knees.
What are some running tips for bad knees?
Suppose you are suffering from bad knees and hesitate to run because you feel pain while running, and your fear increases when you hear from your expert that you have pain due to running.
There is no need to worry; there are many other reasons: running is better and helpful to early relief from knee pain. Do not hesitate to run; there are some helpful tips to run with bad knees.
Tips to run with bad knees:
You can ask a question from your physiotherapist about running with bad knees what shoe is the best. After that, get the recommended shoe and run even with bad knees to get early relief from pain by strengthening your knee muscles.
- When you are suffering from bad knees, then do not try different running patterns like too fast running, backward, and forward running at the same time. It may cause problems and make you pain, and you will be afraid of running again.
- Try the gentle way to run, always move forward while running, and not put much pressure on your legs, ankles, and knees. It is only possible when you wear the proper and recommended shoes.
- If you feel pain in your knees, do not try to run at hilly paths or rough and uneven paths.
- Always choose the flat paths to run; it will protect you from falls and maintain the correct flow of running on the same surface without hurting your knees.
- When you are suffering from bad knees, run for ten to fifteen minutes then take rest for some while and then again walk.
Thus, you can maintain your knee health without hurting your knee.
Should I run with knee pain?
Running is better for your health, but most people and experts recommend not running when you are suffering from bad knees and feel pain.
But there is no such issue with running because running strengthens your knees and helps you get early relief from pain.
But it would help if you did careful running while you feel pain in your knee, do not run without wearing the best running shoe, and always try to run on smooth and in a gentle way. It is also better to run flat paths.
It will make you able to get early relief from pain and also maintain your health. So there is no issue if you run carefully and adequately, even with knee pain. Read more.
How to start running with bad knees?
No doubt it is excruciating to run with bad knees, but running is helpful for you when you are suffering from severe knee pain.
You could not start running too fast, but you can run with proper steps and practice. When you want to run with bad knees, the following tips will help you run with bad knees.
- Wear the best shoes and start with a walk and practice the walk for three to four days for ten to fifteen minutes.
- After that, it is better to speed up but remain on the walk and do not try to run; it will be painful for you and continue that practice for two or three days and do a fast walk for ten minutes every day.
- Next, step you will try the mixture, sometimes walk and sometimes gently run and keep that routine for three to four days. Practice in that way for ten to fifteen minutes, but do not run fast; it will hurt you.
- When you feel comfortable, start running gently on smooth and straight paths and running for ten to fifteen minutes for three days.
- After that, follow the mixture of gentle running and sometimes fast running. Follow that routine for four to five days and make sure you are comfortable with that. Next to that, your step is to run.
- When you are going to run fast, wear proper shoes and follow the appropriate rules of running, such as not putting much pressure on your knees. Always try to walk forward and run on flat paths. Try fast running for ten to fifteen minutes.
- After that you can run at any place and as you want you will also feel that you have got enough relief from pain. It is a long process, but it will benefit you, and you will also remain comfortable following that step-by-step guide for running.
Watch this video to get more info about “Is running on concrete bad for your knees?”
What shoe is best to run for bad knees?
You may hear from experts to choose the best shoe for running but running with bad knees what shoe is the best. If you are searching for that answer, we will give you the answer to help you choose the best shoe for running with bad knees.
Best shoe for running with bad knees:
Many factors are necessary to consider for choosing the right shoe to run with bad knees comfortably.
- Try to choose shoes that fit your feet, but it does not mean too much. Always try to get a fit shoe but have a little bit of space for air passage to keep inside moderate.
- Height of shoe heels is also essential; when you are with bad knees, try to choose high arch shoes.
- While choosing a shoe, try to choose a shoe that provides you with ample cushioning. Cushioning will make you comfortable and keep you in good balance when there is a sudden shock.
- Try to get a suitable outsole because different shoes come with the different outsole to make them comfortable to run with bad knees on different paths.
- A good shoe comes with a motion control feature that makes it suitable to keep your motion in control and protect you from the accident.
High arches shoes are comfortable for running?
You may hear from many experts that high arches shoes are best for running with bad knees. It is correct because the high arch shoes are best to choose because they offer ample cushioning and support that make them suitable for the runners.
- Due to cushioning, it protects the runners from sudden shocks and also offers greater flexibility to absorb the shocks.
- High arches keep your heels fit and comfortable, which makes them easy to run.
- When you are running after wearing the high arches, it pushes the runner forward without putting pressure.
- Due to that feature, the high arch shoes make it easy for the runners to run without hurting their knees.
- Even if you are running on uneven and rough paths, high arched shoes provide you a better platform to stand and walk.
- It keeps the surface flat and smooth for the runner.
We have researched high arches shoes and find that experts highly recommend using high arches shoes when you are suffering from bad knees. So there is no doubt high arches shoes are better to choose for the runners when running with bad knees.
N.B. Some people also claim that high arched shoes cause pain in their knees because of the high arches. But you can choose the right size of arches to make them comfortable according to your height and pain condition.
What to Do When You Have Bad Knees?
Pain in the knees is common in older adults, but it also happens with young adults due to many factors.
But what to do when you have bad knees?
Most people recommend not doing anything, only doing the rest until you get relief from the pain.
But we will guide you with some reliable information to help you get early relief from knee pain.
Things to do with bad knees:
- First of all, visit your doctor to determine why you feel pain in your knees, and he will also prescribe some medical treatment.
- Next to that, if the pain is severe and you cannot walk, try to do some physical activities by sitting on the bed like we also guide you in the above content.
- When you feel some comfortability, then start walking to give proper exercise to your knees. It is necessary because, with movement, your knees muscles become more muscular and help them recover quickly.
- Over time, start adding new exercises like after walk, start fast walk, and then start running.
- But never try challenging exercises like running on rough or hilly paths; it will hurt you. Gently do activities and take your medicines regularly.
Conclusion
You have gone through our article,”running with bad knees what shoe is the best” with complete detail. It becomes very tough for us to run and even walk when there is severe pain in the knees.
But specific solutions and know-how about bad knees can help us to run with bad knees.
Physical exercise is necessary for early healing, so you can do some physical activities to maintain your health and strengthen your knee muscle for early relief from pain.
We have also shared the ten best exercises for you when suffering from bad knees. It is also beneficial for you to wear the best shoes like high arches shoes and other recommended shoes when you want to run with bad knees.